This is the worst consistency of a shake I have ever tried. It’s like drinking sand with larger clumps in it, it’s also extremely thick. I’m using 400ml water + 3 scoops + 170ml top up. I’ve tried leaving it to sit, I’ve tried luke warm & ice cold water to no avail. Not only is the consistency not palatable, I’m having significant wastage of lumps/paste at the bottom of an empty shaker. I refuse to use a blender, it defeats the point of how I use meal replacements (ad hoc, keeping a bag in my car, office and house).
I’ve used multiple brands of oats + whey at least 1 x day for the past 4 years or so due to work commitments. This had slowly been creeping up over the past year due to increasing amounts of on-calls. I wanted to swap due to now routinely using two oats + whey shakes a day, but the remains of these two bags are going in the bin. I can’t even sell them to my gym buds who eat everything; after hearing me rant about it, nobody will take it.
I am having to re-order my usual (although, to be frank, any of the 5+ brands I have used in the past would be light years ahead of HUEL) and will have a gap of approx 3-4 days with piss poor nutrition now. Having to use a blender for a shake that is supposed to make my life easier is not fit for purpose. I am posting this mostly as a warning to people contemplating using this. I’m not sure if general reviewers/users have never used any Meal Replacement or are not used to oats based shakes but do not waste your money.
Huel just doesn’t fit your specific requirement of being able to prepare a meal to your personal consistency preference when you aren’t near a blender. Or you’re not shaking it vigorously enough. Not really a valid reason for other people to stay away from huel unless they have specific consistency requirements and aren’t willing to use a blender based on the principle of having to use one.
Being able to blend tomorrow’s meals in about 3 minutes (as well as rinsing my nutribullet) beats any other alternative for eating actual food the next day well out of the water.
I use 3 scoops and 400ml and its far from extremely thick - I just tilt the shaker and drink.
If I made it up to 570ml id describe that as extremely runny.
Also don’t use a blender for exactly the same reason as you.
Occasional lumps say 1 shake in 3 - suspect it’s when I don’t shake as long or leave powder in water for a while before shaking. Not fussed by that but don’t have the experience of other shakes to compare.
One thing I’d recommend is if you happen to make a tea/coffee at the same time, then when you’re done with Huel, tip the drink into the shaker and swill it round with the top closed.
Used to be we could do 400mil to 100g and it would be about as thick as milk. Ten seconds of vague shaking and it was as homogenized as it would ever gonna get.
Make no mistake, the consistency is intentional. And requested.
“Personal consistency preference” and “not willing to use a blender based on the principle of having to use one”
Did you read what I wrote, or are you intentionally being inflammatory? It’s not that I don’t want to use a blender for the sake of it. I keep a bag of whatever shakes in my car/work/flat - I do not keep a blender in all of those locations for obvious reasons. I use meal replacement when I am too busy to eat/prepare food. As a doctor with various on call commitments, my life is not scheduled so that I know if I am going to miss X meal tomorrow and can prepare it ahead of time. It’s more a “shit I haven’t eaten since 0800 and it’s now 1900”. Trust me, if something is setting off my gag reflex when I’m that hungry it ain’t an issue with my ‘specific requirement to prepare a meal to [my] personal consistency preference’. This isn’t fit for purpose. I don’t care about how convenient it is vs food, I’m not comparing it to food. I’m comparing it to equivalent products. Of course it’s quicker than making food, that’s besides the point.
If this product is not suitable without a blender, this needs to be made clearer. I have been using shakes for several years, from several brands, as have numerous colleagues and friends I train with and none of us have been confined to blenders. I have been so flabbergasted with how poor this mixes, given the rave reviews, I’ve been getting pretty much anybody and anyone to try it to see if I’m being mad; from approx 5-6 experienced users there is not a single one who would use it.
I am wondering if this is an issue with my batch, there’s no way I would consider it as extremely runny. I’ll make up a shake with 400ml + 3 scoops without the top up later for sake of argument. I’m not sure I’ll be able to stomach even half of it without having to chew.
The only way that I could recognise that kind of experience, is where I made up a batch that I didn’t drink immediately. Made it for lunch around 7-730am, took it into work and forgot about it till well after 3pm.
It was definitely too thick then. I added some more water - not sure how much though - shook it up and then drank it as normal.
We might just have different opinions about thickness - remembering you have experience of other shakes that I dont. Be good if a few other ‘non blender’ types could share their experience.
One other thing was I used some almond milk a week / 2 back - 200ml water and 200ml almond & that was noticeably thicker straight away.
Blending is always best I feel for huel as you never get all the little lumps just by shaking but the breville blend active I have at home is great for this , and there’s minimal washing up as you blend in a bottle you drink from, just the blade attachment to wash up, although when I take huel to work I shake it up and it’s deffinatly edible, as for the problem with having powder stuck at the bottom I find that adding abit of Water before any powder goes in helps no end! To me these are not big problems and deffinatly not big enough to put me off from buying more huel in the future.
