Hot & Savoury reminder + other news!

Huel updates
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Hey guys!, Big post incoming!

H&S has been going through some significant changes which I have detailed before in the post here.

Back in December I went into the most detail on the USA as we were making those changes that month, but I did talk about the UK/EU having the same/similar changes later on in April. This post is to go into more detail on those changes and some others.

  • UK/EU launch of Meal Packs on April 22nd - recap and detail
  • Global revamp to Grains - new update you’ve not heard before (good news)
  • Noodles in Meals Packs?
  • Variety Boxes
  • Last chance to buy page (outlet)

Tl;dr

We are sending emails with a more specific detail to all active and paused H&S Pouch subscriptions in UK/EU. There is a webpage here that covers your specific regional information (not USA). This is the UK link, but just let it redirect you to your region.

uk.huel.com/pages/hot-and-savoury-information

  • UK and EU launch of Hot & Savoury Meal Packs from 22nd of April. Includes all current Pasta and Grains flavours (plus Mac & Cheeze in the UK).
  • Meal Packs are replacing Pouches. Subscriptions won’t be auto-swapped until Pouch stock runs out (see appendix for timelines).
  • If you’re on a Carbonara Pouch:
    • UK: You’ll be moved to Carbonara Pots from approximately mid-July, unless you switch to a different Meal Pack your price will go from £20 to £25.60).
    • EU: You’ll be moved to Chick’n & Mushroom Meal Pack.
  • Grains revamp: new news, way better texture, richer, more delicious flavour, chunkier pieces. Less quinoa and flax = better texture but lower fibre. But still a fully nutritionally complete meal.
  • Thinking about adding Noodles to Meal Packs and Grains to Pots for a complete range, but not sure yet. Let us know if that’s a good idea.
  • Variety boxes are bigger now (12 Pots, 14 Meal Packs). Now a full range of flavours inside.

UK/EU Launch of Meal Packs and other Hot & Savoury Updates

If you’re new here or didn’t see the post on our H&S updates please take a read, I want to get straight into the details here, if you have questions then pop them below.

All the below information re: changes to your subscriptions will all be communicated via email to active subscribers this week and then again in a more targeted specific way as and when various flavours are changed over.

How are Meal Packs doing?

They are performing well. We wanted to increase repeat rate and lower complaints. Meal Packs seem to be doing all these things so far in the USA, but it’s early days. We see no reason why the same won’t be true in the UK/EU. For you, this means that we genuinely have improved the product experience - based on current data.

UK/DE/EU Delists reminder:

Grains: Tomato & Herb, Sweet & Sour, Korma (already all delisted)

Pasta: Carbonara (UK Pot remains) and Mac & Cheeze in the EU markets

N.b. The UK will continue selling Mac & Cheeze in a Meal Pack for the time being as we review.

What happens from April 22nd?

If you are subscribed to a H&S Pouch you won’t have any changes to your subscription until a later date when we run out of Pouch stock. See appendix.

  1. Meal Packs launch on all UK/EU sites with the following range
    a. Thai Green Curry, Mexican Chilli, Madras, Pasta Bolognese, Chick’n & Mushroom Pasta, Cajun Pasta, Mac & Cheeze (UK only)

  2. Pouches are removed from the main website but remain available in the account area

  3. We will continue fulfilling existing subscriptions of Pouches until we run out (dates below)

  4. Once we run out, we will move your existing subscriptions to a Meal Pack. If you are
    subscribed to a flavour that is being delisted entirely, we will move you to a different flavour of Meal Pack
    a. Dates and details in the appendix below

What if I am subscribed to Spaghetti Carbonara Pouch?

EU/DE: If you are in an EU market you will be moved to Chick’n & Mushroom Meal Pack.

UK: We’ll be moving you over to Spaghetti Carbonara Pots, approximately mid-July. Since our Pot range is slightly more expensive, the price for you will then increase from £20 to £25.60 unless you change your subscription. We’ll send you a reminder before this change takes effect. If you’d prefer to avoid the price increase, you can log into your account and swap your Spaghetti Carbonara Pouch for a different Meal Pack flavour once they become available (from April 22nd) - i.e. you have ~3-months to make this decision

Grains Revamp!

I am really excited about this announcement! Since Grains launched back in 2020, we haven’t made any changes to this range. Grains are less popular than our pastas, likely because they’ve not met expectations. That being said, we’re excited to announce we’ve been working on improving the taste and giving these flavours a fresh look!

