Survival Rations Gauntlet

[tortirioan]

Hello everyone, I have been doing research for the last couple months on Survival rations, and have yet to find a real indepth review, now i'm sure it was my failure to find rather than someone else's failre to make. But I have purchaced the smallest pack I could find of every survival food i could get. I am not including anything that requires rehydration, I did this because survival food to me should be quick and easy to eat and not have to sit down and boil 2 cups of water to add to the food then wait 10 minutes for the food to get ready.
I will be judging by total weight to calorie ratio (including packaging), U.S. RDA values, price, size, taste and texture. I will also judge on how thursty it makes one, but i suspect they will all make one pretty thirsty.
I will be attempting to get some of my family to help out with the taste aspect, but I will probably have mixed success *chuckle*. I will also be shooting a video that I shall post on my Youtube channel, the video will be posted later after all my editing and i cannot start filming until later in the day (sunlight through my window screws up the camera).
Here is a list of everything i have gotten in the mail, in total I have spent $78 a third of that was shipping. I got all of the rations from ebay (except for the Datrex which i ordered from their website because no one was selling their 1000 calorie pack). In this list I will give general information, including manufacturer, flavor and listed calorie count per pack and weight
1. Datrex - Coconut - 1000 Cal - 2.95 oz
2. Mayday - Apple Cinnamon - 1200 cal - 9 oz
3. S.O.S. - Coconut - 1200 cal - 8.4 oz
4. Mainstay - Lemon - 1200 cal - 8.01 oz
5. New Millennium - Cherry, Blue Berry - 400 - 2.95 oz
6. Food Reserves - Chocolate - 3600 - 1 lb 9 oz (no listed weight but that is off my scale)
By the way i want to give a special shout out to "Cardstoyou" on ebay, I ordered my S.O.S. ration pack from them and in the package they sent they also included 2 New Millennium energy bars, one in Blueberry and one in Cherry. This was really awesome of them, they were actually one of the people whom I felt a little upset with because they use flat rate shipping so I ended up paying 11.45 for shipping on an item that cost me 2.49. But when i opened the package and got 2 free items in the box i felt a little better (the value of the bars comes out to about 3 bucks but still it's the thought that counts). This is the hazard of flat rate shipping and i have played the game before so i understand it.
Will have more info up later, I need to get a better scale, the one I have is a crappy food scale. so i can;t really get accurate measurements.

[cofi]

super interested in this can you take pics when you open them also

[tortirioan]

super interested in this can you take pics when you open them also

I will be opening them on the video and I'll take pictures as well.

[Parf]

I know Rapid Fire Bunker has a good selection of these sorts of rations for sale in town, just a FYI.

[Circuits]

I taste-tested mainstay and datrex last year. Ended up with mainstay, as the datrex, while it has a nice coconut flavor, was just way too dry and granular.

[ChadAmberg]

Looking forward to your review.
It would be nice to somehow figure out a way to simulate a year in the heat of a car before trying them out.

[HoneyBadger]

Looking forward to your review.
It would be nice to somehow figure out a way to simulate a year in the heat of a car before trying them out.

If you buy a Mainstay, I'll trade you for one that has been in the heat (and freezing cold) of my truck for 2 years. It gets 130*+ in my truck in the summer parked outside and down below freezing for much of the winter. It will have probably been frozen and thawed (as well as cooked) hundreds of times.

[Great-Kazoo]

Datrex, isn't that for lower extremity issues?

[tortirioan]

*yawn* Hey ya'll I'm not gonna be able to get the video up today, long day working in the yard and i don;t feel like eating much of anything right now, I'll film and edit tomorrow and have it up for you guys tomorrow afternoon.

[roberth]

I like the Mainstay bars.