I don’t blend my shakes.
I have 3 scoops with 500ml of water and whilst I do have some lumps, it’s not unbearable. I appreciate it’s not going to be milkshake smooth, but with a shake between mouthfuls I haven’t found it that bad at all.
Compared to some supplements I have taken previously which felt ‘grainy’ the small lumps I get in here are more than manageable.
I usually blend my shakes but have had to use the shake method occasionally and haven’t had any massive problems. Given, its not as smooth as it is if I blend it but its just as nice. If its a bit lumpy I add a bit more water and shake some more.
Hey there @RBM, I’m so sorry you’ve been having such problems with your Huel. I would echo what @rtrt has said, something doesn’t seem quite right here. Huel does have a tendency to clump, this is due the natural ingredients - particularly the oat flour - but we massively improved with a change to our calcium source in v2.2. However, I don’t believe you should be having so many lumps and having to chew threw your Huel.
You should not have to blend your Huel. I’ve been using Huel for over 2 years and I reckon I could count on one hand the amount of times I have blended Huel for myself.
Are you adding the powder after the water? Adding water on top of Huel will clump
When we say shake and reshake, we been go to town on that shaker. None of this giving your shaker a little wobble, pretend you’re shaking a martini for a grumpy looking James Bond. Shake left, right as well as up and down
Use your plastic mesh in the shaker to prevent you consuming any lumps if all this still doesn’t work
If the consistency isn’t for you then do just add a little more water. We recommend 3 scoops to 570ml as a starting point, but feel free to just add more or adjust the ratio a little. N.B. leaving Huel for extended periods will thicken it, as will refrigeration.
It would be amazing to get you loving Huel, we can do this!
I’ve never blended it, I use it for 2 meals per day on weekdays and have no blender in the office.
I used the Huel shaker at first but found although the mesh’ filtered’ things well although the mixing wasn’t great.
What I use now is this https://www.phd-supplements.com/the-next-level-600ml-shaker.html
It has a bit more ‘room’ so it seems the shaking can mix things around more anyway, but the little wire spiral makes a massive difference to mixing. Not perfect, but hugely improved. Agree with the above that cold and mixing in advance make big differences too. I’ve just made up my lunch and it’ll sit in the fridge for 4 hours…
I bought a pack of metal balls like the below, as I have 6 or so shaker bottles of various design. I think they work pretty well, as one of the first bottles I ever bought came with a ball so assumed it was a standard thing. I found it a bit odd all shakers don’t come with them. I don’t use the ice-mesh, I removed it.
As Tim says; you really do need to go to town shaking it as hard as you can, with 2 hands - like a cocktail shaker, to get it to fully mix with no lumps. Not sure what you’re doing but a gentil mix just won’t work at breaking down the clumps and as others have said - you need the waffle grid in the shaker too.
You also don’t want to add the Huel in to an empty shaker and add the liquid on top - as Tim also says the Huel will turn lumpy and clump together upon contact with moisture and if the Huel is in the bottom it will just stick and can be nigh on impossible to break up by shaking alone. What I do is add some liquid to the shaker first - I personally do 300ml as I add this amount of milk to my shake but anything over 100ml should suffice, then add the Huel on top. Where I would deviate from Tim’s advice is I would then add further liquid on top of the Huel up to the required amount. I’ve found this best to prevent the dry powder sticking to the top on the shaker after the first shake of the shaker - something I personally only find an issue when I add further lighter powdered ingredients. This should leave the Huel as a lumpy mix floating nearish to the top, but as it’s not stuck to the container it’s free to mix about and it gets fully broken up by the vigorous shaking through the waffle grid. Doing this, I never have any issues with clumping and have never used a blender.
Defo use the plastic mesh in the lid i put 500ml of water and three scoops then shake like mad for a minute and never had a problem i then fill it to the top with water i like mine runny lol
Hi RBM
It does sound like something isn’t quite right as others have said. I am also a doctor with lots of on call commitments and long days. Have been on Huel for a year and have never blended (don’t even own a blender). I make it up just as you describe and have never had any issue with consistency. Make sure you’re using the mesh lid. You can also get little wire balls that go in shakers that I have found help (although since v2.2 I have not even needed these!). I hope you manage to get your Huel sorted as it really is excellent as a product and has completely changed how I go about my work day
It’s nice to see doctors using the product. Trying to explain Huel use as a minor part of a seven minute (UK GP) appointment to someone who assumes you’re either talking about a Complan like mix or a muscle building protein powder is not simple. Any tips on how to describe a Huel diet to a medical doc in as brief & concise a way as possible? I hope the OP doesn’t mind my asking in their thread.
I use three scoops of Huel but don’t like it super thick so I add it to 700ml of cold water and I have never had an issue with lumps. I am using V2.3, the Gluten Free one - I don’t know is this makes a difference?..
I use the shaker with the mesh that came with my first order and so far so good. Only been using it a few weeks but had at least one ‘meal’ a day since it arrived with zero lumps.
