Hey! (since my last post was deleted for apparent promotion (not my fault if your product sucks in comparison), I will delete all other brand names and replace them with “competition”. I want Huel to get better, that’s the reason I’m posting this.)
I’ve been using Huel for 6 months now 3-4x a day. So basically it replaced all my meals.
Huel’s taste and texture never fully satisfied me, but I thought that it’s simply not possible to have product that gives you so many kcals and so much nutritional value in one meal and in addition have it taste ok as well as have an awesome texture. Well… I was wrong:
Recently I discovered “competition”. It’s the same principle as Huel and I decided to give it a try. Here’s my conclusion:
It actually tastes OK! As I said, I never liked the taste of Huel (neither the original nor any of the other flavours). However, “competition” manages not to trigger my gag reflex, which is awesome.
The solubility and texture of “competition” is DREAMLIKE! I swear, after chugging down litres and litres of gooey, chunky Huel, “competition” was like a revelation. With Huel, I always have to completely fill up the shaker (about 700ml) in order for it to be in a somewhat liquid state at all. And even then it will be super gooey and chunky and I’ll have to fill in more water half-way through. Also, I ALWAYS have to shake Huel really hard for at least 30sec if I want it to be somewhat less chunky. Well “competition” on the other hand, you only need 400ml(!) of water, you dump in the whole bag (750kcal), shake for 5sec(!) and the outcome is a perfectly liquidy shake that has NO clumps and is super easily drinkable. I know that people have been complaining about how much water you have to add to each Huel meal. Well “competition” only needs about half of that. Seriously, drinking 1 serving of Huel takes me about 5-10min because it’s so viscous and thick. Drinking a serving of “competition” takes me 10sec at most.
The only reason I am writing this here and I’m not already gone and subscribed to “competition” is that it’s more expensive and I’m living on a budget.
I just wish that the team behind Huel reads this and maybe tries to look into how their competition handles things. Why does “competition” manage to release a product that has all the nutritional value you need, actually tastes not bad and has a texture like angel’s tears and Huel’s just chunky, gooey, gag-reflex-inducingly bad in comparison?
I’d love to stay true to Huel, I really do. But if you don’t change up the formula I can see all your customers leaving for “competition” sooner or later.
Plenty of people like Huel, just the way it is, myself included. I have tried three other competitors and one I didn’t like as much, one I hated, and third was comparable in taste and texture, but not nut. Prof. Oh well, can’t please everyone
I saw your previous post. I’ll tell you why that brand is inferior.
Portion packed. Loads of plastic waste.
packed with maltodextrin. A highly processed carb with no nutritional value and a GI higher than sugar. In fact, it is sugars but not required to label as such on nutritional value.
sub-optimal doses of micronutrients and in mostly low bioavailable forms.
I don’t want to leave Huel, that’s what I tried to make clear. I want Huel to change up the formula becuase it can be done better. The taste and chunkiness is really, really bad imho.
It’s not that easy.
One advantage maltodextrin has is that it disolves easier. Oats are naturally more prone to forming clumps. What it lacks in solvability it takes in nutritional value. Try a whisk ball or a blender.
Taste is subjective. If you dont like pre-flavoured Huel, buy U/U and flavour/sweeten it by yourself or try flavour boosts.
I like it the way it is. I like chunky chips not skinny fries. I like hot tea, not iced tea. Not everyone likes the same thing…Huel is modified regularly…each revision costs money.
Ebay is littered with bags of unwanted Huel. Plenty of people don’t like it…many, many more do.
Previous versions of Huel were even more “chunky” than it is now and had the texture that not all of the powder had been pulverised after shaking in the bottle. I actually like that. I don’t want my Huel to taste like a smoothie. Squizzle is correct. You cannot say Huel can be better texture wise and point to a product which uses maltodextrin as it’s main carb source. I’d rather eat oats than maltodextrin.
As for my experience Huel taste is nice, especially with flavdrops or blended fruit, that gives it a sort of “milk shake” texture. Solubility is not an issue, I never expected a product like this to be as good as an ice cream or a pizza, so as long as I can eat it with relative comfort, minus the occasional lumps that can be minimized with a blender or with proper shaking, I don’t care.
The “competitor”, instead, from what I read is inferior in all important fields, like nutritional values and ingredients. So, in my humble opinion, that “sucks”, not Huel.
