I’ve been trying many of Huel’s competitors products lately. I mostly prefer the taste of the competitors and I find they are significantly easier to mix.
HOWEVER, their ingredients lists leave quite a bit to be desired. All of the competing products I’ve tried, seem to contain significant amounts of maltodextrin. For this reason I keep coming back to Huel, since it appears to be significantly more nutritious.
Is it possible that this maltodextrin is the main reason that they’re easier to mix? I was thinking that since it’s quite soluble in water, it may be helping to drive the mixture into solution better.
Depends on how you qualify the ability to mix? Smoothness, thickness, how well it stays the same way over time without settling at the bottom?
I found Joylent to be very powdery. Nano tasted like melted icecream. Ambronite was like mixing nineteen kinds of dried berry powders together. Pulve hasn’t even delivered. Not even going to order Bertrand based on their price level, so no idea.
There’s emulsifiers in Huel for the artificial thickness, so keep that in mind. 1.2 was easier to shake up, but aside from a few lumps 2.0 mixes fairly well in any case. Not sure if just the maltodextrin could account for it.
I’ve never had any issues with mixability. I have never tried other meal replacements, but have used various vegan protein powders, none of which gave such a good drinkable result. With Huel I don’t even need to shake it very vigorously to get my desired result.
Huel also tastes much better than the protein powders (i use 50/50 mix of vanilla and unflavoured). Vega berry protein powder was the most disappointing…had to throw it away, and Good Hemp ones are also nasty, and have an unpleasant gritty mouthfeel. Nothing came close to the taste of Huel which while not being my favourite thing in the world, is not unpleasant.
I agree with @hunzas I don’t have problems with mixability but I know some people do. So we are working on it.
Our main carb source is oats, a natural ingredient that does have more variability than maltodextrin. If we replaced oats with maltodextrin the mixablity would improve but we don’t want to do that as oats are a great ingredient, providing protein, carbs, fats, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and a pleasant taste. Whereas maltodextrin provide high GI carbs and that is basically it.
Yeah, please don’t replace the oats with maltodextrin I’d probably stop drinking Huel if you do that.
Thanks for the opinions I definitely find Huel doesn’t mix very well. I always get lumps, and even in a blender it is not as smooth as the likes of Joylent. Hopefully the next version improves that a little
No, but I don’t think there is any way to make Huel as mixable and smooth as most of it’s competitors. I can stick it in a blender for 10 minutes, and it still won’t be as smooth and consistent as if I get some Jake and just shake it up by hand for 10 seconds.
Not sure about that, after 10 seconds in a blender Huel is totally mixed, there will be zero lumps.
I think we are confusing two things here. Do you actually mean particle size? Is it the bits you don’t like? If that is the case we have recently reduced the particle size of the flaxseed (the largest particle size), this should being dispatched in a few weeks. Huel will still have more of texture than say a pure whey protein, but the feedback is that customers like a bit of texture.
As I’ve said loads of times, I like the little lumps…but either my shaker is super efficient, or my wrist action technique is well practiced (don’t answer that), but in order to retain some little lumps I have to shake it for no more than 15 seconds. If I shake it for half a minute there are none.
I used to use a Vitamix style blender cos I was scared of lumps…20 seconds in that was enough. I haven’t tried Jake, or any other meal sub, but it has none of the gritty texture that some protein powders have.
I always drink it next day though…maybe it would be different if I drank it straight away. Been using Huel for months now and never tried it straight after mixing…I’ll give it a go later this week…already prepped and refrigerated tomorrow’s meals.
Both, but it’s the “bits” which don’t get removed by using a blender.
To be clear, I’m not complaining here. I suspect this is an unsolvable problem without compromising on nutrition, and if you compromised on nutrition, I’d just stop buying it. My original post above was just a question about whether it was the maltodextrin which made other brands so easy to mix up.
I tried doing that, but I felt it was a bit stale after sitting there overnight. I seem to prefer it while fresh.
I like the oaty texture and bits and would be pretty unhappy if Huel got even more smooth than it is now. I would actually welcome the opposite. I often add milled seeds or Bertrand to make Huel even less smooth. Bertrand is much less smooth by the way (I use it for variety but prefer Huel, both because of taste and higher protein content).
As for lumps in my Huel, I have got only a few in the last year even though I do not use a blender (just the provided shaker bottle) and they did not bother me at all, to be honest. Not sure if it is the question of different shaking techniques or some differences between batches. I use vanilla.
I personally think when people say lumps they are mostly referring to particle size. I honestly cannot tell the difference between shaking it and blending it and in the last 6 months having 1-2 Huel’s a day I can count the number of actual lumps I’ve had on one hand.
I can’t shake Huel full stop. It is lumpy no matter what.
But how is that a problem? 15 seconds in a blender and its gone. I mean its not like we are cooking here, no one can complain about having to blend something for a matter of seconds. Before I was cooking for 30 minutes, eating for 10 minutes and washing up for 15 minutes
I have generally found that the first shake (or two) are essentially critical, and only filling to 400 allows the initial strong shake to drive the water through the powder.
If you don’t shake it hard enough at the start then the water mixing with the powder creates ‘lumps’ by encasing dry powder with a wet shell, or coagulating similarly against the side or lid. once you have these encased lumps they are very hard to break down with shaking.
using a very vigorous first couple of shakes its pretty much done. I rarely have to do more than about a dozen proper shakes.
I’d probably stop drinking Huel if you do that.
I definitely find Huel doesn’t mix very well. I always get lumps, and even in a blender it is not as smooth as the likes of Joylent. Hopefully the next version improves that a little 