I did want to ask why the fill line was on the back outside the top on the opposite side of where you are supposed to pull the lid half way. Seems like a design flaw
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I always struggle to see the fill line and water level, itās not easy to see
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Have purchased 2 x Katsu Curry Noodles boxes and 1 x Fiery Chickān Noodles box, and this is my review. Overall, Iāll purchase the Katsu Curry pots occasionally which are delicious and a great addition, but definitely not Fiery Chickān again ā the unnatural heat volume ruins it. The design of the pots is also not up to the usual great Huel standard IMO, with an appearance thatās too plain than usual, has a flimsy fragile feel, and has easily preventable flaws that create a frustrating preparation experience every time which sometimes makes me want to choose something else to eat instead thatās less of a headache!
Design:
- The fill line is completely illogical and dangerous. Why put it behind the part where you peel back and cannot see? It makes zero sense, is consistently difficult to manage, and resulted in one occasion of accidentally pouring boiling hot water over my hand as I was trying to awkwardly hold the pot and twist it to see the fill line ā never burned my hand like this in my life. Why not just have the fill line on the side where you peel back, or have it continuously all around the pot integrated into the design? (Glad to see Iām not alone and other people are mentioning this above!)
- The layout of the instructions is also illogical. If we read from left to right, why put the steps as 1, 3, 2, 4? When I first read it, was thinking how strange it was to leave the pot open for a few mins before pouring in water, then realised theyāre structured in a confusing way where you need to look down, then up ā doesnāt make sense. I gave a pot to a friend without saying anything and had to laugh because they did exactly the same thing, expecting it to be left to right like normal and wondered why youād wait a few mins after opening it
- Instead of adding a āMay Contain Mustardā sticker on top of the Katsu Curry pots, why not just have it printed on the side of the pot within the rest of the design? Seems like unnecessary additional cost, and makes it feel a bit cheapy/unprofessional especially when itās sometimes overlapping the Huel logo or flavour name.
- Design of the overall pot is probably the least nice out of all Huel products. Huelās branding is minimal sure, but typically thereās some kind of flair/personality to each productās flavour. The pot feels flimsy and papery which I donāt have a problem with, and am glad itās recyclable, but feels like you need to be constantly careful with its fragility in case it splits or something. You canāt really get more bland than this, and I doubt itāll be grabbing peopleās attention in stores or clearly visually indicating what the product even is to people unless they pick it up and inspect it.
Taste:
- The Fiery Chickān Noodles are definitely too hot IMO. Seems pointless to add this level of heat which ruins the whole meal. I donāt even want to say āspicyā, because the word āspicyā still typically associates flavour, where very spicy foods can still be tasty and aromatic when very hot. This just feels like any chance of flavour is ruined by the sheer unnatural heat.
- I enjoy spicy foods/sauces, even stuff from places like the Hot Sauce Emporium (including putting Psycho Drops on my tongue and other stupid stuff for a laugh), but this was far too hot to be anywhere near enjoyable. I put a bit of peanut butter in it to dampen the hotness, which workedā¦ but peanut butter fiery noodles didnāt exactly taste nice. (FYI drinking water is NOT a good thing to have with hot foods. It makes it worse by spreading the heat! Things like plant milk and nut butter will help.)
- I tried giving away a couple to 2 other people, both of whom also found them far too hot: 1 threw it all away after a couple mouthfuls, the other put peanut butter in too which made it edible, but not enjoyable, and they regretted finishing it.
- The Katsu Curry one however is absolutely delicious. Really enjoyable flavour. Great comfort food, taste and texture. Huel nailed this one. A family member now takes one to work now and then. Iād be happy to eat this regularly. Recommend that flavour for sure!
Cost:
- Feel like I wasted Ā£20+ buying a full box of 8 Fiery Chickān Noodles. If I was able to buy one, then I wouldnāt have bought anymore. So now Iām trying to use them up, adding peanut butter in them, but is probably my least satisfied Huel purchase since 2018. I get why single pots arenāt available (fragility), however I would have preferred to pay a bit more for a single pot thatās protected (e.g. in its own cube box), rather than pay Ā£20+ for 8 pots I want to get rid of.
