Introduction and review

Sorry this is a long introduction, I love Huel and wanted to talk about it. I’ve been using Huel every day for a few months now and I thought it was about time for a review. I may add to this as I try more flavours. I’m curious if people agree/disagree. I’ve also been lurking here for quite some time so thought I should introduce myself.

So first of all, why did I start Huel?

Four reasons:

  1. I am a lanky scarecrow lady. I look like a Tim Burton character. I’ve always been underweight, and I’ve always wanted to be a bit more curvy and also get some muscles on my spaghetti limbs.

  2. I’ve been working on a covid ward for almost a year now. It’s been overwhelming and busy. My free time is precious to me and I want to spend it playing video games and chilling out, not meal prepping, food shopping, chopping vegetables, cooking, eating, washing up. I cannot put into words how much I hate doing those things.

  3. I’ve been vegan for over 5 years, and in that 5 years the vegan junk food options have expanded beyond belief. I can stop at kfc on my way home and pick up a vegan chicken burger. Or get a meatball sub. Or order pizza. Or get a microwave meal. Or get Ben and Jerry’s. I started doing this for convenience just so I wouldn’t have to cook constantly. It became ridiculously expensive and also made me feel like garbage.

  4. I have narcolepsy and eating food can make me fall asleep.

(The secret fifth reason is that I want to be a robot who can just fill up with petrol and continue my day)

Did Huel work?

Yes. Absolutely yes. I’ve been having breakfast for the first time in my life. I feel infinitely less stressed. I have more free time. I didn’t realise how much I was thinking about meal planning until I solved the issue with Huel. I just make a couple of shakes before bed and I’m done. I’ve been having 2-3 huels every day for around 3 months and it hasn’t been remotely challenging.

Flavour reviews.

3.0 powder: (This is what I’m using every day. I make it with water and don’t add anything else to it, I like the flavours as they are.)

Berry: 10/10 The best Huel. It’s extremely easy to drink and isn’t too sweet. I love this flavour with all my heart.

Chocolate: I wasn’t keen at first but this one grew on me over the weeks. It’s more malty than chocolatey, with an ovaltine aftertaste. This is the only Huel I mix with oat milk instead of water, it’s creamy and delicious.

Vanilla: No. Too sickly sweet and I’m not a fan. It’s drinkable but that’s the best I can say. It’s ok with frozen berries mixed in.

Mint chocolate: Fighting with berry for my favourite flavour. Really tasty, especially blended with ice.

Hot and Savoury: (I don’t use this a huge amount because I prefer the convenience of the shakes, but I love having some in the cupboard for when I want. I find it extremely filling and struggle to finish 2 scoops)

Thai Green Curry: Not a huge fan. I can get through half a serving and then the flavour becomes too overwhelming. Also my least favourite texture.

Mexican Chilli: This is the ONE. Really flavoursome and I like the spice level. It also has the best texture as it always ends up a bit thicker which makes it more satisfying to eat.

Korma: It’s ok. The flavours are quite nice but it lacks the essential creaminess of a korma for me.

RTD (I love these things. I don’t subscribe to them but I probably should because I live next door to Sainsbury’s and end up buying these too often for treats)

Chocolate: My least favourite of the three and it’s still delicious.

Vanilla: I would remove all my furniture so I could make space to completely fill my flat with bottles of this. I love this one.

Berry: Yet more proof that berry Huel is always delicious.

Flavour boosts: (I don’t use these a whole lot so quick reviews of these)

Pumpkin spice: Yes.

Apple cinnamon: Double Yes.

Salted caramel: NO.

Chocolate: A small yes.

Strawberry: A slightly bigger yes.

I will never review banana or coffee because I hate bananas and coffee.

Overall Huel has been great and fits in perfectly with my life. I already know I’m going to keep it up long term. I’ve even got several people at work into it. I still enjoy food, but now there’s no stress behind it. I eat food when I feel like eating food, not because it’s a chore I have to do. My weight is already much better than before but I’d still like to gain a bit more.

