I’m PSYCHED about the bars even though I haven’t had any yet. They are Totally what I want from Huel.
Super convenient, Spaceman, Star Trek, emergency food rations. Easily carriable, individually packaged, nutritionally balanced snacks/meals.
My main FEEDBACK though is that for the next incarnation / alternative version you release could you make one less tasty?
Please ignore the haters who weren’t happy the v1.0 wasn’t as delicious as a candy bar. I don’t want sweets, I don’t even use the sweetners in regular Huel, they’re not good for you and I think sweetners are disgusting anyway.
I want a bar that is (at least almost,) as nutritional as the plain Huel. Maybe with cocoa and vanilla in for flavour, but no fructose, glucose, sugar, or similar unless part of the perfect diet.
I know it might be less popular, but considering your target market and the popularity of v1.0 bars, I hope it would still be worthwhile?
Lastly may I suggest Hemp milk ingredients, and condensed milk as potential binding ingredients… I don’t know what’s in Hemp milk, maybe its xanthum gum, but I’d swear it tastes like flumps. Its delicious. And mixed with a Tiny bit of natural lactose sugars, I think it’d be perfect.
Is this thread a piss take? You haven’t had any Huel bars yet (currently v1.0) but you want a new version (v1.2) which is “less tasty” maybe uses cocoa for flavour (which the current bar does) and contains no sugar like products so when you open it it all falls on the floor?
Not at all.
I WOULD hold off comment till after I’d tasted some, but the first I heard of them they were sold out.
and yes no sugar. You may not have heard but sugar is bad for you, and I’m using Huel specifically because it’s supposedly a healthy balance.
Sugar is not the only binding agent in the world. In fact I mention Xanthum gum in the original post. Huel is not TAsty, but it’s not NAsty either, and delicious flavours are not what I’m here for.
Also, given the v1.0 popularity with the majority of people, I have no doubt this sweet sugary version will continue, in time with a wide variety flavours, so why would you deny me from trying encourage one single alternative (like the unflavoured Huel,) for those who are more interested in convenient good diet, than flavour?
Yes I do. Are you saying I can’t feed back on the ingredients, nutritional values or general concept?
I’m terribly sorry if I missed instructions somewhere that said “flavour & physical experience feedback only”, I meant no offence.
Off the top of my head… Xanthum gum (mentioned in the original post,) egg, wheat gluten, but really I was thinking the professional Huel nutritionists would know a wider range of options. I never claimed to be an expert, just an interested customer, again I’m very sorry for the offence I appear to have caused.
I am surprised the percentage is so high and dubious it’s correct in the UK at least, considering everyone I know eats/drink cheese, yoghurt, butter, milk, etc, etc. I know there Are lactose intolerant people of course as well as vegans, both groups that should definitely be considered and catered to when possible, but I don’t think that means a secondary or third option of Huel bar couldn’t include an ingredient that excludes a small portion of people for whom v1.0 is less suitable.
Is that really unreasonable? I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t still have your more sugary v1.0 bar, even though my wife can’t eat them.
I can’t drink alcohol, but I don’t demand other people stop drinking. If someone suggests an alcoholic version of something I don’t even comment, why would I.
If I gave you the impression I was offended sorry; I’m often accused of being argumentative so there’s a good chance I expect someone from Huel will post saying all feedback is welcome & of interest to them, but then they’re nice guys unlike me.
I’m not in a position to comment on the food tech behind binding products such as Huel, however I’ve followed this forum for a while & often see those with expertise commenting on why it isn’t a simple task to do without sugars. If it was simple I’m certain Huel would have already done it. Hopefully they can improve on 1.0 though.
I’ve not tried the bars myself for reasons of cost & sugar content. I’m fine with my powdered Huel for now but am following the bars’ development with interest. Sláinte.
