Review of the German Military EPA Type III ration. Big thanks to Michael Cox for sending me this! If you'd like to contribute a little towards producing these videos, thanks in advance. Our Patreon link is below: / kiwidudemre
@@danr1920 Lol yes it is :D Just because you're used to american fluffy bread doesn't mean that this is anything else but bread. (Google "Pumpernickel")
1: the cookies are delicious with the jam. We eat them for breakfest (one portion jam with 6 cookies). 2: We think that the packings (hot dish and Grießspeise) are made from the enemy. We dont know which asshole mede these... we mostly open tmen with our knifes. 3: The word -Grie(B)speiße sounds different. The B is actually an ß... and thath sounds more like an S. 4: The difference between the "Rindfleischlyoner, Grob (beef)" and the "Rindfleischschinkenwurst" (Beef/ Ham) is... actually even we dont know it as german soldiers... 5: Your Chocolate become damp... normaly it has the dark color 6: This package is for a minimum of 24 hours... usually we take them for 48 hours because of the weight. 7: The bread is typical german bread ;) (the meals are changed a lot. I can sent you the new things if you want. just sent me a PM) sincerlely a german soldier
about 37:15 The meals are supposed to be heated with a hexamine stove. every german soldier has one in his pocket ;) or you can just put them into the fire or the warm engine of your car. Or just eat them cold.
As a German, I tremendously enjoyed your fumbling attemps at understanding German cuisine. In addition, hätte ich gewusst, dass man beim Bund so gut versorgt wird tut's mir fast schon Leid, dass ich damals verweigert habe.
TheTrohl das sind nur die improvisierten tagesrationen, sobald die küche steht ist das ein witz dagegen. für ein vergleichbares essen in zivil müsstest du eine stange geld hinlegen
Ich bin neugierig, eigentlich würde ich gerne mal eine zum Campen mitnehmen, aber die Dinger kosten zwischen 11 und 15 Euro. Ich kann mir irgendwie kaum vorstellen, dass sich das lohnt, hat da jemand Erfahrungen damit gemacht?
TheTrohl Ich benutze zum privaten Campen einfach Dosen von Maggi & Co mit Ravioli oder Gulasch/Nudeln. Das ist aber, weil einem das EPA irgendwann zum Halse raus hängt. Zum mal probieren ist es top, definitiv. Das Essen ist "hochwertig" an Kohlenhydraten und es gibt viel Auswahl. Für die 12€ kommst du wirklich durch den ganzen Tag und das mit 2 warmen Mahlzeiten, Panzerplatten (die besten Kekse auf Erden) und Zubehör (Salz & Zucker, Instantkaffe, Iso-Pulver). Da machst du echt nichts falsch, für einen Tag interessant und lecker, aber wie gesagt, wenn du es länger ist wird es dir irgendwann des EPA's genug sein :)
xXFreeride DavidXx Ich bin eigentlich überhaupt kein Fan von Dosen, zumal man die auch nicht so gut aufwärmen kann wenn man keinen Gaskocher hat, die Methode mit diesem Kochbeutel finde ich da schon angenehmer. Ich werd's glaube ich einfach mal probieren, allein schon deswegen weil ich wissen will, wie das Zeug eigentlich schmeckt.
I love our Kiwi humour, "In the Spanish one we had Crack, and in the German one Fantasie. We're almost set for a dance party" I genuinely laughed for about 5 minutes afterwards!
As a German I had to laugh so hard in the beginning when you read the labels and tried to guess whats inside of it. I couldn't stop laughing when you tried to guess what the pack with the matches where. totally love your videos
I was watching this when my girlfriend walked in and at first she was totally grossed out by the looks of it all but after some mansplaining the fascinating world of MRE cuisine she watched it with me. As Dutch we're a bit better known with German foods (and language) and we had so much fun with your struggling to 'understand' this meal. A 'hamburger' with Roggebrood, you nearly killed us! Thx Man, great review!
Hey, Kiwi Dude! I have to admit you almost guessed all incredients pretty well. The reason why we do not have some heating device in our MREs is, that we have it separate. We also use it for other purposes. Sincerely, a german soldier.
@@ulfp6109 well I can think of many… just curious to what his answers were. I used to use MRE heaters wrapped around IV bags as an improvised heater. In extreme cold IV bags can freeze. We did experiments at various heating times and temperatures to see what we could raise the saline/lactated Ringers/Hextend to for a given period of heating. It can’t be too hot. For a potentially hypothermic patient (if your IV bag is frozen the patient with major trauma is most likely going to be experiencing a decrease in body temp) warm fluids are better. Fuel tablets also make a great improvised fire starter. For when your fingers aren’t working or the fuel for a fire is damp.