My next order will contain my usual favourites along with tomato and herb, sweet and sour, and the original 3.0. I’ll probably stick a review of them here when I try them.

I’m curious if people agree or disagree with my flavour reviews.

Also, most importantly, hello it’s nice to meet you all :wave:

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Good to meet you!
I too started Huel as a convenient way to get proper nutrition, though I’m quite the opposite of stick thin. Unfortunately my gut is fussy and won’t tolerate more than one every day or two, so I still have to do dishes dammit.
Been looking to try the Mexican H&S, glad to read your review of it.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I like to mix Tomato & Basil H&S with local Korean ramens, for texture. Only about 80g of it and that’s plenty for lunch. If the Mexican itself has a good thickness that might help cut down on the ramen.
The Tomato & Basil is nice and basic, comfort food by itself and a good mixer for other ingredients when you’re feeling adventurous.
I love the vanilla because it is sickly sweet, so I’m surprised you love the Mint Chocolate as much as I do. I got the Cherry Chocolate flavor booster and it’s yummy, with notes of bitter chocolate.
I gifted a friend the Berry, good to know it’s delicious.
I’m as far from vegan as you can get without going keto.

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I like to mix Tomato & Basil H&S with local Korean ramens

I’ve thought about adding h&s to pasta, but I feel like that would be way too filling. Ramen is a bit lighter so I might try that. Do you add spices to it normally? The most adventurous I’ve been is tip some soy sauce in there.

너 한국에서 어디 사니? (That’s the extent of what I can manage after my brief go at lingodeer last year! Maybe now that I’ve got more free time I’ll try learning Korean again :joy: )

I love the vanilla because it is sickly sweet, so I’m surprised you love the Mint Chocolate as much as I do.

Even though the mint chocolate is very sweet, I find the mint flavour covers up the sickly aftertaste and makes it really tasty. Do you add anything to vanilla? I do enjoy it with frozen blueberries, but it will never be better than berry Huel for me.

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The vanilla is what I use as my base, so the Cherry Chocolate Booster goes in there sometimes, some strawberry or banana Jetty (Korean Nesquik), or espresso. Two of those are not going to work for you, and the Huel flavor boosters work better than Jetty anyway.
Yep, I put the ramen spices in with the noodles and the Tomato & Basil, but T&B is a simple, comforting flavor. I haven’t tried the Mexican yet but the description suggests I wouldn’t add spice to it.
“(Neo) Korea (polite) where (sani)?” I need to study a bit more too.

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Hey @Herbivore! It is so lovely to meet you, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and hearing your reviews, thanks so much for taking the time! It was very funny too in places :laughing:

Case in point, haha, being a robot or cyborg would be so cool.

I’m so pleased you’ve tried so many flavours of all our products, you’ve got so much variety for every day! You will never get bored at this rate, considering that many people who pre/cook their food probably only have 10 recipes they cycle through! But you make a great point about just wanting to use your time differently. So many people associate eating healthy with the joy of cooking, but now you can really separate those concepts. You can have great nutrition but not have to have cooking as a hobby. You like gaming, others like cooking, we all need good nutrition, but now we can all have those hobbies and good nutrition.

This makes undeniable sense.

Thanks for the message and I look forward to chatting more.

Brilliant introduction and review. So far I’ve tried Vanilla and Banana shakes, Thai Green Curry, Mexican Chili and Sweet & Sour H&S, and a chocolate orange bar.

I like to have a variety of options to prevent me burning out. Love the banana shake (sorry!) and the Vanilla one is okay, but not as nice as I thought it would be.

The H&S is just great, my personal favourite so far is the Chili. I’ve had delivered today the selection bars and have only tried the chocolate orange so far, but I’m very impressed!

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So many people associate eating healthy with the joy of cooking, but now you can really separate those concepts.

This is the main reason I love Huel so much. I enjoy cooking, but I also enjoy gardening and I don’t want to do that every day either. Huel is like the food equivalent of owning a nice cactus. It doesn’t demand any of your time but it provides the same benefits as something similar that needs more effort (like an orchid, or a lasagne.)