To my knowledge, the best way would be using eggs and flour and baking it in more of a cakey way, but this will hugely impact and lengthen the production process and may affect expiration date. Additionally, as it would involve baking, it would be necessary to do this before adding the micronutrient mix (due to micronutrient degradation), and then inject the micronutrients in in a syrup to make it nutritionally complete, and not only is that a lot of work but could affect taste badly, and making the micros spread evenly throughout the bars/cakes would be near enough impossible.
Extreme oversimplification. High GI foods in excess are bad for you, and having a lot of sugar in a product increases its chance of having a high GI. However, sugars such as isomaltulose have none of the negative effects of other sugars, and even normal table sugar is fine so long as you don’t have an excess. It would be good to know the GI of Huel bars, but my suspicion, based on the ingredients, is that it will be on the lower end of the medium range or lower - certainly not high.
This alone makes xanthan gum pretty impractical for this purpose. However, more importantly, have you ever tried making a bar with xanthan gum as your only binding agent? It doesn’t turn out well - it feels slimy and really messes up the texture. Gum arabic or gum tragacanth would be better options and are used in baking often, but they run into the same problems if used alone. They’re often used as a substitute for flour in gluten-free recipes (along with a gluten-free flour such as coconut or almond), but this still requires an egg. As I mentioned earlier in this post, that will 1) require baking, and 2) may affect expiration date. Baking will either affect micronutrient content significantly or require a much more expensive production process (same problem with gluten, which also rules out any future attempt at a gluten-free bar).
I had a theory recently that using a sugar-free syrup may work, but these require consumption within a few weeks of exposure to air, and you also need to use a ridiculous amount for anything to bind. Unfortunately it isn’t a simple issue - I’m sure the Huel team are working on it though.
Thanks Icy, great info!
I had no idea Xanthum gum had such restricting requirements, I’ve never cooked with it myself, I’d just seen it on supermarket shelves, so hadn’t expected any issues like quantity regulations
I did know it’s no easy task, I just hope Huel can find a way if it is possible (within reasonable preparation requirements like you say.) I don’t think sacrificing the nutrients Huel provides is an option, then it’d just be another snack bar and there’s a million of those. I’m only advocating an attempt at complete balanced nutrition like unflavoured Huel, but in bar form. If it’s not possible, it’s not possible.
Personally I really don’t get on with sugar-free things that are all sweetener, I react badly. It’s all a matter of perspective, compared to candy bars, the Huel bar is of Course WAY less sugar, but even compared to the first protein bar I checked it against, it’s double the sugar
Well the bigger issue is the laxative amount really - the WHO guidelines on the amount as a food additive are often ignored, especially in liquid products like milkshakes.
Oh no, I completely agree - I expect with time it will become easier as methods become better and better. My personal current thoughts on the matter are baking the base as detailed above with an egg and maybe some flour in there, and then having a thin layer of micronutrient rich icing that is applied on top, but that will add slightly to the sugar content (unless a sugar-free icing could be used). It’ll be interesting to see what companies come up with - I’ll be having a go myself eventually.
Yeah, it’s the sort of thing where currently all options for reducing sugar seem to come with their own negative points - I’m sure they’ll get there eventually though
They’d have to put a high saturated fat content on the label, and even though saturated fats aren’t actually harmful, many many people still believe the old studies that show it is, so it would likely lose them some customers.
Oh also the low melting point could be problematic.
For the melting point, why not use lauric acid or another isolated fatty acid with the appropriate properties? Chocolate’s melting point is fairly low too, anyway.
I’m not too knowledgeable on this topic, but it could well work (whilst boosting the MCTs). Coconut butter would be about 40% lauric acid as is to my knowledge, so it could work on its own.
Ok so it Works really well. I basically made Huel chocolate bars, But it did take about 1/3rd of butter, which is way better than sugar, but still not exactly balanced.
Also I tried Cacao butter which smelt lovely but was disgusting.
Coconut butter was more palatable but not great. I think coconut butter mixed with something softer and tastier will work…
I expect someone from Huel will post saying all feedback is welcome & of interest to them, but then they’re nice guys unlike me.
