UK 24 Hour ration pack

Today we’re reviewing a UK 24 hour ration pack GP. It is a 24 hour ration so is targeted to sustain a soldier for a full day. The “GP” in the description means it is a general purpose menu instead of a Halal, Hindu, vegetarian, or climate specific variant. The pack date is June 2020 so it is a very fresh specimen. I sourced it from mremountain.com. This is menu number 6 of this production batch.

The ration comes in a sealed brown plastic bag with a carry handle on top. Packaging is decently sturdy and did a decent job protecting the contents during shipping/transport as I had minimal damage or wear to the components.

Contents

Mains:
All Day Breakfast
Indonesian Style Spicy Rice with Pork
Pork Pasta Bolognese

Snacks:
Mild Ginger Biscuits
Apricot Oat Biscuits
Sesame Bar
Chili Peanuts
Apricot Jam
Sambal Pepper Sauce
Vanilla Cake

Drinks:
Black Currant
Raspberry
Lime
Orange
Hot Chocolate

Accessory Pack:
Re-usable Poly Bag
Tea X 2
Creamer x 4
Sugar x 4
Instant Coffee x 2
Windproof/Stormproof matches
Alcohol free moist wipe x 2
Tissues
Water Purification Tablets x 6
Chewing Gum
Spork

Breakfast

For breakfast I had the All Day Breakfast, mild ginger biscuits, sesame bar and some instant coffee.

The All Day Breakfast was a very hearty and enjoyable way to start the day. It consisted of beans, pork sausages(small and soft like a Vienna sausage). pieces of pork and a larger piece of pork fat all inside of a savory sweet tomato-based sauce. The beans really provide a nice base and some carbohydrates in the morning while the different kinds of meat make for a good variety of protein and fat. By having the three different meats there’s a good variety in mouth feel which is welcome when the bulk of the dish is beans.

Coffee was a solid medium roast freeze dried packet. They provide you with enough of it that I used two packets to give myself a slightly larger cup. The ginger biscuits were a mild ginger flavor crispy cookie(The Brits call cookies “biscuits”). It was a nice mild flavor and paired well with the coffee. The sesame bar was a bit odd. It was a pretty hard bar that was very simple. The composition was 50% sesame seeds and then a sweet binder made of honey and sugar. It was uncomfortorably hard to bite into and stuck into my teeth. Flavor was incredibly basic with a ton of sweetness and (unsurprisingly) sesame.

Lunch

For lunch I had the Indonesian Pork and Rice, Apricot Oat Biscuits, Mexican Sweet Chili Peanuts, Tea, and the Black Currant drink.

The Indonesian Pork and Rice was delicious. It was a bit spicy with a heat that built over time. Definitely not too hot to be unpalatable for the vast majority of people. There was a decent amount of pork and it definitely did not feel overly processed. The blend of spices was an unusual(for me) blend that tasted a bit like a mix between Southeast Asian and Mexican cuisine. Definitely a strong flavor of cumin but also some other spices that tasted more like Asian food as I’m used to it. The Apricot Oat biscuits were great. They were dominated by the oatmeal flavor and texture with a hint of apricot in the finish. The biscuits(again, these are cookies) went well with the tea which was a pretty mild tea and a good complement to the lunch. The Black Currant drink was a great flavor without an excessive artificial taste and blended well with a half liter of water. Mexican Chili Peanuts were a nice snack between lunch and dinner. It was a nice blend of spiciness with some sweetness as well.

Dinner

For dinner I had Pasta Bolognese, Vanilla Pound Cake, Apricot Jam and Hot Chocolate. The pasta was decent but probably the weakest main in the ration. There were good-sized chunks of pasta in a decent but not exciting red sauce with chunks of pork sausage as well. The hot chocolate was a creamy medium-cacoa blend. The portion of hot chocolate was pretty generous compared to other rations. The vanilla cake was a delicious surprise. The cake was dense, thick and sweet but not a uniform clump like the cakes in US rations. Combined with the apricot jam it was a very solid dessert at the end of the day.

Sides and Accessories

This ration has quite a nice accessory pack. An interesting omission is any means to heat the food inside of the pack. Apparently, the UK issues soldiers dry fuel stoves and tablets separately for boiling water in order to heat the bags.(Though like most modern retort pouches, everything can be eaten safely without heating. It is nice to have hot meals) The re-usable bag is a nice touch to allow trash to be packed out or for use with the water purification tablets. Six water purification tablets allows for six liters of water to be made drinkable which is a generous amount and should cover most people in the majority of climates. Matches are quality stormproof matches with a striker included. The wet wipes are large and very sturdy. Since they’re non-alcohol they can be used to clean your face without an unpleasant odor.
This brings us to the last item I’ll cover which is the incredible spork included with the ration pack. This thing is a beast. Sturdy, good-sized, definitely didn’t feel like it might break when used to separate pieces of meat.

Overall

This was a great ration. Every main was tasty and had a nice combination of protein and starch. The baked goods/sides were mostly delicious and the drinks were high quality. Accessories were plentiful and well thought out down to the spork. It speaks to the quality of this ration that I got to the end of the ration and realized I still had the Sambal Pepper Sauce remaining since none of the mains really needed the help. I would definitely give one of these a try if you get the chance.

Thanks a ton for reading this. Leave a comment if there’s something you’d like to see differently or more of. If you’ve ever been issued this ration and have any thoughts on strange sesame bars or British spork design(or anything else) I’d love to hear from you.