I’ve been trying Huel for around a week having it for breakfast and lunch, and just having my normal evening meal.
As I have to leave the house very early in the morning, I had been preparing the 2 Huel Meals the night before in a blender using the 550 ML of water + 114 Grams of Huel, with water direct from the tap and then storing in the fridge overnight before drinking 1 enroute to work & putting one in the fridge at work until lunch.
This was obviously thickening the Huel mix, and now in hindsight to me seemed to be “cooking” the mix bringing out the more bitter flavours. I had obviously added a little water back in to make the mix more runny and drinkable, but this didn’t seem to remove the some of the bitter flavours
This morning, not having to get up for work I made this using cold water out of the fridge & just blended it straight up, and drunk it there and then, and to me the flavour is much more rounded and I can now taste the vanilla, which I couldn’t really taste much of before.
I just thought I’d share this in case it helps anyone as I was starting to think that this wasn’t going to work for me. My experience of drinking it without storing in the fridge all night is much more like some of the reviews I read & seen on Youtube.
Cooking implies some chemical change to the mixture. Given that being in the fridge normally inhibits chemical changes (cold = less activation energy) it seems more likely that your taste-buds are responding differently to food at a cooler temperature.
This page gives a nice summary of why, but basically cold food tastes more salty and less sweet. Possibly just adding cold water and not making the whole product cold is producing a warmer overall result. Try it with tap water maybe?
Cheers for that, it’s an interesting article, and makes sense and could be the reason. I wouldn’t have considered this.
By “cooking” I was meaning from a perspective of the water soaking into the powder over a period of time, and the possibility of the different flavour notes becoming more prominent, in terms of them dissolving into the water.
Either way mixing it just before I’m about to drink it seems to work for me. Another thing I guess I could try is that if I do need to mix it the night before (so that I can use the blender), is take it out of the fridge a while before I drink it.
I find the taste to be more "chemical"l if I drink it straight after making, so if possible I make the night before and stick in the fridge. The taste and texture is better then.
Drinking cold makes it taste different than drinking at room temperature. I don’t prefer one to the other however.
I have just bought some unflavoured Huel (I have previously only used Vanilla) but have not experimented with it yet.
I meant artificial yeah…and I did put it in inverted commas to indicate it wasn’t in the true sense of the word…maybe I should stick to artificial…either way, it was unpleasant.
If you don’t have time to refrigerate then do have a go at shaking over ice, it won’t thicken it like the fridge but will chill it very effectively. If you get an artificial aftertaste that should sort it out.
I’ve only been shaking for two days, and like @nickymoo I’ve found that 3 scoops of Vanilla in 500ml is just right for me too. I’ve added a teaspoon of coffee granules into it, in the morning, as well - which has been rather enjoyable. Breakfast and coffee-fix in one!