A few days ago I received 3 bags of Hot & Savoury. When I opened the Tomato & Herb bag I had high hopes, it looked and smelled really good.
I have been using the original Huel for a few years now, and the Huel black more recently, which I now prefer over the the original. Overall I love the product but there were always two problems with it. It’s cold, and liquid. This has always made it a little unsatisfying for me. About 10 minutes after drinking it I don’t care, but for that 10 minutes I still craved solid food. So, when I saw the new Hot & Savoury line I was really excited to try it out.
Right after ordering I looked up how to prepare it and I assumed I’d have to measure out the boiling water before adding, so when the box arrived and I saw what looked like a cold-soak pot, with a fill line so it’s essentially just like a pot noodle (preparation speaking). Two scoops then fill to the line. How amazing is this. No need to use my hand blender (and more to the point clean it afterwards) so this simplifies the process even more. After filling I give it a good stir, screw the lid on, and leave for a good 20 minutes. I know this isn’t the recommended time but I prefer it at that temperature and it’s really soaked everything up at this point with no crunchy bits.
Sticking with the Pot Noodle analogy, I found it tastes similar too, and I don’t mean that as a bad thing. I don’t mind the taste of them, I don’t eat them because nutritionally it’s junk. I found the taste of the Tomato & Herb to be quite like chilli, even quite meaty too. The Thai Green Curry was also good, but not as nice as the T&H. It was a bit more soup-like. I’ve only tried the TGC once whereas I’ve almost finished the first T&H bag. The next time I try the TGC I’ll use less water. It’s still nice though and happy eating both. My next order will be 2x T&H and 1x TGC again.
OK, now here comes a few bad points. Nothing huge and nothing that will stop me buying it again.
Both flavours are a bit salty. Not enough for me to dislike the taste, but it seems unnecessarily salty and my diet contains too much salt already.
It says on the packaging that this food is balanced, but looking at what each 400 calorie portion contains (% of the daily recommended allowance) it doesn’t seem to add up at all. Maybe I’m missing something there, but it also says on the packaging that it recommends 1-2 meals per day. So it feels like this is a supplement, not balanced and complete at all. This is rather disappointing, but maybe I’m not reading it properly.
The last one is the price. With 21x 400 calorie meals for £55 means its £2.60 per meal. To get 2400kcal per day it would mean me eating 6 meals which would cost £15.60 per day. I understand that this is simply how much it costs to make, but with it being so much more expensive than regular food I really hope you guys haven’t priced yourself out of the market because I really want this line to be a success.
Overall this is a great line of products and looking forward to any new flavours you might bring out in the future