- Price feels too expensive. Compared to similar meals from Huel and competing companies, these pots are certainly expensive and I donāt see myself regularly buying them. Ultimately, while nutritionally complete vegan meals is a huge plus for me and meals like Pot Noodles are junk, average consumers will see a stark difference between a box of 12 x Pot Noodles for Ā£8 on Amazon, and Ā£24 for 8 x Huel noodle pots ā 36 pots for the same price as 8.
- Overall, feels to me quite cost-wasteful buying a product thatās frustrating to prepare every time IMO, is priced higher than it seems it should be, and the pouches are a simpler, fuller experience. The pot is a nice snack, but I donāt feel full after like the usual pouch meals, so I generally want to add to it or eat another thing after. Iāll occasionally buy a box of Katsu Curry pots to take to places where the pouches would be impractical.
- If Huel offered these as cheaper sachets instead, Iād buy more regularly.
TL;DR: If the design flaws were corrected and price slightly lowered, Iād buy the Katsu one regularly. Iāll keep some Katsu pots in the cupboard for particular occasions and top-up now and then. Iām glad Huel is getting into this area ā with several improvements and more flavours, would be a lot more interested.
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Hey sorry for not getting back to you right away on this one!
So we canāt unfortunately control the orientation of the lid once itās popped on. So in this instance, itās technically on the wrong side but potentially on another one of your pots it should be the right way around if that makes sense!
Hope that clears up any confusion 
Id say its half and half, either way it would be easier if you could get a line on the inside of the pot where you can see the water fill.
Hey, can this please be fed back to the team? I feel like your response is saying āthis illogical and dangerous design flaw is sometimes potentially not presentā, and that weāre confused, which isnāt really okay. This design flaw caused me to burn my hand with boiling hot water as I explained in my review above, someone else on another thread (the one about Fiery Chickān) mentioned they also spilled boiling hot water because of the fill line, and itās incredibly simple to resolve: just have the fill line go around the entire pot, seamlessly integrated into the designā¦ Or as Martyn said, have it printed inside instead.
Also, I have purchased 3 boxes of these pots in total, and not a single pot out of the 24 had the fill line on the correct side. There is no confusion from us here. Rather than say the problem may potentially not be there on one of the products youāve purchased (so essentially ādeal with itā), the better thing to do is understand where weāre coming from as a purchaser of your products, investigate and fix the problem. This is a clear dangerous design flaw. Thank you.
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always good advice.
Seriously, when pouring boiling water itās best not to hold the container youāre pouring into. Especially if itās a flimsy paper thing. Sounds like a fill line all around would be a helpful design improvement, but holding the pot and twisting around awkwardly to see a mark whilst pouring boiling water is a risk. Put the pot down on the table before you pour.
and donāt run with scissors.
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- Pot was on the table. You have to twist it unnaturally, while awkwardly holding the flap back, to see the line while observing how much is poured in.
- Had hundreds of noodle pots before, I prepped this like I always do and this has never happened, because no other companyās pot has the fill line on the opposite side to where you pour as this is not logical.
- Someone else reported spilling boiling water because of this the same day as me āspilled boiling water everywhere because I was looking for the fill line, while filling and the lip of the lid slipped, effectively closing the container again and water splashing all over my counterā, so there are likely more cases.
I get what youāre saying, but this is an obvious design flaw that makes zero sense, presents a clear high risk for consumers, and could result in a lot worse experiences than mine. If Huelās response is essentially deal with it because occasionally the problem wonāt be there, then my response is Iāll never buy that product again.
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Pot was on the tableā¦ but still there was holding and awkward twisting? It sounds like a big old mess. I guess the instructions are to peel back lid, fill with boiling water, then replace lid. ??
Is there any reason not to remove lid entirely? and then replace it entirely?
I mean Iām just thinking this doesnāt sound like an impossible task. But I have no direct experience so Iām just guessing.
Still agree with your suggestion of an all-around fill line thoā. 