@@ulfp6109 I understand. When I served we weren’t issued anything other than a canteen cup and cup stand which functioned as a “stove” (for tablets or sticks and wood and cardboard where there is no wood etc) which all nested on a canteen. If you wanted fuel you had to buy it because nobody used (or had) the old fuel tablets. I served in the USMC as an infantryman from 2002-2006 btw. The stove and cup were more “emergency tools” like a signal mirror. Sometimes useful in normal operations but more of “emergency use” type things you carried. The mirror sometimes was useful for shaving (with canteen cup) or checking facial injuries etc but it’s main function was for signaling friendly aircraft. Our “MRE’s” contained plastic cutlery and flameless ration heaters and “hot drink” plastic bags. My grandpa however told me stories of “immersion heaters” and how to hold a mess kit properly when visiting a “field kitchen” and his ice cream being plopped on top of his steak because the mess kits were so small. Today field kitchens use disposable everything. I was served “T rations” in Iraq when we were at small “Forward Operating Bases” where a bigger mess hall and kitchen wasn’t practicable.
You have obviously not eaten much German food beforehand lol, as an Aussie I've had most of this before, they are big on cold meats and dark rye bread, I'm surprised no cheese. 2009, perhaps he sells past used by date versions? The quality of this ration pack, I wouldn't expect anything less from German people, they do everything top notch. With the exception of the weather 😋
+MaZEEZaM Thanks for the kind words, sir, I'll drive right over to Wolfsburg and tell them to the executives at VW :D Nah seriously, it's nice to hear something else than "Nazis, the lot of them!" from time to time.
VW, yes well a recent exception to the rule :) Im an Australian and I see the quality of German education, work ethic and quality of the products they produce, the environmental standards they maintain and in contrast I look at my country and see the opposite here with the exception of our medical system and science research bodies otherwise we are pretty behind the world in so many ways. I would move to Germany if it wasnt for the weather :D
MaZEEZaM Definitely not worth moving here, the governenment is currently trying its best to transform this former land of freedom and prosperity into a police state due to the refugee-situation we have here. They've been waiting for an excuse all along, and that's not even the sad part. I can't put words to how ashamed it makes me feel of my fellow countrymen to allow their superiors to treat humans, that flee from a war that has destroyed all that's left of their homes and try to find a place where you don't get shot for what you believe, like cattle. It's 1939 all over again. Long story short: Be careful what you wish for ;D Have a nice day down there :)
+BaneSanatras (Bane) I agree but have a look at how the Aussies (I know that the nice MRE reviewer is a Kiwi, not an Aussie :) ) treat their refugees: Much, much worse. At least the German government and a large part of the German people seem to be determined to be helpful and to do everything to accommodate the refugees and treat them nicely. Only a certain part of the (mostly eastern) German populace seems to have problem with this - shame on them!
It was awesome to see you finally figure out the bread. Dark, coarse German bread with strong, dark jams is an absolute highlight. I also think a lot of people watching this will forget that these are combat rations. They are meant to give big men big energy to carry around big stuff. Being tasty enough to eat only 3 different types of meals in the field is one thing but nutrients is the most important aspect. The fruity stuff for example had farina in it. The tinned meats (probably spread for the bread as well) are super rich as well.
This was an absolute pleasure to watch :D You had me grinning from the start, great review. Thanks for the video! By the way, the tinned meat is used as a spread for the bread and is a big part of German breakfast culture. We go crazy for this stuff.
Thanks Mike. It was you I was thinking of as I (as mentioned in another comment) decimated the German language. Oops. But my poor translational skills aside - what a cracking ration!
@Kiwi Dude Just some language advice: the "a" in german is always spoken like the "a" in "army" ;) I am saying this because this one thing seriously destroyed the perfection of how you said "Einmannpackung". It. was. perfect. except the a :D
alot of you might not know that Fantasie is known world wide as the soft drink fanta and that fanta was invented in germany before being bought by coca cola
robdcblaze1 About ''Fantasie'' It is Fanta But It Was made in WWII When The Germans didn't have the ingrediants for Cola,they mae Fanta with the stuff they had.
+MrLatwian MrLatwian +Hannah Czerny +xxmightyonexx We did have coca cola all over the place though. the Olymics in 1936 where actually sponsored by coca cola.