The project had 3 main goals

  • Main goal: Elevate the taste and texture as well as removing the more random inclusions
  • Secondary goals: We’ve streamlined our ingredient list to make things more efficient for our supply chain. For example, we used sweet potato in our Madras flavour, but not in any other options, which lead to complexity. By reducing and streamlining this it has mitigated some, but not all, of the increased ingredients costs we’re facing. Plus, this makes it easier to source ingredients locally and benefit from economies of scale.

What are the changes?

Richer, more authentic flavours – Every recipe has been improved, with Thai Green Curry now more fragrant, Mexican Chilli smokier, and Madras richer.

Better texture – Larger, plant-based pieces replace pea protein nuggets in most flavours and a new improved ‘mince’ is used in Bolognese & Mexican Chilli, massively improving texture. We have had to remove quinoa and reduce flaxseed, this massively benefits texture as both ingredients contributed to that slimy, gel-like texture our Grains had. Quinoa is also an expensive ingredient, so there are multiple reasons for its removal. As a result of these changes there is an improved rice-to-sauce ratio that makes this look closer to something you’d make at home.

More vibrant ingredients – Fresh additions like green beans, adzuki beans, and sweetcorn make every meal look and taste better.

H&S old_new (with type)

Nutrition refinements – With ingredient changes, some of the nutrition has changed, but we are still providing a highly nutritious, complete meal:

  • Protein remains the same (24-25g per serving).
  • Fibre is slightly lower by 1-5g per serving, due to the removal of quinoa and reduction in flaxseed, but making the texture significantly better.
  • Carbs are slightly higher by 6-16g per serving due to replacing quinoa with rice, again massively improving texture and appearance
  • Sugar has changed by 1-2g, slightly up in some flavours and down in others for a more balanced taste, but still within the range of the previous recipe. One note is that in the ingredients you will see ‘Sugar’ features much higher up the list. That is because we now include it within the flavour mix, as opposed to a separate ingredient. As I’ve described above, some of the sugar has gone down, despite now featuring higher in the ingredient deck.

More convenient format – Hot & Savoury Grains, as well as Pastas, will now come in Meal Packs, making portioning easier while delivering an even better taste.

If you want more information about the flavour changes or anything else then please just ask, I wasn’t sure how much information to add into this already long-ass post.

What about Noodles in Meal Packs?

We’ve also heard your calls for this, why not offer every flavour in both formats? When we launched Pots it was just for Noodles and solved a big issue we found where we couldn’t scoop Noodles in a multiserve pouch. We pivoted quickly to put these into pots, which our existing manufacturing partner could do - also Noodles in Pots made sense as they already exist on the market. Pots also solved the perfect-portion problem which was brewing in the background, which is why you then saw some Pasta going into Pots. Meal Packs was a harder format to get off the ground but as you’ve all rightly pointed out, both solve the perfect portion issue.

So, this isn’t an announcement per se, but we are thinking hard about what we want the final range to look like. We do think that adding Noodles to Meal Packs could be a good move, so let us know if you agree. Speaking totally honestly, we are also worried about what that would mean for Pots, because if everyone moves from Noodles Pots to Meal Packs we would be left with a problem for Pots. But maybe that’s ok, we’re working it out. Yes, we are also considering.

Variety Boxes

We’ve made lots of changes to our Variety/Selection Boxes in all our markets. We’ve been increasing the size of the Variety Boxes which enables us to add more flavours - ideally all flavours where possible. This does also come with some price increases, from increased servings per box but also price/serve increases as these boxes do cost more to put together. Hopefully you like the increased variety we offer and all these have/will be communicated clearly.

  • Pots/Cups → 12 per box with all flavours included (any more gets difficult with packaging)
  • Meal Packs UK/EU → 14 per box - we have 7 Meal Pack flavours in the UK so will do 2 of each flavour. In the EU we only have 6 flavours, but we will add additional packs to those boxes e.g. 3 of the more popular flavours.

Appendix:

Pouch and Pot changeover dates:

Please note that these dates are subject to change based on demand, and an earlier/later switch may occur if demand changes. We’ll keep you informed with further communications nearer the time.

