Does drinking it get easier? (Looking for people who didn't like the taste immediately)

Experiences
1

So I actually used huel about 3-4 years ago, tried it once and immediately hated it, felt like I wasted my money and gave up.

Fast forwarded to now, where my addiction to fast food has made things worse, I really wanted to give it another go. Love the idea, the branding, the service and the selection available. Since so much has changed, I thought that maybe they improved the flavours etc, especially with their new ‘black’ line.

I got black banana since that was the most popular, and I’m drinking it as we speak. I dislike the taste so much that I’m procrastinating by making an account and posting on here, as I just don’t want to take another sip. I used chilled water and used the ratio I was given.

I’m really scared about trying another flavour, since it might sound nice and even smell great, but at the end of the day I could just take one sip and then feel mad at myself for making the wrong choice.

I have been reading posts and I know there’s lots of people who like it by default — good for you! However, I’m looking for people who didn’t like it, since I want to know if it’s possible to enjoy the taste later.

Background about me: I have 1-3 takeaways per week, I’m 118kg, I barely have fruits / vegetables, I struggle to cook, I don’t drink coffee, tea or alcohol and I have a lot of stresses going on right now and I’m just looking for a way to make things a little easier.

The taste itself… isn’t bad? It’s only when I swallow that it gives me shivers. It reminds me of trying to take antibiotics where I can easily put it in my mouth but I have to force myself to swallow. In the literal sense, I’m torturing myself. I don’t even know if I want to finish this bottle — yes its healthy for me, but I am on the verge of gagging each time I swallow as I struggle to keep it down. It’s actually making me want to cry a little bit.

Does anyone else know what I’m talking about? It’s less about this being too sweet (if anything its not sweet enough for my liking), its more about it having a distinctly vile aftertaste that only reminds me of medicine.

I don’t know if this is just a flavour thing, or a Huel thing. Please help me, I was so looking forward to giving this another go and I really want to make this work and not feel like I wasted more money.

I’ve just tipped away my banana shake after getting it to 1/5th of the liquid left. I’m trying my ‘strawberries and cream’ premade drink now to see what I think. It’s distinclty different it’s still making me recoil when I swallow and it also doesn’t taste very good due to a very weird aftertaste, but It being thin is making it much easier to drink and I love the fact I can’t feel the powder. Still not sure I can finish this either :sob:

What should I do next? Is there any hope? If I just try tasting it every day is there a chance it’ll actually taste nice one day? I really don’t want to invest in lots of bags just to try them once :frowning:

Please help I’m just in a bit of a state

2

On a good note… the little pots that you get for the hot and savoury meals are really cute and I might use them as cups. I don’t really rate the pasta bolognese sadly! While it tastes fine… its just like pasta in boiling water and I imagine as soon asthe pasta is gone I’ll have to drink the remains which… might be the same problem I had with the other huel :frowning:

3

It sounds like you have major problems with the texture, my partner is the same. You would probably save yourself a lot of money and time by just finding some normal healthy food alternatives to your takeaways instead of trying to force feed yourself Huel. Life’s too short for that. And plus, if the only way you end up being able to make it palatable for you is by adding a bunch of extra stuff in there, you may not end up with a shake thats all that “good” for you anyway.

4

I don’t know if it is the texture like, the strawberries one was pre-made and was very thin and easy to drink but still didn’t taste good… so I’m not really sure what my problem is :frowning:

5

If you make the pasta right you should have a meal that incorporates the sauce and nothing left to drink afterwards. I don’t find that any of the h&s meals have a leftover drink part of the meal.

The shakes should not be thin in my opinion, so just use less water. Unfortunately if it is the taste that is the real negative I guess they aren’t for you. You can add things to improve the flavour but you shouldn’t really have to

6

I don’t know how thats achievable, you put in 2 scoops of H&S powder thats mixed with the pasta, then fill the water up to the line ridge and then close the cap and leave for 5 mins, it was kind of just like… coloured water with pasta in it? I was expecting it to be like a pot noodle and absorb it but it didn’t

7

Did you stir it once you’d put the water in, before leaving it to stand?

8

Oh… I don’t think I did that :frowning: I was in a bit of an upset state from the drink that I missed a step so my bad. Will try it again tomorrow thank you :slight_smile:

1 Like
9

That’s weird. When I make it it is nothing like that. Do you have a good mix of pasta and other stuff? And yes stir it well. I have never had a meal like you described

10

its because I didn’t stir it as was mentioned. I’m msotly worried about the shakes as thats what I was looking forward to enjoying sadly :frowning:

1 Like
11

If the texture of the shakes is what’s wrong I guess there is no answer apart from more/less liquid and maybe refrigerator overnight/use a bit of almond milk/blend.

