I got a batch of huel bars today, to help me get over my mid shift snacks (I work in a super market at the moment, trying to save for a masters, my god this hard) which are cheap but calorie destroying reduced price pastries and savouries from our bakery.
I had one for breakfast (I often have small breakfasts anyway so 250 calories seemed about right!). I wasn’t expecting much, back in my university rugby and weight lifting society days I used protein bars and although I enjoyed them but often found them to be not filling enough and too much like candy bars for my liking.
Review:
Flavour: 6/10
Consistency: 4/10
Texture: 8/10
Packaging: 6/10 (9/10 if I’m just an uneducated swine and you can widely recycle the wrappers)
Price: 7/10
Overall: 6/10 – [7/10]
Edit: I forgot to add a “would I recommend”/ “is it worth it” bit! I will be buying these again and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them, despite the cons! They are certainly worth the money, even if they are just a tad dear! Can’t wait for bar v1.x onwards!
Edit 2: How filling is it? I’d give it a 8/10! Very impressed at how satiated I was after my huel bars.
The flavour [6/10]: They have a classic huel like taste with a decent chocolate flavour. I would categorise this taste as ‘function over tastiness’ although it is not an unpleasant taste at all! The consistency adds to the unique flavour.
Early doors yet, small scale manufacturing does limit this somewhat (or significantly) but I’d love to see some interesting flavours! Honey and raspberry is a personal huel shake favourite of mine and think would work very well in a bar! (obviously not vegan unless you substituted honey with agave or something similar).
Consistency [4/10]: As I mentioned above, the consistency does add some explanation to my categorisation of the flavour. It is exactly how I imagine huel would feel like in a bar. Has a certain powder like aspect to it. Just to clarify, it’s not like trying to eat a cream cracker or sticking a spoon of huel in your mouth, but it has this… ‘bittyness’. This is accentuated by the fact it is a tad dry. Looking at the bar our of the packaging (which I’ll get onto in a minute) it looks like it will have a kind of naked bar consistency. They are made of primarily dates and are moist as yer like and ‘smooth’ to eat. This is certainly not the case for huel bars.
Again this isn’t “OMG this is disgusting” bad, more likely a product of v1.0 and it being huel, which is far nutritionally superior to its competition. It’s a sacrifice I think most people would be willing to make for the superior product.
Texture [8/10]: With the consistency out of the way, the texture is a pleasant experience to chew. It feels substantial and with the added ‘soft crunch’ of the nuts dotted through the bar makes for a very enjoyable experience. I would liken it to having a normal protein bar from any of the competition in terms of its pleasant chewy texture (minus the lack of moisture).
Packaging [6/10 - 9/10]: well presented. I love the huel logo aesthetic and it is seamlessly transferred to a box of bars.
The box is obviously recyclable, which is good, but the plastic shiny lined wrappers I would assume are not (this is only an assumption, if they are recycle friendly do ignore this section). I know this is hard to make everything eco friendly but as most of my immediate and extended family are on a ‘bare minimum plastics’ mission for 2017, I feel a little guilty. I wonder there are alternative packing methods that might be more eco minded? I’m not expert at all, just trying my best to be a good hippie!
(Extra) Availability: I know this is really beyond even my review remit, but it’s a shame we can only pick these up online. Somewhere like Holland and Barrett would be perfect to showcase and sell these products. This is a buyer distributor negotiations thing, but I’d love to be able to walk into my local H+B and pick a pack up or even a bar if I ran out. I am almost positive I’d have tried these sooner had I been able to pick a single one up locally. Perhaps something to consider, if you haven’t already, which you probably have as your guys are fantastically meticulous!
Price [7/10]: This is always a point of contention for many. I am familiar with how small scale business works with small scale manufacturing, high quality ingredients and economies of scale.
Its relatively expensive. I know huel representatives have a habit of quoting the bulk subscription prices per bar, while these are 100% ‘correct prices’ they are not representative of the volumes I would like to buy and give misleading figures. I cannot speak for anyone else really, but I can’t see that much of a huge consumer base going for the maximum order subscription service, which is the most quoted price per bar, while there may be some, I would implore you to adjust the ‘official’ marketing strategy to be a little friendlier and transparent.
Having said that. I really think it’s a fair price, at all price points. Perhaps put of some people’s price range, but that’s not something you can help, you have to make some profit. Yes, a little dear, but I am getting something of far superior quality than anything I can make myself or hug from competitors and it is hugely convenient! Hopefully when you grow, and manufacturing becomes a little cheaper things reduce a tad (though I wonder how Brexit might affect huels cheques and balances!)
Summary/ feedback:
- Great taste considering. Would love more flavours!
- Perhaps too dry and bitty. Would do well with some moisture.
- Love the bite to it, the nuts [edit: “protein nuggets”] are great!
- Packaging is good but hopefully it’s recyclable, of not, can it be?
- Price is about right. I would prefer a more transparent approach to pricing to be a little more representative of what I think is the average consumer (and I could be miles of the mark about the average consumer).
Thanks for reading by sorry for any spelling/ grammar errors I wrote this with my thumbs on my phone!