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Loved reading your intro and a great little review of the products too. It has definetely helped me decide to try some of the h&s meals.

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So I’ve tried some new flavours with my recent subscription. I love having a variety to choose from and usually have 5/6 different flavours in the cupboard at any given time.

All three have overtaken some others as firm favourites for me so I’m pretty chuffed!

Original: Everything I wanted vanilla to be! I would be happy if vanilla changed it’s name to “cake batter” and let original shine more. It’s a travesty that vanilla is being marketed as the neutral flavour instead of this one. I love it with cinnamon for breakfast and it mixes great with frozen blueberries!

Tomato and Herb: You guys are so mean to this little guy! Way way better than Thai green curry or korma. Up there with Mexican chilli for me. It’s a bit like tomato cuppa soup, but it’s not bland at all. I think it would go great with some vegan cheese melted on top.

Sweet and Sour: Again I was a bit nervous to order this one because I’d seen so many mixed reviews. However I can safely say that anyone who dislikes this flavour is wrong and I don’t trust them. It’s a lot like a sweet and sour pot noodle (the superior of all the pot noodles). This might be my new favourite but it’s extremely close between T&H and chilli.

I think I’ve just got Madras left to try from H&S now and I’m looking forward to it (probably with my next subscription). I might also let curiosity get the better of me and finally try unflavoured.

As of now, berry, mint chocolate, and original are my three winners for 3.0.

And tomato and herb, Mexican chilli, and sweet and sour are my favourites from h&s.

Vanilla, Thai green curry, and korma are all losers and I want nothing to do with them.

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I’m going to echo what Tim has said, love that you’re trying all the different flavours! A few people have already said how useful they’ve found your feedback and I’m sure there are others.

The product development team are working on a cactus flavoured Huel as we speak.

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I have my regulars (berry, mint choc, and Mexican) and then I like rotating around to try other flavours with the rest of my order. You guys are going to have to act fast with that cactus flavour before I run out of new ones to try. Leave the spikes in, they’ll add a sense of danger that the other flavours lack.

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I have to agree with Vanilla being actually Cake Batter. That’s how it tastes to me, and I LOVE cake batter!

Hello

Also new here and started using Huel when a colleague left our company and left behind his Vanilla powder behind so they offered it to me instead of chucking it away. I used to use MyProtein before my change and Huel provides more vitamins and nutrients so it was a no brainer.

I have tried the Black edition of Vanilla powder and only seem to like it when mixed with a Banana or/and mixed frozen berries in a blender. When having the powder on it’s own I am getting a burning sensation at the back of my throat so disliked it instantly. I will be going back to the white package as this is what I had before with no issues.

Since than I have tried the following products.

Hot and Savoury
Thai Green Curry
Really like this, lots of flavour and filling although the worst of the three I tried I really do like it.
Mexican Chilli Best by a long shot, I could eat this as a main meal.
Madras Another spicy one that doesn’t disappoint. While it’s not as nice as the Chilli, it is a close second.

RTD
Vanilla
Pretty much my go to drink when using the RTD
Berry Nope, not really for me at all.

I really want to try some new flavors on my next order. I will be adding the Chocolate and Banana RTD along with another Chilli, Korma and Sweet and Sour.

Do you make your Hot & Savories thick like the instructions or thin like a soup?

Always thick!

Just received another order of powder (White ed), more savoury, another chilli plus sweet and sour and a korma.

Plus a steel water bottle and 2 RTD banana and chocolate.

T H I C C

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I may be out of touch with da yoof but not sure why Huel uses the word thicc when talking about their products. I always thought it referred to people of a fuller figure not a gloopy oat based shake.

Nowadays I think most terminology that we yoofs use are interchangeable, as long as it makes sense within the context or group of people using it.

I hear the most commonly used adjective being used to describe something so abstract it’s hurts my head. Take this meme as an example of extrapolating a word into oblivion.

Sick! :grinning:…!!!

Another great common word is Goat (can be used in the same way as ‘lit’ is) or in other words Greatest.Of.All.Time.

Example
‘OMG those shoes are G.O.A.T!’ :sweat_smile: