Just ordered a Wise 72-hour food supply to try out

[Zartan]

I've seen a lot of good stuff on Wise meals, so I ordered the 72-hour kit to try them out. I repeatedly saw an offer on tv for a free sample kit, but couldn't find it online.
Anyway, I hope they're good. Beats eating bugs and dandelions!

Any opinions on Wise?

[jyo]

Well, the opinions stated in many internet threads seem to think that Mountain House brand is greatly superior in taste to Wise products dried foods. I would cook up a bunch of the Wise food and let us know what you think.

[jbohon]

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on them if you give them a try.

[kaligaran]

Wise is good. I've tried a limited selection from both them and Mountain House. My preference would be Mountain House on flavor.

The problem with Wise Food is that their caloric values of a 'meal' is very very low. You need > 900 calories as an average adult to not have bad things happen including problems with your heart.

They can definitely be good supplements to any food preps and add variety with a long shelf life. I have a couple of their buckets that I picked up on sale and would absolutely dig into them if SHTF.

Just my .02

[Zartan]

Yea, I hope they're good. I'll report back

[CHIEFone]

i've tried wise... its good. but as stated above the calorie content is low. plus requires water like all dehydrated foods. i prefer MRE then the dehydrated foods for SHTF. i also buy canned goods by the case and rotate them out as needed, consume. canned goods will last a long while also. no need for water either. would prefer water to be consumed then added to food to hydrate my food.

my 2 cents

[ArmedArtist]

The free sample is quite a pain in the *** to get and deal with. You have to email a sales person and tell them what your future needs are and other details. Then you get the sample followed by at least a month of emails and phone calls to try to get you to buy the product. I got my sample but almost felt like sending it back because of the constant bugging they do.

[spy-d]

I tried Wise foods. Hate them. I'll stick to my MREs. A truly compleat meal with drink, TP, Matches and all of the goodies you need. NO COOKING IS REQUIRED. When your done, Drop it in a pit and BURN it.

[77bawls]

Originally Posted by ArmedArtist

The free sample is quite a pain in the *** to get and deal with. You have to email a sales person and tell them what your future needs are and other details. Then you get the sample followed by at least a month of emails and phone calls to try to get you to buy the product. I got my sample but almost felt like sending it back because of the constant bugging they do.

Odd, they didn't bug me at all.

I got the chicken fettuccine alfredo. It wasn't as good as mountain house but when camping and starving they hit the spot bigtime.

[wjc]

I'd be interested in your opinion as well, OP.

I have some buckets but haven't tried them.

[kaligaran]

Originally Posted by 77bawls

Odd, they didn't bug me at all.

I got the chicken fettuccine alfredo. It wasn't as good as mountain house but when camping and starving they hit the spot bigtime.

Same here. My guy did send me a couple of follow up emails but they weren't bothersome or intrusive.

I got the lasagna sample (which is sized for a family so with 2 of us, it was a TON of food). It wasn't bad at all.

[jyo]

The problem with MREs is they "bind you up inside" and during a sewage spray situation this would not be ideal. Us older folks have enough issues with this just eating regular foods and lots of dried fruit etc to keep things "moving thru" down there!

[Squidward]

I like them. They're easy to fix in the field and at home; have a 25 year shelf life and store easily. But don't forget to store an adequate supply of water and a way to heat it up.

The 'meat ' isn't really meat ( except for the ultimate kits). It's a vegetable protein faux meat substance. On the upside I've tried many of them and without out 'help' they'll get the job done without unwanted side effects (bind up).

With 'help' they are pretty decent. "Help' for example is; maple syrup on the cereal or Pepper plant or Tabasco in the chili. I prefer the chicken meals and found the stoganoff a little slimy going down

I see them as a supplement to other stored/canned foods and not necessarily solo menu meals. I shop around and usually can find them for $100 and worth that for piece of mind.

[kbenson]

Originally Posted by jyo

The problem with MREs is they "bind you up inside" and during a sewage spray situation this would not be ideal. Us older folks have enough issues with this just eating regular foods and lots of dried fruit etc to keep things "moving thru" down there!

I agree- I was in the army + desert storm. MRE (AKA mystery) really clogged me up and I felt like I was hauling bricks in my stomach.

Of course it is easier to transport than a bucket of stuff (toss several of them in a BOB no problem)

[calif 15-22]

Originally Posted by jyo

Well, the opinions stated in many internet threads seem to think that Mountain House brand is greatly superior in taste to Wise products dried foods. I would cook up a bunch of the Wise food and let us know what you think.

^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I've tried the Wise and not so good. Even if you put less water than recommended still not as good as Mountain House.

I've tried the MREs as well but still like the Mountain House better. Simple bags add hot water and good to go. In a pinch you can use cold water but it takes longer to hydrate and isn't as tasty.