If it is the taste, it’s more difficult

12

Looking at what you said about your current diet – Huel will definitely be a shock to your taste buds. If it’s used to an intake of processed fats, sugars, little fruit or vegetables then what it’s getting now won’t sit well – or taste what you’d imagine. The good news is that your tastes buds do ‘learn’ and adapt to new flavours with more exposure but you have to help them on their way by cutting back the stuff that dulls their senses - and trying more things that reset them.

The strange aftertaste you’re getting is probably the sweeteners used. If you’ve never had it before, Stevia can have quite an aftertaste, but you notice it less and less the more you have it as your taste buds get used to it.

To make the shakes or ready to drinks easier to swallow I would suggest making them a lot thinner with some extra water perhaps to start with - then reducing that to the normal levels gradually. As @hunzas said, there are also several ways to make the powder shakes smoother.

1 Like
13

Thank you for your detailed reply, I think I’m going to keep at it rather than quitting after one day even though it made me upset. Do you think it might be a good idea to put the powder into smoothies and juices and then slowly dilute to get used to it?

1 Like
14

just do whatever works for you :slight_smile: if you have a blender, try making some smoothies with Huel, water and adding things you like to it so the taste is a little more familiar. So for your BE Banana for example - try making a smoothies with some complimentary flavours. If you like it a little sweeter try blending in a little honey, if you want it a bit sharper, maybe some berries. then as you say, work up to more huel less other ingredients as your taste buds get used to it.

there are plenty of references on the net that give good flavour pairing suggestions such as Banana pairs well with blueberry, caramel, cherry, chocolate, cinnamon, coconut, ginger, guava, hazelnut, honey, lemon, lime, mango, orange, papaya, pineapple and vanilla.

1 Like
15

So in good news, I bought some green machine smoothie and diluted it (filled the shaker half way to the fill line and then added water), and then added 2 scoops. It’s actually delicious now and I can tolerate it - the texture is slightly unpleasant, but hopefully if I do this each day and get used to the texture then eventually I can use less and less smoothie until I’m no longer dependent on it :slight_smile:

Will keep you updated to see if I can manage to finish the bag :slight_smile: can’t really taste the aftertaste probably for all the natural sugar of the smoothie I used, so maybe after slowly diluting it i’ll get used to it?

EDIT: Still dislike how it gets in my teeth though!!

3 Likes
17

Hey Ashley, welcome to the forum. So glad you’ve had so many helpful replies here - thanks all for that.

Thanks for persevering. I don’t have anything to add to the good advice here, but if I can help then please let me know how. Keep us posted on how everything is going!

18

Thanks for the warm welcome, I’ve actually been doing pretty good with it! I’ve had huel every day at lunchtime, with diluted smoothie as the base. It’s actually really delicious when you get rid of that after taste and I think I’m going to be able to get used to it enough to go back to water!

I’ve actually had a lot of luck stirring it before shaking aswell, maybe that’s just placebo though! :slight_smile:

2 Likes
19

Another thing you can do is:

Add a pinch of salt to make the flavour sweeter

Replace half the water with milk to soften the flavour/make it less sweet (i have to do this with the caramel)

20

Hey everyone, sorry for bumping!

So I’m about to finish my bag of huel for the first time ever! Quite proud of myself. I’ve been diluting a small amount of smoothie (readymade) to help it, but other than that I’m really happy with the benefits and how full I feel afterwards. It has made lunch super easy for me :slight_smile:

I have a question now though - if I didn’t like black banana, what bag do I get next? Is there a flavour that is different that I might have a better experience with? I’ve heard good things about the coffee and caramel but I don’t like coffee IRL so unless this doesn’t taste of coffee at all then I probably wouldn’t like it.

Is chocolate a good flavour? What about salted caramel?

Thanks everyone for being a bit of a support group :slight_smile:

21

Each of the flavors are (in my experience) VERY it or miss. So I mean I know they’re expensive so you shouldn’t just order a bag of each flavor, but if you choke down what you have, I would suggest trying some of the more basic flavors.
I’ve been drinking huel for years and once in a while I’ll be like oh I should try XYZ. I for example got Cinnamon Roll and it tasted way too fake sweet to me. I ended up tossing it.
My taste buds like the Chocolate one, and the Salted Carmel, if you like Coffee there’s a carmel coffee one as well which I like too.

Oh, also, if you like the shake thin, I use one of their “new” shakers. I’ll fill the bottle almost half full with ice cold fridge water, then use my food scale to plop in 90g of the powder, put the grate cover on top and fill the bottle to the top, then screw the top on, and put MORE water in, then put the cap on make sure all parts are screwed on securely and shake shake shake upside down and every which way. I love my shake very thin. I HATE swallowing or chewing on big globs of shake powder bleck.
I also don’t want to go through the effor to put 1 service in my vitamix, feels like overkill lolol.
Anyway GOOD LUCK!