I think most of your gripes with Huel could be solved if you:
Used a blender instead of shake by hand - vastly improves the texture.
Add your own flavourings to make it palatable - I use cocoa powder, coffee, cinnamon, fruit. Also if blending with fruit, blend your fruit & liquid together first in their own, then add Huel & blend more… I always get a super smooth result this way, which I much prefer.
Chill your huel before you drink it - I make mine up the night before or at least a few hours in advance, seems to round out the taste & make it much more enjoyable. Have also added ice cubes if I’ve needed to drink it when not quite cold enough. Huel is like beer for me - can be delicious ice cold, but nasty when room temp/warm.
Experiment with adding different liquids, not just water - alpro nut milks work well for me, or a mix of nut milk & water, or dairy milk (goat or cows, which I tend to have in at home).
Experiment with different ratios of liquid to Huel - I find a 3 scoop shake way too thick with the suggested amount of water & tend to use just 1 or 1.5 scoops to 500ml… I still find this filling & have experienced many positive benefits even on such a ‘low dose’!
I’ve never tried any other nutrition shakes to comment in a comparative way, but there’s no way I’d consider paying double for a nutritionally inferior product just because it “tastes nicer” straight out of the box…
Gotta love someone who compares two products, and demands that the best of each be copied to the other.
Sometimes there are choices to be made. Could Huel’s texture and taste be made better? For some, yes, although I quite like it just as it is. But that would be at the expense of some of what makes it awesome.
I suspect the original poster demands the taste and texture be made to match the competitor’s, but would be quite upset to find out that in the process, Huel’s nutritional profile degraded to match the other’s (and may very well be posting on THEIR forums about how much more they enjoy the taste and texture, but could they please get rid of the maltodextrin and improve the nutrition profile, like Huel does).
Pretty soon, you get to wanting the thing to have the taste and texture of an honest-to-goodness ice-cream milkshake.
Huel’s first priority should always be the nutrition. Obviously if it’s completely disgusting and no one will drink it, that’s also a major concern. But a lot of people like it just fine, and would be REALLY upset to see them mess with the formula for taste and texture concerns we don’t share, if it meant that what we really like about Huel, the nutritional completeness, was diminished.
Or at least understand that it’s not cool to complain that the screen on your phone isn’t the same as a 36 inch television, and when they make a phone with a 36 inch screen, then complain because it no longer fits in your pocket.
It wasn’t deleted and is still visible, it was flagged as spam by another Hueler immediately and thus was unlisted as a precaution by the super clever discourse system/bot. The spam flag is still in my inbox for moderation, I just haven’t got around to it as I’ve been away Friday-Monday – sorry. I am now going to delete it though since there is this duplicate thread. Hope that makes sense.
James hasn’t commented on the nutritional profile of Jake, we aren’t here to bash other products, but equally this is a Huel forum and your comments are toeing the line a little bit, hence why it was flagged. r/soylent is a more collaborative environment to discuss the pros and cons of various complete foods. Clearly we would argue strongly that our nutritional profiles are not equal at all.
Thanks so much for keeping us striving for better products - we always are looking to improve and this is the right place to tell us so, thank you for the amendments to your post. When you’re using highly nutritious ingredients like oats then you’re going to be susceptible to clumping. Sure, we could bang in a load of maltodextrin or dextrose but that hardly seems in keeping with our nutrition-first ethos.
If you’re having problems with the mixability then here are a few great tips on making sure your Huel is smooth!
I tried to blend it with Soy milk - smooth easily drinkable
I tried to mix it with Coconut milk - gives some sort of agglomerated slime after few minutes.
I usually mix with frozen fruits; rasperries or blueberries
@Wendy_Shepherd had a theory that different plant milks have different effects due to the thickeners used. I tend to agree with her and this post seems to add weight to her argument. I don’t use soya milk in Huel… But am not anti-soy…but have noticed different thicknesses in different mylk despite same 100g of huel
Also you said something about filling or almost filling the shaker, that sounds like a recipe for lumpy Huel right there. I personally only make my Huel with 400ml of water and two level scoops, but if you’re wed to the idea of 3 scoop shakes (as many are), try 400ml of water, add scoops, Shake Shake Shake, top up with water, enjoy
Touché, my friend. Well, I am surprised that you’ve held out for so long if you disliked it so much.
Clearly we would argue strongly that our nutritional profiles are not equal at all.