Try the Mountain House Chicken Terriaki Rice or my fav the Chili Mac.

[sayhber100]

Costco.com actually sells a nice deal for $99. "330 Total Servings of Emergency Food Storage ARK 1 Month Supply By Chefs Banquet" @2100 cal per day. Each ARK contains the following:
330 Total Servings
2,100 calories/day for 30 days
Oatmeal - 60 Servings
Hearty Potato Soup - 60 Servings
Chicken Vegetable Stew - 30 Servings
Mixed Vegetables - 30 Servings
Instant Potatoes - 60 Servings
Macaroni & Cheese - 30 Servings
Beef Flavored Vegetable Stew - 30 Servings
Cheddar Broccoli Rice - 30 Servings

20yr shelf life, no MSG or HFCS

[prepper_jeff]

I'm OK with Wise. In fact, I sell Wise. Even better, I sell Wise for less than Wise sells Wise. No joke! Happy prepping!

[1GunLover]

My buddy Myke Hawke swears by them

[tenbender]

I don't have a horse in this race, but I have been eating Mountain House for nearly 35 years as a backpacker and now storing some in my preps. I saw the Wise in a bucket at a local survival store who was having a sale on all their stock. Looked like a good deal, but I wanted to do my research because the last thing I want to invest in is food that is barely palatable in a SHTF scenario. I have tried all my Mountain House stores and swear hands down, the stuff tastes almost as good as home cooked. They aren't overly salty (Wise are very salty) and the spices meld well in their offerings. You decide. This info is worth the read though.

http://thesurvivalmom.com/2012/07/12...tors-products/

[Zartan]

Got my order last week, will be having "lunch" tomorrow

[mt4design]

Originally Posted by MHShooter

Got my order last week, will be having "lunch" tomorrow

I'm really looking forward to your review as I have a bucket set aside for a SHTF situation.

I've always figured though that if things go that bad, and I have to dip in to a prep like that, then I'm not going to be too caught up in taste. That is a luxury.

I just got a Mountain House entree to try. I thought I'd mix in some retort water with it and see what it's like.

Maybe I should start a thread on what the heck retort water tastes like because that'll be a new one for me.

[ArmedArtist]

I was never in the military, but I think MRE's are great. I think I could eat them all the time. Haven't had much of a "blockage" issue. But I have heard the same thing from others. What does the military do with all the guys who are blocked up? It seems like feeding that to war fighters and then having them all blocked up or in discomfort/pain wouldn't be a great idea.

[MattyB]

The less time your squatting with your pants down, the less chance there is that you get shot in a compromised situation.

Might also have to do with not having enough roughage in your diet, like skipping certain parts of a meal that have the most fiber.

[madoka]

Originally Posted by ArmedArtist

What does the military do with all the guys who are blocked up? It seems like feeding that to war fighters and then having them all blocked up or in discomfort/pain wouldn't be a great idea.

They're not afraid of getting shot while taking a dump. It's that you would otherwise leave evidence that someone was there, which creates op sec issues.

My favorite MRE constipation story:

Anyone who has been in the military or read this site knows that IMPs and MREs pretty much stop your digestive system right in its tracks.

It was not until the third day that things started feeling heavy. Though IMPs were designed to make a person hold out under normal conditions, I really doubt they were tested for my circumstances. On that third day we made a long hike and discovered a really great glacial stream. It was getting close to thirty degrees Celsius outside (86º F), and the ice-cold glacial stream was welcomed with open arms and open Nalgine bottles. That is when I realized that the grogan beast growing in my stomach wanted to be birthed.

I let the group know, grabbed my toilet paper, and went off a ways from the stream so that I could do my thing. What I gave birth to out there was probably the largest and most discolored turd I have ever dropped. It was about eight inches long and equivalent in girth to a soda can. The thing that made it special: it was half-and-half colored. The first half was black, pitch black -- then it abruptly changed to a normal brown.

I am never really one to stare at my own work. I usually have a look and flush it away. But because this was in the bush, out in the open, and not going anywhere, I stared at it for a time, wondering if maybe I had some internal damage from being so sick.

I alerted my friends to my new child and expressed my concern. One of the guys said that the black color was probably my body's way of flushing out all the contaminants in my system after being so sick. Everyone else agreed, and that is where I let it rest.

The rest of my trip went normally. After that poop I felt infinitely better, even better than I did before I got sick. The IMPs did their work and kept me going through the rest of the trip. For me, the poop story ends there.

But this saga does not. You see, my perfectly healthy friend Pete was on the exact same diet I was. And the IMPs were doing to him exactly what they were supposed to do.

We returned back from the hiking trip and the day of rest passed. The next day, I asked Pete up if he gotten rid of his IMPs yet. Nope.