I know most of this stuff as a member of the German army in earlier times. Usually you had an esbit cooker where you could heat up the food cans after opening it. This was the reason why they put the food in the heavy aluminum foil.
Thats interesting. You can make a sociology case on "how armies feed their soldiers" . See, frenchies and germans are neighbours, we both have strong food and cooking culture and our armies follow the same guidelines (for the most part). But when it comes to MREs, our respective armies deals whith the food question in a very different manner. French goes with variety, germans goes for the shmoo. We have 24 RCIR menus, that is 48 different main dishes. 3 menus are vegetarian, 6 are without pork, many offers regional/traditionnal dishes, and if you count all the other goodies, the list would take forever to make. German rations come in 3 or 4 types (6 or 8 different main dishes) BUT, these main dishes fits all, since the'yre without meat (hence, vegetarian-compatible and doesnt go against any religious food restrictions). If you're veggie, dont eat your meat cups, if you dont eat pork, just take the beef... I had german military emergency (not combat) rations once. 220grams, fits in your pocket, 4 cubes of concentrated food, 2 sachets of "tee extrakt" and water tablets Basically that was universal food. We frenchies cant just wrap our heads around this idea. Maybe it would be fun to speak of such points whenever you see them. Like Variety vs Universal or Gear-dependant ration vs all inside what stuff that is not in the ration do I need to consume it, can I just drop a crate of such rations to a naket survivor and he'll be fine... I'll go through your vids, I find them even more entertaining than I expected!
pichnoufblues Interesting. I didn't know all the EPA main meals were vegetarian. I guess that helps explain the many separate pots of meat. It gives me great satisfaction knowing that I've got a lot RCIR options to work my way through though! ;-) You raise some good points, and I agree, there's definitely room to talk about such considerations during the videos. Thanks for your input in these comments.
Kiwi Dude Sry to to correct pichnoufblues, but the "German EPAs are all vegetarian" is complete and utter BS ^^ Everything that says something with "Fleisch" has meats in there. That counts for all parts of the EPA, not just the main courses. If I remember correctly there is only one vegetarian dish and that is the "Südamerikanisches Gemüsechili". But there might be one more.
Hattest du schon mal die neuen? Da hat sich einiges verändert. Die Nachspeise ist jetzt z.B. nicht mehr wie die Grießspeise sondern wie die Trekkingmahlzeiten, in den neuesten Versionen sind andere Kekse drin, anderes Getränkepulver...
Are u from NZ? Nice Video my friend! I loved these at my time in the Bundeswehr! Some informormations: It's also meant for breakfast. Most germans like jam and marmelade for breakfast and full grain bread is more common here than white bread. even tho we have toast and white bread over here too but it's more common to eat for breakfast. Lyoner is actually a french sausage but very common here. We usually eat it on the full grain bread. Every german soldier carries a so called "Esbit Kocher" wich is a small foldable cooker ( with small white flammable tabletts) already used by the Wehrmacht. Thank you very much for your interest in our food culture! PS: Your idea with the Hamburger and bread was super cool. I will tell that to my ex comrades who are still on active duty!
+jim morgan for some reason in the last 10 years everyone here in the US has developed to be offended by everything. very annoying. I blame our awful entertainment media, both liberal and conservative, that have trained everyone to become emotional about every issue.
If i remember this correct, Fantasie = Fanta. The name came up during the WW2? When Germany was blocked from getting Coca Cola produced, so they came up with Fantasie that today is known as Fanta.
rooster teeth brought me here,Gavin Free mentioned your channel during a lets play. your content is actually pretty interesting. keep up the good work! :)
First time at your channel (despite hearing of you on all other ration channels, sorry). Came here from Gundog's "Germany: Einmannpackung Field Ration Type II ~2009~ Part 2" video. Gundog's bread-eaten-with-spoon re-enactment video clip was quite realistic.
My father worked for the company that produced the main dishes and the fruit desert . I'm living only 15 minutes away from it and my dad even lives closer to it (about 5 minutes away from his house ) pretty strange to see that these three made it to NZ!
