Peak Refuel | Freeze Dried Backpacking and Camping Food | Amazing Taste | High Protein | Quick Prep | Lightweight

As I was sitting here eating this, I thought to myself “I could have sworn this was chicken teriyaki RICE” because the amorphous blob that sat on my plate in no way resembled rice. The texture and consistency were thick and pasty, more like a cross between mashed potatoes and stove top stuffing. It looks nothing like what is pictured on the package or on the Amazon page. There are some vegetables in it but they’re greyish colored and covered with this brown pasty mush and don’t look much like vegetables. The taste?…hmmmm…wellllllll…it’s difficult to describe. My immediate thought on first bite was it’s a little sweet, which you would expect from teriyaki but it wasn’t like teriyaki, and it didn’t taste like chicken either and it wasn’t salty, it was more like…hmmmm…wellllll…sweet, generic sausage flavored stove top stuffing. I will say that it didn’t taste horrible, it was at best just mediocre and tolerable. I feel kind of bad saying this but I felt kind of like I was eating canned dog food. If you were going to eat this I would recommend eating something sweet like ice cream just before or eat a fresh salad with it otherwise you might have indigestion a couple of hours after eating this stuff, but I suppose that could be said about a lot of these freeze dried survival meals. I’ve tried a few of the Mountain House meals, those look and taste like you would expect a meal to look and taste and, they taste good. Also, the Mountain House (reg.) pouches are $7-$10 per pouch with 2.5 servings (142.5 grams/650 calories) per (reg.) pouch vs. the Peak Refuel at $12.99 and only 2 servings (132 grams/570 calories) per pouch (I’m not plugging Mountain House, just comparing them). If you are going to get this, buy one and make it at home to find out if you like it, don’t try it for the first time out in the boonies only to discover you don’t like it. Everybody has different tastes and some people might like this but I didn’t care for it and can’t recommend it. I give 2 stars because it’s just tolerable enough that if I were desperate for a meal I would eat this, again. This review is for the chicken teriyaki rice meal only, I did not try any of the other meals from Peak.

First thing, when I opened the package and smelled it, there was no scent at all. No spice smell, no nothing.There is supposed to be rice in this, but I don't actually see any.Boiled 1 1/3 cups of water and let the bag sit for about 12 minutes. Soon as the hot water hit, there was the smell of pork etc, not super strong in smell (Not a complaint)The majority of it re-hydrated there's a couple pieces that weren't quite there. I think in the future I'll put just a little more water in.Again I don't really see the rice in this, I do see corn and surprisingly enough they are tender If you've tried more then one of these style meals, you'll likely understand my pleasant surprise.I'm not tasting a lot of sweet in this, it's not over powering and candy like, it's very subtle.A lot of pork. This is a very pleasant surprise.So, some thoughts on this:1) Bring a couple flour tortillas because this would make a great taco wrap.2) Might want to add just a little more water to it. maybe it's just because it's 47 degrees where I cooked this and that had an affect, but it's just a little dry and some of the pork didn't quite get completely moist.3) I'll be buying this again. it's pretty good. Could use a little BBQ sauce or something to give it slightly more pep, but as it is, this is fantastic. I will be picking up more of these for my next backpacking trip.

I bring different types of MRE options backpacking and this one blows Mountain House and the others I have tried away. Typically these are all so salty I feel like I am dehydrated the next hike day when I eat them. This one not only tastes awesome and requires only 1 1/3 cup of water as opposed to the typical 2 cups. Love it and will order the other options to check them out too. The price point is substantially more than the other market options but I am willing to pay that to have this at the end of a long hike day.

Took this on a 2-week backpacking trip. Makes for a very good breakfast and is one of the only egg-products I found that does not contain milk. As a person who likes to hike but is also lactose intolerant, finding a breakfast that doesn’t use milk is a big deal. Add to that it’s tasty, nutritious and easy to prepare, it’s a backpackers best friend!

My new favorite backpacking breakfast. I took this on a trip to high mountain lakes in NE Oregon, shared it with my hiking partner... More than enough for both of us! Almost couldn't finish it.

It was really filling. Was a little worried about it being a new company. It blew my mind. Tasted great, smelt great. Started reading into it a little bit and this companies ingredients were actually all pretty healthy and clean. Ordered some of their other meals to try next time I'm up in the Mountains!

The taste of this is really good! We added just a little extra salt. Come on now it is a freeze dried meal it isn’t going to turn out as perfectly as something cooked in your kitchen. The potatoes, onions and peppers rehydrated perfectly. The meat probably could have used a tad more water. Used 2 cups of water and probably would add a few extra Tablespoons next time. It was definitely two servings and they were large. I can have gut issues and had none with this. I strongly suspect the key to avoiding gut problems with freeze dried food is assuring you drink extra water. Liked this enought to order more. One thing Hong to keep in mind is that it takes a full 10 minutes to rehydrate. I can see this might be an issue if you are camping when it is colder outside unless you wrap the package up to contain the heat for that 10 minutes.

This is my second purchase of Peak Refuel products, and once again it did not disappoint. These meals not only offer a nutrition-packed meal with a ton of protein but convenience as well. They also take less water to rehydrate than other brands I’ve tried. They would also be great to have in an emergency kit in the case of a disaster. Something to eat that is quick, light to pack, nutritious and tasty.

I took an overnighter recently into the backcountry and took two of these meals with me: the teriyaki chicken and rice, and the breakfast skillet. Overall I was pleased with both meals. The chicken and rice meal was very good, although I didn’t taste much teriyaki flavour. No big deal, it was still a fine tasty meal. And the next morning the breakfast skillet was very flavourful. In both cases the recommended amount of water to add listed in the instructions was the perfect amount to rehydrate the food without turning it into soup.What really impressed me was the portion sizes. Even though most freeze dried meals advertise as providing two servings, in my experience they realistically only provide a meal for one. But in this case, these meals do indeed provide the potential to feed two people. I finished the teriyaki chicken meal, barely. But I had to pack out the uneaten half of the breakfast. It was simply too much for me to eat. Mind you I’m not a large person (5’8” 150 lbs), but still.....Based on my experience with these two meals I look forward to packing the other four on future trips. I would recommend these meals for other backcountry enthusiasts.* Helpful votes always appreciated *UPDATE 11/18/2020: on a another recent trip I packed in the beef pasta marinara. What a disappointment. Huge portions as previously noted. But the marinara sauce tasted nothing like...marinara sauce. Taste is subjective however so I don’t reduce my rating. The meal wasn’t inedible. I finished it. But the taste was....well, suffice to say I won’t be using that particular meal again. LOL

A bit on the expensive side but absolute delicious. Taste is subjective. I liked Sweet Pork the most and the lest favorite was the Breakfast (too much onion, not enough salt and pepper).I would buy it again in a heartbeat.

This product was great! Followed the instructions and was greeted with a terrific breakfast! Have only tried the breakfast skillet but the other ones look terrific too. Will have to give them a try. Would advise bringing some salsa, hotsauce, salt and pepper to make it even better.The seller was terrific and made sure i got my order even though i missed my delivery, great communication! Thanks again !

The worst freeze dried food I have ever tried( 40 years of backpacking). Very expensive for the poor quality.Tried 1 meal, inedible.Returned and not given full refund.

Giving this product 5 stars for taste. The instructions on the back were a bit too fine of print to try to read in the dark. Package says it’s 2 servings but .. you’d have to have a small appetite to be able to get 2 servings out of it. No real complaints, taste was great and way better than other backpacking breakfast meals I’ve had.