One week later he had still not gone.

We were on a trip to Vancouver, stopped for food in a city called Kamloops, when it hit. We had just gotten our meals and had started to eat when Pete abruptly stopped, looked at me, and uttered, "It's time." He got up and left the table. The dude was gone for about twenty minutes.

I had just finished eating my meal when Pete walked back to the table, his face beet red, laughing hysterically. I asked him what was so funny. "Go have a look for yourself," he said. I knew that whatever he had done would probably require us to pay and leave the restaurant immediately. So I decided to have a look before we made our exit.

Upon opening the men's room door, I noticed water on the floor pooled around the only stall in the washroom. I peaked around the door. What I saw amazed me.

My friend Pete is not a big guy -- maybe five foot two and 130 pounds soaking wet. This guy produced something that I can only equate to a NFL football-sized (and shaped!) turd. Not only that, but it had its own unique tannish-manila color to it. And, surprisingly for something that size, it was floating in water that was up to the rim of the toilet.

I started to laugh as I made my way back to the table. We had a good chuckle at the Godzilla turd that my friend produced and planned to make our exit. But we felt bad for the poor bastard who would have to deal with it. So we wrote "Sorry" on a napkin in black felt pen, took the napkin into the stall, placed it on the lid of the toilet, hoped he'd see the humor in the situation, and made our exit. Life went back to normal.

[tio sams misguided child]

I purchased a the wise food Alfredo chicken pasta and the mountain house Beef stew. I ate the wise food the first night and right off the back i realized its not real meat in the bag and it was really salty in taste. the servings are for two people but with such a low calorie count I dont recommend you splitting that with someone. With all that salty flavor I had to down a lot of water. The next day I tried the Mountain house beef stew and that was a whole other world in flavor and quality. First off they use real meat not what ever the hell that was in the wise food and it was ready to eat allot faster than the wise food was. As with the wise food the mountain house was for two people but coming off the wise food experience I ate the whole bag by myself and woe that was a mistake! lol its allot of food and I was stuffed after that. Over all if and when I have the funds to stock up a decent shtf food supply I HIGHLY recommend the Mountain house over the Wise food.

[blockster]

i have never tried the Wise Foods. Although i have heard many negative to semi-negative reviews of them, and have since stuck with Mountain House. All of their flavors have been very good and have fed me and my friends whenever we either went camping or just a trip to BLM land to go plinking and didn't want to haul coolers with us. With that said, i am going to try and order a sample meal and see how the taste is.

[wjc]

Madoka, that story was f****** hilarious.

[diveRN]

Originally Posted by madoka

My favorite MRE constipation story:

Great story.

[diveRN]

A lot of outdoors / survival type stores I've been to seem to order the Wise kits just because they come in easy to store buckets.

Ordered up a few Mountain House items tonight, will try them. Have a Wise bucket coming, too. Come SHTF, food is food.

I'll report back.

[Gabriel80]

I sent that MRE story to friends so they of could laugh their balls off.

[d33pt]

get the mountain house boxes at costco. $40 for 10 meals. not a bad deal.

[odysseus]

One thing about the long term shelf life issue I have heard about, and why I remain wary and haven't bought in over the #10 can for this kind of long term storage. When Wise came out with the mylar bags in a bucket thing, I heard Oregon Freeze Dried (makers of mountain house) called them out on it. Essentially their measurements of O2 levels in those bags didn't equate with 25 year shelf life being sold, and that Wise seemed to be saying these are equal (if they are still or not saying this) in life to a true #10 can - which is a well proven long time store.

I wonder about this too. Mylar bags mostly from all the freeze dried companies usually quoted a 5-7 year shelf life. What happened now to say 25 years on those same bags?

[Gabriel80]

I have a bucket of this WISE stuff too, need to give a taste...

[TheChief]

Originally Posted by madoka

They're not afraid of getting shot while taking a dump. It's that you would otherwise leave evidence that someone was there, which creates op sec issues.

My favorite MRE constipation story:

Anyone who has been in the military or read this site knows that IMPs and MREs pretty much stop your digestive system right in its tracks.

It was not until the third day that things started feeling heavy. Though IMPs were designed to make a person hold out under normal conditions, I really doubt they were tested for my circumstances. On that third day we made a long hike and discovered a really great glacial stream. It was getting close to thirty degrees Celsius outside (86º F), and the ice-cold glacial stream was welcomed with open arms and open Nalgine bottles. That is when I realized that the grogan beast growing in my stomach wanted to be birthed.

I let the group know, grabbed my toilet paper, and went off a ways from the stream so that I could do my thing. What I gave birth to out there was probably the largest and most discolored turd I have ever dropped. It was about eight inches long and equivalent in girth to a soda can. The thing that made it special: it was half-and-half colored. The first half was black, pitch black -- then it abruptly changed to a normal brown.