Do you mean on the lid it says NATO approved? I am gussing it means it may or may not have a NATO stock number but is reassuring the consumer its legit?! 🇬🇧✌
AkiKater Lol.. it was a very interesting and delicious ration. I did end up feeling rather silly through parts of the though, as you note - bread with a spoon ;-)
During my mandatory service the Hamburger EPA was the best. Took one of it home put it under my couch and years later when i was moving out i found it, ate it and it was still great!
impressive, refreshing, individual, innovative and original combinations. dessert as spread, dark bread for burger buns, can't beat it. thx for this review
Even in Combat we Germans want to have enough delicious things to eat :D But to be honest the Canned Bread tastes not really good :D it is often called "Panzerplatten" (Tank-Plates) because it is hard^^
+Alex .A Soweit ich weis, kann man dort drüben ganz schön viel Geld mit unserem traditionellen Brot machen. Die kennen doch kein richtiges Brot. Bei denen ist Brot oft einfach nur Toast. Denen sollte man mal ein gutes Stück Pfister Bauernbrot senden.. :X
Deutschland ist das einzige Land der Welt das so viele verschiedene brotsorten hat ich War mal in Polen und selbst dort haben Sie im laden vllt 4 Sorten gehabt xD
LOL, I like your unboxing! Your German isn't better than my English. It's funny to hear the german words with your accent. It's not bad, it's funny. I like it, pls more.
a little help with that, if i may. The bread is some kind of sour dough bread. as you noticed, it comes allready sliced, thats what "geschnitten" stands for. Eat half of the can in the morning, spare the other half for the evening. you can combine it with the jam or the spam (Rindfleischlyoner/Rindfleischschinkenwurs). Those are technically the same, as you noticed, there is no diference in taste or optical appearence. I guess its for psychological reasens to the individual soldier. you know, having the choice. The "Hartkekse", wich translates to hard cookies, are awesome. they fullfill multiple purposes. eat em like they come, spread some of the other stuff on em, crumble them and mix them under the grießspeise (BTW, its not a "B" but an, as we call it "esszett", or hard s as you may), use them as steppingstones in muddy terrain or, if your tank is stuck in that muck, throw em under the tracks and you are free to go. if your ballistic west is broken, you can replace the cevlar tilt with them ass well. kidding. but yeah, they are pretty hard to bite down. the schokolade is tricky. heat it up in the bread can, liquify it, and you got your perfect next thing to nutella, perfect for cold evenings/mornings out in the field. pour it in some hot water, steer it up, ad some of the coffee whitener, bam, hot cacao, eat it pure as you did, but be aware: one whole bar and your bottom dont want to see the porcelain throne for the next 3 to 4 days. after that, you will. but you will be literally shitting bricks. no missuse of the word literally. Type III contains hamburger, selfexplainatory, and "südamerikanisches Gemüsechilli, wich translates to south american veggie chilly. both tasty, as you noticed. The water purrification tablets, well, dont use them. like, ever. here in germany, you are ordered to destroy them by burning them. in peacetimes, that is. they fullfill their duty, but if you have any source of clean freshwater available, us that instead. those tablets are the last resort for your last resort. there are some pretty good receipts out there, a cake, for example, made from crumblet down hard cookies, schocklate, coffee whitener, sugar, salt and fruit salad (found in typ II) or grießspeise. all you need is some fantasy, hunger and boredom. and that is something, every soldier knows about. cheers.
obiuss Thanks so much for adding context to the video. It's always great to hear from people who've experienced these rations in the field, as everyone has their own tips, tricks and stories to tell. This ration rates highly with me, so I'm really looking forward to trying another. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours.
Kiwi Dude Thanks for the fast reply. If you can get your hands on a TypII, do it. The Potato Stew in there is awesome. Same to you, may you and your loved ones have a merry christmas, a happy new year and lots and lots of new subscribers. Stay Hungry.
If you're a soldier in the field or in a real battlefield, you'll be hungry and not very choosy. This box should actually feed someone for a day not just one meal, otherwise the box is too large. As someone who's been in the military I can tell you that whatever you eat has been engineered to take care of all of your nutritional needs. For those who complain about salt, understand that a soldier will sweat and salt is essential. Again, everything has been taken into account.
I don't feel like he is being picky per se. I think it more to show what our soldiers really eat and how its not great all of the time and just exactly how it does taste. For some of these MREs (or other types) I would applaud soldiers for eating what they have to for their country (an sometimes not at all).
+Leronos - German quality is always best. Having been in the Marine Corps, it is my opinion that the German ration is HUGE but certainly awesome. From a logical point of view, I have to wonder if they've actually taken into account the weight/size of these rations, especially if you don't have helicopters or other modern mobility systems. I guess I'm picturing the how to with a unit that's in hostile territory and has to make do with less.
Gundog has a link to this video on how you kinda butchered your bread ration. And I have to say it was quite entertaining. Also I would like to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas.
