Just the other day was my first experience with Huel. I bought 2 cinnamon roll black edition, 1 vanilla v3.0, and 1 chocolate v3.0.
My thoughts:
Drinks are not very good. I am shocked that people actually like them. My daughters opinion is they are
Iāll do what I can to finish the remaining 13 pounds.
In my 52 years I have used a lot of different protein drinks and these are up there with the worse tasting of them all.
I received 2 of the new shakers with these orders.
Wondering why the shakers are not wider so you can fit your hand down in it to clean it with a sponge. I donāt have big hands at all being 5ā 8ā 140 pounds.
The cap isnāt attached ?? Thatās a first for me.
Biggest gripe with them is they are to small to fit 500ml of water, 100 grams of powder, and 5-6 ice cubes.
And the bags are a pita to close. One of them wonāt seal
Not trying to be a downer but this has not been a good experience at all.
Itās an acquired taste for sure but I quite like them now. People usually say the 3.0 powder is better than the black bags. Try ordering some flavour enhancers for your vanilla bag, or try your own like cocoa powder, a shot of coffee, or some peanut butter (may have to use a blender for the last one).
I agree with the shaker diameter thing although its easily overcome with a brush/sponge on a stick device. If it was much wider itād be hard to handle for some people I imagine. I donāt even use a sponge half the time, just add a drop of washing up liquid and warm water immediately after drinking, seal it up, and shake, and it comes nice and clean. The cap was attached on the old version but it used to drip liquid onto your face as you drank, so swings and roundabouts!
If the bags donāt seal, take a toothpick and fork and clean the powder out of the zip. Again itās annoying but easily overcome.
But if all those fail, then fair enough! Itās definitely not for everyone, and at least you tried!
It can take time to get used to the taste but itās worth it in my opinion. Try using a bit of oat milk with water- maybe 50/50. And leave it in the fridge overnight before drinking it for breakfast. Itās much nicer after itās been in the fridge for a few hours.
As for cleaning the shaker, just add a bit of warm water and washing up liquid and shake it, no need for anything more complicated.
Smep,
I liked the cinnamon roll black better than the chocolate and vanilla v3.0. I started mixing 50/50 cinnamon roll and vanilla since I have 2 cinnamon rolls.
Thanks for the tip on the toothpick to close the bag and adding stuff to change the flavor.
Herbivore,
Thanks for the reply.
I like to stick with water since oat, almond, and coconut milk adds anywhere from 120-200 grams of sodium. Huel powders already have an excessive amount of sodium in them.
I tried leaving it overnight in the fridge and it tasted exactly the same.
I just picked up a BlenderBottle shaker in 32 ounce for $12. Works great. Cap is attached. Plenty large diameter. And I can fit 500ml of liquid, 100 grams of powder, and 5-6 ice cubes in it.
Epicure,
Just checked 2 different brands I have in my fridge. For one cup (240ml) one brand has 120 mg of sodium and the other 190. Iām in the US and all of the non dairy milks in my area have over 100mg of sodium per cup.
And yes 350-400mg of sodium that huel contains for a 17 ounce drink is excessive
Thanks for the replies everyone. Iāve decided to choke down the rest of the huel and move on to a product that better suits me - Redcon1 MRE
Iām in southern CA if anyone wants a deal on what I have remaining. One unopened bag of cinnamon roll black and another one with 14 servings left. Also 14 servings left of v3.0 chocolate and vanilla
Hey Argon, welcome to the forum, but Iām gutted to hear youāre stopping your Huel journey so soon. What have you tried so far. Use Huel as a base and experiment. There are so many things you can do to adapt the flavour and texture!
There is a video here (please excuse my sub-par performance)
Or you can scroll down on this article to āPowder Hacksā
Thanks to the squad here for helping with the seal and sharing other ideas - you da best
Good question and one we considered a lot. @Smep is on the right track, there were loads of reasons and different perspectives on it though. I posted our reasoning here, 2nd half of post! If you are interested!
Yup, we didnāt like the designs with the cap attached while maintaining the asymmetrical design we loved so much. It generally involved using a tether and we didnāt like the drinking experience. Our old buchsteiner had similar tethered lid and the result was having to awkwardly bend it backwards or suffer a forehead or shoulder of dripping Huel. A removable lid was much simpler experience and looking at the success of Chillyās bottles and similar we didnāt feel it a problem. We committed to producing spares just in case people lost the cap, but a bit of a straw poll of Chillyās bottle users around the office seems none of them had ever misplaced their lids.
I would contest this since I do it most days! You can just push down the grid on top, or try with just 3 cubes if your cubes are large, your Huel will still be ice cold!
Hope some of that is helpful and that you can make the most of the nutritious Huel still in your cupboard!
What I really dig about the cap is the thick rubber loop attached, so the cap can be looped on a finger whilst holding the bottle. Cleaning a bottle with a flip-cap is more of a hassle too, itās easier to have it separate.
Thatās right, I use the loop to hang it on the coat hook when Iām drinking Huel in a public toilet.*
*of course I donāt do that, but a few years ago a guy who worked that used to eat his sandwiches in the toilet. Iāve no idea why. Annoyingly he had the same surname as me and I hoped some people didnāt just assume we were related. I am far more handsome, intelligent and the only weird habit I have is drinking sludge out of plastic bottles. At least thatās what some of my coworkers thought when I first started drinking Huel at work. Funnily enough some of them became converts.
Tim,
Thanks for the info. Iāve tried all 3 of the flavors I bought. The most tolerable for me was 50/50 of the cinnamon roll black and vanilla v3.0.
My wife is going to try some today so maybe she will like it.
Funny thing is I have tried lots of plant based protein type drinks and I have not liked any of them. On the other hand I have tried tons of whey based protein drinks throughout the years and I donāt think there is any that I didnāt like.
I guess Iām just a meatetarian
No worries at all, we all have our preferences. I totally understand what you mean, vegan protein and whey protein taste very different. I think itās something you get used to, I now donāt like whey, think it tastes really weird.
Iāve been blending mine with a handful of frozen fruit for months (tropical mix with salted caramel is ) but I just discovered a small banana and some ice chucked in is even better. To be fair I couldnāt imagine just shaking it unless is was an emergency.
? Thatās a first for me.
) but I just discovered a small banana and some ice chucked in is even better. To be fair I couldnāt imagine just shaking it unless is was an emergency.