Hex, thanks so much for this message. I am the product marketing lead on our Instant Meal Pot launch, so Iām going through it now and will reply line by line, but frankly agree with most of what youāre saying. Give me a moment, I will edit this post with my responses.
@hex response now updated below
Fill line design
- I echo what Mark has said, we actually donāt have control of the orientation of the lid position, at least that is what we have been told by the factory team. However, considering Iāve read 3 similar posts on the forum Iām going to check this out, because clearly most/many are being positioned around the back
- Putting a fill line inside the pot requires a totally different manufacture process called in-mould labelling, thatās what Pot Noodle use. Itās expensive and requires huge volumes to make it financially worthwhile.
- However, weāre going to be moving to a different pot which solves this problem (and a bunch of other operational limitations too). The pot will still be recyclable, but it will be mono-material plastic with a removable cardboard sleeve. This means we can print on the inside of the card sleeve, which will enable you to see a fill line through the pot (see below)
Layout of instructions
- Good point, Iāve never thought of this as I just naturally read down. Iāve not heard anyone else say that this was a problem for them, that doesnāt mean it isnāt, but I wouldnāt want to change them just yet as a result. Anyone else do respond below if you think a left ā right would be better.
- However, new pot will solve this as itās a bit taller, so the instructions are just below eachother (below)
May contain mustard sticker
- I will be totally candid with you here because I absolutely agree, I hate it, makes me very sad to see it. This was not how it was meant to be and basically was a result of our paper pot having a very long lead time (i.e. it takes a long time to be delivered from point of ordering). So the artwork was ordered before we found this small mustard risk.
- The solution is eliminating the mustard risk in Katsu, which the team are working on but we just have a lot of stock of the ingredient with the small mustard risk
Plain design of the pot
- Interesting to hear you say you donāt like the plain design
safe to say there has been 
d e b a t e at Huel HQ 
- There is logic, albeit brand logic. Products which are only sold on our website are black and white (donāt ask questions about Greens
), products which are retail focussed get a colour strip. Instant Meal Pouches is an anomaly there but we will likely try and change the packaging design there to be more plain, and not black (because itās not black edition)
Might get sacked for this but gonna tag @julian to see the discussion here, boss, some people donāt like your plain white pot designā¦
Fiery spice
- Thanks for the opinion. I think the first thing to say is that it came out spicier than we intended and we created the 4th chilli in the spice rating late on as a result of testing the final product in HQ
- Interestingly, weāve only had 10 complaints so far about spice level. That is very low and I think is the result of us using the 4th chilli
- This is one for us to monitor, I think there is scope in future to bring down the spice level, but right now I want to get more data.
- Personally, I love the spice level, I find myself always adding hot sauce to dishes that claim to be spicy. Fiery Noodles hits the spot for me. Naked Noodles has a product they give
and itās an actual joke how mild it is for a 5 chilli rating!
Cost and single pot
- Such a difficult one this as rarely has anyone said to Huel āThis is the perfect priceā - people always want lower prices. However I really appreciate how youāve gone about raising this.
- Like above, we need to monitor this and potentially test it. Weāre starting to get results from retention rate etc and should it not be where we want it to be I think itās a viable option to see how we can go about reassing the price. But I canāt promise anything and itās not my decision.
- Single pot - Iām working on it, and sorry itās taking so long, honestly there is just lots on my plate right now. However this is what Iām looking at rolling out, probably no print or branding for speed
- It will cost more per pot vs buying a box, I hope thatās obvious, Iām not sure on the final cost yet.
- These would sit in the āSinglesā section on our Build you own bundle flow
Sorry that took so long, had a few meetings inbetween. Tag me in your follow up questions. Hope that all makes sense.
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When you tell people obvious stuff you accused of being part of the nanny state. Yet they canāt come running to you with scissors when theyāve hacked off their feet with a chainsaw.
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I actually like the design on the Hot & Savoury pouches!
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yeah, me too.
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Tim, your communication here is great. You were always so great with the community, and I do feel that the Huel-Community communications has taken a hit since you changed roles. Nice to see you posting, looking forward to V2.0.