But to be serious: "Panzerplatten" combined with boot polish are really good fire starter under nearly all conditions (not under water). But they taste really good by putting them in a (if possible) heated main meal, just add same water and the stomach will be filled pretty good. By the way: Bread can be baken not only from wheat and is normally served in slices... you don´t need a spoon :) Greetings from Germany and DO NOT try the "Früchtereis" unless you want to commit suicide ;)
Kiwi Dude It is true, it works perfectly fine. You can start a nice fire with it :) I really adore the "Panzerplatten" really much in some cold nights in the woods, after I had finished my guard duty in a maneuver, sitting near the little campfire and eat some of this hard biscuits. They can cheer you up :)
That pronounciation of "Roggenschrotbrot".. I can't breathe, help! But it has always fascinated me, what kinds of different kinds of rations those soldiers carry around! I'd definitely like to test some of them out. Unfortunately though, I might never have the opportunity to do so.. at least I can watch you do it! ^^ Greetings from Germany! I was so hoping that you would enjoy it. :D Certainly an interesting video! Will you do more giveaways? I'd certainly love to have the chance to test out some of 'em.
When I was a young child, we had a small cube of Black German bread at home. It had been brought home by my mother's brother who had been a prisoner of war in Germany. It was dried and solid and kept as a sourveneer. When I went to Germany in the Army in the 1960s, I purchased some of this black bread, I found it delicious especially with cheese. I am never without it at home even now. It is one of my favourite snacks! and apparently full of energy. Try it... und Guten Appitite!
Great vid, I almost p*d my pants quite a few time :D Well, for the missing heaters: In Germany soldiers are issued hexamine stoves (Esbit-Kocher, Esbit is the manufacturer) and hexamine fuel tabs. The main courses are then heated in the mess tins (Essgeschirr) and can be dug into with the also individually issued stainless steel cutlery (BW Essbesteck). The chocolate was okay I guess, but as it is dark chocolate (>45% cocoa content) as you guessed right, the inner color is the true one. The sugar tends to crystallize and changes the colour and texture. Ah, by the way: try the field cappuccino (that's one of the euphemisms we used in my time of service): Take Kaffee-Extrakt (yup, it's basically instant coffee) and Kaffeeweisser (Creamer) in a large mug (around 300ml) and add scraped-off chocolate flakes. Then add about 300ml of boiling water, stir gently and add sugar at personal preference. Well worth the effort! And one of the few things that really make your day when you're lying in a hole in the ground for 5 hours straight at -26°C ;) Cheers from Germany!
tallanvor Thanks for all the info. Great to hear you enjoyed the vid despite my awful attempts at pronouncing German words ;-) I had a great time with this ration. Cheers from New Zealand.
Kiwi Dude To be honest: I have no issues with someone butchering my language while trying to pronounce words never previously heard of. A real pain is when people live here for 20+ years and do not even try to adapt and learn the language. So no offense taken ;)
As a German, I reaaally enjoyed your video. The part where you were trying to eat the bread with a sppon was really entertaining. :D Kepp up the good job!
it doesn't matter. we got some packs which were 10 years out of date, when i was in the army. this stuff seems to last forever, especially the cookies, which are called "Panzerplatten" which means armor plates.
True, also some foods do not really expire, like peanutbutter (correct me if I am wrong). Or at least you can it it within the next 20 years. It just looses a bit of its taste. But trying a german epa without knowing what it is is very very brave
I love the reactions of people who have never seen a proper whole-grain bread XD I remember my nigerian cousin trying some of this. She ran to the sink and spat it out again!
Well done. Great video! You were astonishingly right with most of your guesses. Which in turn means that it is kind of usable even for war prisoners and they do not need to starve ;-) I have done my service in 1995/96 in the Hochgebirgsjägerzug (HighMountainHunterPlatoon). Some comments: 1. Cold it tastes like shit in any situation 2. Warm it tastes like x-mas if you are hungry, tired and annoyed. Given an alternative I would not eat it though. 3. They say the cookies are Panzerkekse (tank cookies) causing constipation because they are so hard and therefore block the exit of your digestive system. 4. Also they say you can cook your meal with two Panzerkekse and a lot of black German army shoe polish in between. I know the shoe polish burns but I have not seen it being done yet. 5. Traditionally the meal is warmed up with an esbit pocket cooker (do not try it indoors) 6. Personally I think that even if it is NATO package that it provides you only with the minimum calories. If you have been out for days carrying heavy stuff on long marches you will inevitably loose weight. Same thing goes for all the other packages. In the case of the EPA you end up saving the sugar bags and the tea whitener for the worse days when you really need the calories even if you do not put sugar and whitener in your coffee.
