OK I might be too quick to complain here, but I received my Vanilla Huel order yesterday after lots of consideration, research and thought, so was naturally delighted today to get started. I find preparing a healthy breakfast in the morning too time consuming and have a busy work/social life, so Huel was a fantastic solution to this problem.
The parcel arrived very promptly which I’m pleased about, so thanks for that Huel, 10 points to Huel.
I eagerly prepared my first Huel this morning in which I, very carefully, followed the ‘recipe’ for the coffee Huel. After a good 10-15 minutes of vigorous shaking, and occasionally stirring, my Huel was still lumpy and powdery (at this stage I’m already looking at Blenders on Amazon). I added more water and continued to shake and finally got the lump free smooth texture, took a big swig and was met with the most overwhelming and intense taste of chalky sweetener, I felt like I’d just necked a neat shot of sucralose with a dash of gaviscon.
Now, I have a very sweet tooth and have recently given up a lifelong addiction of Pepsi Max (don’t laugh) so I’m accustomed to the taste of sugar and some sweeteners, but this was truly something else! I have tried Stevia in the past but I found that unbearable and felt it left a coating in my mouth that lasted for hours.
Seeing as I have 2 bags of this stuff costing 40 bucks and I highly doubt I can return/be refunded at this stage, can anyone please recommend a formula that lessens the sweetener taste? I’m by no means dismissing this entirely because I do believe it’s a great product and I see that lots of other people find the Vanilla Huel absolutely fine. Perhaps I just need an adjustment in the powder:water ratio. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
This will just be because you haven’t used a good blending technique. If you get it wrong in the first 10 seconds or so, it tends to clump together into gelatinous balls, and no amount of shaking seems to fix it. A blender will easily do it though.
Someone else on here recommended half filling the shaker with water, then quickly dumping your Huel in and immediately shaking it as hard and fast as possible. This creates a thick goop with no annoying lumps. Then you add water to fill it up, and reshake it. This should create the Huel mixture without any of those annoying gelatinous goopy balls It works even better if you use one of those wire shaker coil thingies you get in some shaker bottles. Oh, and take out that stupid mesh thing from the shaker, it just causes the powder to stick to it.
Or just buy a blender
As for the sucralose, I actually add more on top of what comes in Huel as I find it’s not sweet enough. Perhaps you just aren’t used to sucralose? I agree that stevia is a bit icky, but I love sucralose. I also had a Pepsi Max addiction for many years, but I converted that into a Coke Zero addiction once that was released … that’s not a very good solution though
I use a blender.
Make night before and refrigerate.
I mix two scoops to a total volume of 700ml.
I find less water (for me) is too strong flavoured and sweet. Also, I think it’s a bit of an acquired taste. I didn’t particularly love it to start with but could tolerate it. Now I quite enjoy it.
I use a blender its a game changer and I mix 1 scoop of vanilla with 2 scoops of unsweetened. Then I add frozen berries as well. It might take a bit of experimenting to find your ideal mix.
I find using the small metal-spring balls that come with other shaker-bottles stops the lumps forming, or at least minimises them.
Leaving the Huel at least an hour before consuming it massively reduces the powdery taste / flavour.
Blending, though, for about 30s is the best solution. I make 3 meals worth in the blender the night before and leave it in the fridge overnight.
With regard to sweetness, there really is no alternative for mixing and matching different ratios of Normal with Unsweetened.
I do have an electric blender / blitzer / whatever (Nutribullet - others are available) but I dislike leaving anything in the bottom of the blender, waiting an age for it to drip into the Huel shaker so I prefer to mix it direct in the shaker.
Huel (or other protein) shaker
add blender ball
add small amount of water, say 200ml
add desired amount of Huel
add more water
screw lid on (tight)
make sure spout cover is on (firmly)
give it a swirl to start the liquid and Huel moving
the shake what your mother gave you like it’s going out of fashion (30 seconds or more)
refrigerate overnight
it will settle and separate so re-shake it to awake it, but this doesn’t need to be vigorous.
Too sweet, add some ground (or powdered) ginger
add some heat with cayenne pepper
make it golden with tumeric
go green and add some matcha
go earthy and add some spirulina
add chia seeds
add flax powder
add coffee
I do hope you start to enjoy Huel. It may be that your palate finds it own level too.
Well the vanilla one is meant to be sweet so I haven’t tried making it less sweet… definitely use a blender, and I find mixing a real banana in it helps a lot with flavour and consistency, you can try adding all sorts of fresh fruits though banana and strawberry seem to always be the best.
I haven’t manually mixed the thing ever, never liked it when I do it that way… but yes, I agree if you remember to do it the day before and leave it in the fridge overnight it’s 100% better with any mix you do.
Also you may be using too much from the flavour pack, and coffee is not the greatest one… the vanilla should be sweet enough without any flavour pack added.
It works even better if you use one of those wire shaker coil thingies you get in some shaker bottles. Oh, and take out that stupid mesh thing from the shaker, it just causes the powder to stick to it.