Iāll add the 11th complaint about it being ātoo hotā. Itās less that itās hot, for me, and more so that the heat kills all the other underlying flavour.
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@Tim_Huel took a hint and buggered off.
Hey @Tim_Huel , good to see you again and thank you very much for coming back to me on all points! I appreciate it 
v2
New pot sounds like itāll solve many v1 issues. Fill line in or out is fine, just needs easy visibility when pouring like going all the way around cleverly as part of the designās borders or something ā the inside sleeve idea is perfect. The new instructions design is perfect too ā doesnāt matter whether itās going down or left ā right, just that itās consistent So going down, down, down fixes this 
No worries about the mustard label ā thought it was odd, but makes sense now!
Design
Huelās branding and design teams must be a constant tug-of-war for each product ha hah. Interesting logic, though I hope the Instant Meal Pouchās move to plainness is debated more. The current pouch design ādoes the jobā, but I think Huel really hit it home with Daily Greens 
While my cupboard looking like itās onboard a starship with black and white minimal bags is cool, DG proves Huelās minimalism can still work perfectly with a gorgeous backdrop. Itās so eye-catching yet super sleek and simple, while still capturing the subtle futuristic vibe ā can imagine some similarly stunning Instant Meal pouches/pots like it (Sry Julian 
) DG is by far the best looking product in my kitchen cupboards.
(The pots to me feel like that one time as a kid where I bought a Nintendo DS game on eBay and it was a fake, printed on a home printer with nothing but a black and white label with text so you know what it is ā drained of joy )
Cost & Singles
Interesting about Fiery data. That profile pic I made for you really captures the essence of you enjoying these Fiery noodles now To be fair about cost, Huelās often very reasonable, especially Daily Greens which Iād say has the perfect price for. Same for Instant Meal Pouches and Powder. A good comparison is the new bars ā I think theyāre quite expensive per bar, but they taste so goddamn ridiculously deliciously good that Iām happy to pay it Just canāt justify it with these pots currently.
Digging the single pot! For reference if singles donāt work, perhaps a multipack of different flavours? Iād have been completely fine buying an 8 pack of different ones and simply didnāt enjoy a couple. Variety packs are so valuable and piques interest in more flavours.
You smashed it with this response Tim. This kind of communication is the gold standard my friend. Thank you!
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I think that if we decide these pots should head to the retail shelves we would relooked at the design overall. But with RTD, new Bars and Daily A-Z weāve got enough retail stuff to be getting on with!
Great to hear, I love the packaging too. Itās something weāve replicated for our Superblend in the USA. Thereās this idea of dividing our range into something like a good, better best (e.g. Essential, Black Edition, Superblend, respectively) where that āBestā range have the fancier packaging. This is just an idea and hasnāt been fully worked through. I think itās interesting from a branding perspective though.
Yep absolutely on the cards. Weāve just rolled out a variety box in the USA as they have 3 flavours of cups (box contains 3 x Alfredo, 3 x KBBQ and 2 x Gochujang). However currently in the UK/EU with only 2 flavours we donāt want to do this yet, since one of those flavours, in your words, is āruined by the sheer unnatural heat.ā 
So we will wait for more flavours before rolling out a mixed box option (is that a spoiler alert Iām gonna get told off for? surely not, kind of obvious youāre going to see more noodle flavours, right? )
was grateful this wasnāt a rick roll
Thatās very kind of you to say to me, obviously Iām sorry to hear you feel itās taking a hit. The folks are doing the best they can while balancing email and social responses. 
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It says pull halfway - fill to line - close
That just becomes ābest, average, shiteā though. Thereās a reason you donāt see Tesco Value products anymore. You should invent a fake company for Essential so it looks fancier, like all the fake Tesco brands.
Collierās Complete
Essential Nutrition
Since 1872
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There is a reason, and that reason is they had a makeover. You still get them but they are called Everyday value or something and not in the blue and white packaging, and all the supermarkets still do similar stuffā¦and alongside that Tesco did have the Jacks range, and other budget ranges like Stockwells which are cheaper than branded goods but I guess look more premium than the everyday value stuff.
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