UK

  • 8-Pot Selection Box (Pot) → 12-Pot Selection Box (Pot) – from late April
  • Pasta Bolognese (Pouch) → Pasta Bolognese (Sachet) – from mid June
  • Mexican Chilli (Pouch) → Mexican Chilli (Sachet) – from late June
  • Madras (Pouch) → Madras (Sachet) – from late June
  • Carbonara (Pouch) → Carbonara (Pot) – from early September
  • Thai Green Curry (Pouch) → Thai Green Curry (Sachet) – from early September
  • Mac & Cheeze (Pouch) → Mac & Cheeze (Sachet) – from late September
  • Chick’n & Mushroom Pasta (Pouch) → Chick’n & Mushroom Pasta (Sachet) – from late September
  • Cajun Pasta (Pouch) → Cajun Pasta (Sachet) – from late October

Germany & Poland

  • Carbonara (Pot) → Chick’n & Mushroom Pasta (Sachet) – from early May
  • Bolognese (Pot) → Pasta Bolognese (Sachet) – from early May
  • Carbonara (Pouch) → Chick’n & Mushroom Pasta (Sachet) – from early May
  • Madras (Pouch) → Madras (Sachet) – from early September
  • Mexican Chilli (Pouch) → Mexican Chilli (Sachet) – from early September
  • Mac & Cheeze (Pouch) → Chick’n & Mushroom Pasta (Sachet) – from late September
  • Chick’n & Mushroom Pasta (Pouch) → Chick’n & Mushroom Pasta (Sachet) – from late September
  • Pasta Bolognese (Pouch) → Pasta Bolognese (Sachet) – from late September
  • Thai Green Curry (Pouch) → Thai Green Curry (Sachet) – from late September
  • Cajun Pasta (Pouch) → Cajun Pasta (Sachet) – from late October

EU - Czech, Denmark, EU, Sweden

  • Carbonara (Pot) → Chick’n & Mushroom Pasta (Sachet) – from early May
  • Bolognese (Pot) → Pasta Bolognese (Sachet) – from early May
  • Pasta Bolognese (Pouch) → Pasta Bolognese (Sachet) – from late June
  • Madras (Pouch) → Madras (Sachet) – from late July
  • Mexican Chilli (Pouch) → Mexican Chilli (Sachet) – from early August
  • Thai Green Curry (Pouch) → Thai Green Curry (Sachet) – from early September
  • Carbonara (Pouch) → Chick’n & Mushroom Pasta (Sachet) – from mid September
  • Mac & Cheeze (Pouch) → Chick’n & Mushroom Pasta (Sachet) – from late September
  • Chick’n & Mushroom Pasta (Pouch) → Chick’n & Mushroom Pasta (Sachet) – from late September
  • Cajun Pasta (Pouch) → Cajun Pasta (Sachet) – from late October
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I do buy the pots because I like some of the options contained within the pots. I don’t use the actual pots though. I decant the contents into either the Huel pot or a third party thermoflask depending where I am. I would therefore prefer a move to meal packs over pot; shipping boxes should be considerably smaller too.

I was assuming that Huel was using the meal pots to try to get the hot and savoury into mainstream marketplaces (supermarkets) and that’s the issue I envisage for you here.

I haven’t bought the grain based meals for a while because although I liked them, I preferred the pasta and noodle ones, but the revisions would definitely make me retry them.

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That’s the second time I’ve heard that this week. I completely understand that. Is it the case you decant ahead of time or is it literally I decant now and eat it now type of thing?

It’s an interesting point on retail. Essentially, pots were designed to fix the issue of getting perfect portions and preparations with our new noodle and pasta flavours. This was a quick fix that we were able to get in place and launch. We planned for the Hot & Savoury Sachets, but it just took a little longer to get over the line, but again, hopefully solving the issue, making sure you get perfect portions and rations every time!

So I recently tried the new revamps, and they are incredible :heart_eyes:

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Yes, I think what probably originally swayed me, is that the original pots were easily damaged by stirring and just flipping the lid back over to let it soften up before eating was a bit of a faff. So basically I just tip it into the huel pot or flask as I’m ready to use it not in advance.

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Appreciate all the info Mark! Overall, happy to see this strategy.