I am never really one to stare at my own work. I usually have a look and flush it away. But because this was in the bush, out in the open, and not going anywhere, I stared at it for a time, wondering if maybe I had some internal damage from being so sick.

I alerted my friends to my new child and expressed my concern. One of the guys said that the black color was probably my body's way of flushing out all the contaminants in my system after being so sick. Everyone else agreed, and that is where I let it rest.

The rest of my trip went normally. After that poop I felt infinitely better, even better than I did before I got sick. The IMPs did their work and kept me going through the rest of the trip. For me, the poop story ends there.

But this saga does not. You see, my perfectly healthy friend Pete was on the exact same diet I was. And the IMPs were doing to him exactly what they were supposed to do.

We returned back from the hiking trip and the day of rest passed. The next day, I asked Pete up if he gotten rid of his IMPs yet. Nope.

One week later he had still not gone.

We were on a trip to Vancouver, stopped for food in a city called Kamloops, when it hit. We had just gotten our meals and had started to eat when Pete abruptly stopped, looked at me, and uttered, "It's time." He got up and left the table. The dude was gone for about twenty minutes.

I had just finished eating my meal when Pete walked back to the table, his face beet red, laughing hysterically. I asked him what was so funny. "Go have a look for yourself," he said. I knew that whatever he had done would probably require us to pay and leave the restaurant immediately. So I decided to have a look before we made our exit.

Upon opening the men's room door, I noticed water on the floor pooled around the only stall in the washroom. I peaked around the door. What I saw amazed me.

My friend Pete is not a big guy -- maybe five foot two and 130 pounds soaking wet. This guy produced something that I can only equate to a NFL football-sized (and shaped!) turd. Not only that, but it had its own unique tannish-manila color to it. And, surprisingly for something that size, it was floating in water that was up to the rim of the toilet.

I started to laugh as I made my way back to the table. We had a good chuckle at the Godzilla turd that my friend produced and planned to make our exit. But we felt bad for the poor bastard who would have to deal with it. So we wrote "Sorry" on a napkin in black felt pen, took the napkin into the stall, placed it on the lid of the toilet, hoped he'd see the humor in the situation, and made our exit. Life went back to normal.

Must have been an 4 of 5 couric poo per the European Fecal Standards and Measurements Institute - http://www.efsmi.org/

[engi]

How bad would these be pass expiration date?

[taladeganite]

Madoka, Thanks for that story, I don't think I will ever be able to forget it. I laughed and almost puked reading it. That being said, I've dropped a few rocks after eating mre's as well. But I still like em!

[akjunkie]

I have several buckets of Wise and cases of MREs.

Wise for bugging in.
MREs for bugging out.

[jonnyt16]

I wish I consulted with you guys a few months ago before I spent around $400 dollars on some buckets of Wise Food products. I had a few cases of MREs but wanted to try some of these so called "gourmet" emergency foods so I chose Wise since I saw it advertised almost everywhere.

I have to say, I'm not too impressed. Of the two meals I tried, they both had a very Top Ramen flavor to them. And yes, they were very salty too. When I took my first few bites I thought that it tasted rather well, however, it soon got to the point where I was struggling to finish my bowl. Oh, and the amount of water they suggest to make the meal is way too much (unless you like your food real soupy) so the second meal I tried it with less water and it was better. Still, they just don't taste that great to me. I wouldn't call them horrible, and I guess it is emergency food, but if I could do it over I would've tried the Mountain House stuff first. Oh well.

[tenbender]

Jonny, don't beat yourself up over it brother. We all have made purchases we have regretted while getting our preps prioritized. When you decide to move on the Mountain House purchase, don't buy them in the bags. Buy only #10 cans by the case. By far the best deal out there.

Fyi, a guy that I met a couple years back and a few mountains over from where I live, owns and operates Freeze Dried Guy which sells a variety of online preparedness food including MRE's, dehydrated food, grains and veggies, fruits and lastly Mountain House. Thing is, his Dad who was a distinguished war veteran as I recall, started their little business back in the early 70's. They have such a relationship with MH that back when there was a nationwide shortage of MH, FDG had a corner on the market and was getting first dibs on everything that came off the MH lines as was I told. Seems to make sense because when every other vendor had little to none, they had good stock and the most sought after MH products. He has a great incentive plan which pays you money back when ordering from him and if you watch the site, every few months he offers a 25% off his already low prices.

http://www.freezedryguy.com/homepage...2/default.aspx

[Darklyte27]

I ordered a free sample from wisefood.com about a month ago? still havent seen it. I did buy 3 buckets of their food, about 55-60 meals in a bucket on sale then too from online stores.