By: Blonde Two
I presume that there must be somebody out there who actually likes the Instant White Tea that used to (and maybe still does) appear in Army ration packs. I have drunk it a few times and, at five o’clock in the morning, in the middle of winter, after a cold night in a tent, it can be passable but only because it is hot and quick to make (I am convinced there is no actual tea in it). We used to buy our children an Army ration pack each for Christmas (we were quite unusual parents) and they loved both the packs and the opportunities that they offered for outdoor cooking adventures. Some elements, of course, were more popular than others (here are my comments on the matches).
Upon the arrival of our camper just after Christmas, it was tempting to go out and buy lots of new camp catering bits and bobs with which to fill it. Mr B2 and I however, exercised some measure of self-control and, instead, gathered together all of our many camping boxes (some of which had been in the loft for many years) and gave them a jolly good sorting out. The results of this sorting have been great, we now only have two camping boxes, the van is well equipped and I have finally purged our house of the many left-over sachets of Instant White Tea.
I found so many tea sachets that I turned the collection of them into a game, the aim of which was to find the oldest Instant White Tea. I am afraid I didn’t do very well as my oldest was packed in June 2004 (in the Army apparently you don’t need to know ‘best before’ dates). As a result of my game I have decided to offer you two challenges:
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Find a sachet of army ration Instant White Tea that is older than mine.
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Drink it!
Go on! You know you want to!
Think I’ll stick to my – definitely not white – instant freeze-dried tea, thank-you. I can just about bear it black, but nearly always carry a small tin of evaporated milk. That white tea with the dried milk in it is totally beyond the pale! Though sachets of hot chocolate are in a different category entirely and hugely yummy.
Evaporated milk – a childhood favourite, I could drink it from the tin!
Do you know how many years roughly the sachet is valid to consume?
I have absolutely no idea. Personally I wouldn’t worry about the date at all but I can’t really recommend that as a option for others. Let me know how you get on!