Few points from me:

  • Glad to hear meal pack sachets perform well. Been wanting sachet form for years rather than pouches. Great change.
  • Definitely would like to see same flavours across pots and sachets. This is simple customer flexibility that IMO creates mutual interest between products for different scenarios (e.g. I’d buy sachets primarily, then some pots of those same flavours for times where I’m away from home or super busy) and less annoying restrictions, rather than ultimately applying this limitation to force form factor sales/behaviour. Pots also suit retail more than sachets.
  • Look forward to trying the relaunched grains meals. I want to eat them more to consume less pasta, but they never met the same enjoyment as the pasta meals. Sad that quinoa is removed as this was the main reason why I bought them, but I have quinoa outside of Huel so not a big deal if overall they taste better.
  • Sad that Carbonara will only be in pot format. It’s my favourite most-used flavour and my Huel hot meals comprise only about 10% pots, with the rest being pouches/soon-to-be sachets. It’ll be wasteful having to buy Carbonara pots every time to instantly throw the pot away, as I have most Huel hot meals on a plate with other foods, like broccoli, sweet potatoes, vegan strips, etc.
  • Sad about Korma, kinda sad about Sweet & Sour, not sad about Tomato & Herb as it was my least-liked flavour.
  • Mac & Cheeze in pot format would make me try it again. Tried the new version multiple times and always paled significantly in comparison to the original Mac & Cheeze, so it went from a weekly staple to never again. Perhaps being portioned precisely will bring back some of the cheesy flavour and thick creaminess.
  • Unfortunately I’ll no longer be buying the pot variety box due to the changes. I don’t like Fiery Chick’n Noodles and the price is much higher. Therefore, my purchases of noodle pots will be very rare now as I can only now buy 1 flavour at a time, flavours of which are already very repetitive due to the use of the same IMO ‘boring’ textured protein chunks in every noodle flavour. If the ingredients and textures in each pot flavour were changed to be more unique, interesting and logical to their flavour (e.g. having vegan shredded duck with the duck flavour, not chicken-like chunks in the duck flavour, and having more diverse cuisine-specific veg), then I’d be happy to buy more individual noodle flavours.

Suggestion:

  • Rather than focus only on Spaghetti Carbonara’s increase from £20.00 to £25.60, recommend also mentioning meal count. Only mentioning price increase (that’s also not pro rata) makes Huel’s change appear strongly negative, eliciting the thought of “I’m now paying almost £6 more for the same thing?”
  • I was originally disappointed, then remembered the pouches contain 7 meals while the pots contain 8, so really, the difference is actually minimal when accounting for the extra meal. Therefore, this is important context to include in customer communications, and seeing a pro rata per meal price increase is more palatable.

My biggest hope though is that whatever new flavours are introduced, they’re very different and interesting as the noodle pot flavours I’m sorry to say get repetitive very quickly, to the point of being the only Huel product I usually regret buying while eating it. Just such bland samey textures. It’s very rare for me to leave food, but I’ve found myself doing this with Huel’s noodle pots.

The taste flavour-wise is absolutely perfect and matches each flavour brilliantly well, so I love that a lot, but the actual contents/textures seem identical due to the same bland spongey chick’n chunks used, despite it being very easy to improve given there are limitless choices and existing ingredient inspiration out there (e.g. check out Planty). For the price as well, I’d have thought each flavour wouldn’t feel like a rehash texture-wise. I assume this is a cost-saving measure, but it’s a huge negative impact on the product range to me that puts me off massively. Again the flavours/aromas themselves are delicious and spot on, but it’s soon nullified by the use of the same textured protein chunks. Change the chunks and introduce more variety like beans, lentils, seitan, chunky diverse veg, etc for more ‘menu variety’, then my interest is piqued.

Thanks :slight_smile:

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Glad to hear you’re a fan!

Awesome to hear, it’s really exciting so we’re excited to see what you think!

We hear you, it’s a conversation we continue to have so who knows what we could see in the future.

Oh boy, trust me that these are a game changer. The revamp is hella tasty :heart_eyes: In terms of the quinoa. with the removal of quinoa and the reduction in flaxseed, will heavily impact improving texture, appearance, and ultimately, the customer experience.

Understood, we get that not everyone will be happy about the change but that being said like we said about pots into sachets etc, it’s a conversation that is well worth having. Who knows what we could see in the future?

We hear you. For now, it will be discontinued. That being said, this could be something we revisit in the future!

Appreciate you taking the time out to share these suggestions. That being said, when it comes to new flavours, we are working incredibly hard behind the scenes so who knows what we could see. Any flavour in particular you’d like to see?

1 Like