Huel Ready-to-drink is available for pre-order now in two great flavours: Berry and Vanilla.
We’ve been hinting about Huel RTD for some time: indeed, we’ve been developing it for over 2 years!
Huel RTD is not powdered Huel in a bottle but it is nutritionally complete with a great macronutritional profile, complete protein, soluble and insoluble fibre, essential fats, phytonutrients and more. The main ingredients are oats, tapioca, pea protein, brown rice flour, flaxseed, rapeseed oil, MCTs from coconut and sunflower lecithin.
Each bottle of Huel RTD has 400 calories, 20g of complete protein and at least 20% of the RDA for each vitamin and mineral. It’s also vegan and gluten-free.
We’ve also had our own bottle designed and produced which is made from 25% recycled plastic and is 100% recyclable. Read our article Why our Huel Ready-to-drink uses plastic
I’m so disappointed in Huel. I was a customer from the start because I really believed this was a sustainable alternative to normal meals (vegan, minimal packaging). And now they want to generate and release massive amounts of plastic bottles onto the world, most of which won’t be recycled (and those that are will require a huge energy cost).
I thought huel was a different kind of company but I was wrong.
Remember that packaging is just one element of sustainability. It’s important we take everything into account, not just plastic usage: carbon emissions, land usage, water usage, acidification and eutrophication.
It’s been regularly shown that eating a vegan diet is the biggest way to reduce environmental impact, so if we can get more people to opt for a larger amount of plant-based food then we’re onto a great, great thing!
Whilst loving the idea of ready to drink Huel, but going on previous experience when new things are introduced, I think trial sized bottles should be available or the choice to purchase one bottle.
There is not a snowballs chance in hell that I am going to buy 12 bottles of something that might not be to my taste.
You already had a vegan product which was far more sustainable. Ready to drink huel is not going to convince anyone to go vegan, just convince lazy huelers to generate plastic waste for no good reason.
I’m especially not spending £67 on 12 bottles for a flavour I may not like because I cannot try it.
I was really looking forward to this but even at a 50% reduction, I wouldn’t be considering this. I’m a big fan but sorry Huel I’m sure they are good but my wallet is not sustainable.
I agree with that in part, humans are fundamentally lazy, RTD will attract some people who may drink something else, or eat something else, but I agree will be used more by lazy Huelers. I will however buy some for the times when the convenience of Huel is just not quite convenient enough.
As an aside, I wonder what percentage of users are actually vegan, or call themselves vegan.
If the product encourages people to consume less meat and dairy that is great IMHO.
Plastic is an issue, and it looks like there were considered reasons for plastic and all other options were thought about. Is it ideal no, but it could be a stepping stone. I agree too that RTD does go against the original ethos.
It is cheaper than all the other quality RTD options. Alas shipping individual bottles of liiquid is always going to be expensive.
If Huel could find RTD in the high street at a lower price point it could do well; supermarkets already have RTD breakfast drinks, none of the quality of Huel.
I read it James and I have to say it still leaves a uneasy feeling.
In a time when we should all be moving from plastic you are moving towards with statistics on veggies having less footprint (true) but the plastic for me negates that, I hear what you’re saying that you want new converts and a new angle to reach new people but to me that’s just hollow feeling statement.
This feels more like greed and marketing/pr spin.
One has to wonder as well if the shortages are down to you guys not realising national adverts on TV = more customers needing stock and that this clearly wasn’t factored in correctly in prep or planning.
Or… if focus and product ingredients going into this prep and launch have short stocked your customers.
With the negative feelings on stock and still taking orders with the site still stating next day delivery and now justifying moving to more plastic by converting people to veggie/vegan as an argument this feels like the company is changing as many do to profit over people/planet.
Edit . And 25% recycled would still be 75% none recycled.
I think the price for standard huel is already pretty high (a lot of research has had to go into this which is fair enough, but the basic ingredients are dirt cheap), but these prices are insane!
Its not really comparable to a meal at say a cafe because when you go to a cafe the price of your food includes heating, lighting and staff costs!
For me the amount of protein is surprising. A wild guess, it has to do with the flavour/texture and the type of protein used. 20g per 400kcal is so much lower than Huel’s average!
I am glad, however, that they have opted for a non-soy source, which differentiates them from Jake, Plenny Drink, Saturo and Soylent.
I’m sure they are good but my wallet is not sustainable.