Just finished the sample pack of flavours and thought I’d leave a review of them as I’d struggled to find reviews for some of the newer flavours myself. Based on full sample sachet with Huel 3.0 Vanilla.
The winner:
-Apple and Cinnamon - complete surprise. I normally HATE apple crumble, apple pie, roulade - basically any dessert involving apples and cinnamon so I was dreading this one. But for some reason this was the best for me - must be damn good to change my tastebuds! Just lovely - not too sweet, nice tartness, really balanced.
Fairly good:
-Berry - I’ve heard terrible reviews of the berry pre-mix, but the flavour boost tasted fine to me (not sure if there is much of a difference between the two)? Just tasted as though some blended summer fruits had been added so quite refreshing - especially cold out the fridge.
-Pumpkin Spice - Was a little on the fence with this one, but I think that’s more as pumpkin is not a flavour I experience often so it’s a bit confusing for my tastebuds BUT it was perfectly pleasant and does taste like pumpkin pies I’ve eaten in the past so is true to life.
-Chocolate - Can’t go too wrong really - Not world changing, but useful as I’m sure its nice to have the FB on hand instead of having to buy a full bag of chocolate pre-mixed Huel I suppose.
Nice, but could be improved:
-Mocha - Definitely smells of coffee but the flavour isn’t really there for me - more of chocolate with a slight hint of coffee. It was nice but I’d probably want to add additional instant coffee into the mix.
-Mint Choc - Almost taste the same as the mocha to me - the same issue really, tastes chocolately but needs more mint.
-Peanut butter - It pleased my sweet tooth and it was definitely nice, but to me I really didn’t get much peanut flavour at all. If I hadn’t seen the packet I would probably guess it was White Chocolate.
-Banana - Wanted to love this as banana is my favourite flavour, but this tasted artificial - more like banana sweets to me (either foam bananas or banana gummies). If anyone has tried the pre-mixed banana I’d love to know if it’s better? I didn’t hate it (as hey, I do love bananas), but it just didn’t wow me.
-Strawberry - Same with the banana - I love strawberry milkshake but this just had a slightly off taste.
BURN IT WITH FIRE :
-Salted Caramel - I have the worlds sweetest tooth but this almost killed me off. The positive is that it 100% tastes like salted caramel…the negative is that drinking a half-litre of salted caramel just isn’t a fun experience. It’s a case of too much of a good thing - in the same way I love gravy, but can’t say I’d want to down a gravy boat full. After a sip of this I felt defeated. I think this is the one FB I think might work better in U&U to help mitigate all the sweetness.
I must say though, I am dissapointed Huel have killed off some of the old flavours, particularly Matcha (arguably the best they’d released?), Toffee and Pineapple and Coconut. Hopefully they will bring these back at some point - if they want to sacrifice Salted Caramel to resurrect Matcha I’m OK with that.
Regarding the banana, the booster is definitely more like the fake banana flavour in banana candies that you describe. The pre-mixed banana is not like that - it’s more of a natural slightly under ripe banana taste. I personally really like both but the booster is definitely the candy banana taste, and the premix is closer to a real banana taste.
I’ve enjoyed all the premix flavours I’ve had and I’ve tried about 6/7 across different versions of white and also black (yet to try chocolate black yet but had some delivered yesterday so fingers crossed).
The strange thing is I’ve not liked any flavour boosts at all. I tried the older taster pack and only a couple were ok but didn’t enhance them at all to me and I actively disliked most. I took a punt on a bag of gingerbread, chocolate cherry and salted caramel a few weeks ago to see if they enhanced the flavour but couldn’t get on with any even though they are flavours I love. I gave those bags away after spending a week experimenting with amounts etc. Guess they are just not for me but seeing as I enjoy the premixes anyway it’s no great loss!
Just tried my first one tonight - banana - with the U/U Huel v3.0. Don’t really think much of it, there is a slight aftertaste of banana but I was expecting it to be more of a Nesquik banana milkshake taste.
It’s a shame you only get one sample of each flavour because I’m now not sure whether to buy the full booster pack. Wonder if it’s something to do with the U/U Huel instead of mixing it with Vanilla.
There’s all kinds of combinations and taste possibilities for every flavour (pre-mixed, booster with U/U, booster with Vanilla, booster with Black vanilla) and then mixed with almond milk or just water, etc. but it would take a lot of time and money to find the perfect taste combination as we are all different.
Try the V3 Banana - much, much better and now my favourite flavour.
It’s not quite Nesquik banana, but it definitely does taste natural. If you imagine bananas at their halfway point between solid green and brown and spotty its that flavour plus obviously the oatiness of Huel.
Initially, I chose U/U to avoid the sucralose. I wanted to try and be as healthy as possible without any artificial things but just discovered xantham gum and sunflower lecithin are in the powder anyway and they hardly sound natural. I suppose it doesn’t make any difference at the end of the day, it’s not like I’m allergic to it or anything.
I wonder if this is a running theme - that the pre-mixed flavours are nicer than mixing yourself with the flavour boosts?
I prefer UU plus the flavour boosts personally. It comes down to personal preference.
You need to use about double in UU though. I add about 5g rather than the suggested 3g
I was the same initially fearing Sucralose would cause me gastric issues - haven’t noticed any side effects from it compared to U/U - this might be due to the added probiotics in V3 balancing it out though. I would prefer if they switched to coconut sugar like with Huel Black but its fine for now.
In terms of the Sunflower Lethicin used as an emulsifier I know that it is actually sold as a supplement in health food shops - supposedly to decrease cholesterol, improve skin, bowel and brain function so I wouldn’t be too worried.
Xantham gum hasn’t got any known side effects or toxicity either, and again supposedly has a few health benefits.
Yeah, that’s the dilemma - 3g is all you get in the mini packs so you can’t add more to see if it improves the taste without shelling out for the 100g bag.
Easiest way to do it is buy a bag of U/U and a bag of Vanilla then two packs of flavour samples. Work out which ones you like then buy the full 100g size and see if it works doubled up in U/U ?
I suppose it doesn’t make any difference at the end of the day, it’s not like I’m allergic to it or anything.