Product Review: Mountain House Blueberry Cheesecake

For years I've seen this product advertised. It's not cheap in the #10 can, but the idea of having some real dessert in the face of a prolonged emergency seemed comforting. Recently, we bought the 4 serving pack on sale from Emergency Essentials to sample the product. Last night we tried it, following the directions verbatim.

It was fairly easy to make and required only water as an added ingredient. It has 3 components: pudding/cheesecake mix, blueberry topping and graham cracker crumbs. after making the pudding and the sauce separately, you add the crumbs and sauce as topping on your 'cheesecake.'

You need both hot and cold water for the sauce and pudding respectively, which could be a challenge in an emergency or on the move. Room temp water might be OK, but it probably won't make the intended product. 

The blueberry sauce took a lot longer to thicken that I expected. We let it thicken and cool for about 15 minutes before our first serving, but it was still somewhat watery. It was much thicker when I went back to put the leftovers in the fridge. 

Despite the fast jelling, acceptable texture and good dose of protein in the pudding, it was sickly sweet by my taste.  The sauce and the graham cracker topping were also fairly sweet. More graham cracker may have helped moderate the sweet pudding, but there was less than 1 tablespoon of the crumbs per serving in the packet.  I'd prefer a simple sugar-free jello cheesecake flavored pudding (one of my favorites, by the way --especially with fresh berries!). The only difference is that you'd need to supply the container and some dry milk.

As you may have deduced, I'm not a fan. For about half the price of the #10 can, I think I'll add a little brown sugar and some hot water to dehydrated apple slices and call it dessert.