Do you think you could live without eating solid food? What would it be like to live on a drink alone? And no, coffee fans, I'm not talking about your favorite blend. I'm talking about Soylent, the food-hack drink that has taken the nerd world by storm. After a long wait, I finally got my supply of Soylent, and I can't wait to tell you all about it.

What Is Soylent?

Soylent is a drink engineered to replace food, and when I say engineered, I mean it. The food-like concoction was dreamed up by Rob Rhinehart, a software engineer who saw the time and effort he was putting into cooking his food as a waste. He set his mind to reinvent food, and he quickly captured the attention of the internet with his account of living off of this drink he dubbed “Soylent”, a nod to the classic film. (He assures us that the product Soylent contains no actual people.)

As his project went on, many of his followers decided to join Rhinehart in his quest for high-efficiency food. A community of do-it-yourself Soylent pioneers sprang up, and eventually Rhinehart and his company launched a crowdfunding campaign that soared to new levels of success for such a unusual product.

Soylent version 1.0 is shipped in two parts, a powder and an oil, and when mixed with water they form a beige-colored shake designed to completely replace food. Each pouch-and-oil combination has 2,010 calories and can replace your full day's worth of food while giving you all of your daily-required protein, carbohydrates, healthy fats and over 23 vitamins and minerals.

Why I'm Fascinated by Soylent

From a scientific perspective, could mankind live on a drink alone? The answer seems to be yes. Based on daily-required intake values, Soylent is more healthy than almost any diet a person could eat. The nutrient balance was meticulously engineered, and accounts of Soylent use during lengthy trials from users like Rhinehart revealed better overall health.

But for me, Soylent looked to offer maximum convenience. I'm a busy professional. When I'm not running EatYourComics, I work as a database administrator. I'm constantly striving for a better work/life balance. When it comes to food, I find myself often eating breakfast and lunch as a matter of need rather than enjoyment. For many years this has meant grabbing a fast food meal while rushing to the office, and my waistline reflects this bad habit.

Soylent is a perfectly convenient alternative for those staple meals that are more about maintaining life than enjoying taste and the company of family and friends. Sometimes I have to eat just to stay alive, and this is where Soylent really shines. Not only is it cheaper than a breakfast at McDonald's, Soylent ensures I'm actually eating a healthy balance of calories and nutrients.

I supported the crowdfunding initiative for Soylent a few weeks after the funding goals were shattered, and I've been anxiously awaiting my order ever since.

First Impressions of Flavor

Mixing up a batch of Soylent is simple: empty the pouch of powder into a blender or pitcher, and add the requisite amount of water. Shake or blend, and then pour in the small bottle of oil. Add the rest of the water and mix again. Total prep time for a full day's worth of Soylent is maybe 3 minutes.

So what does this marvel of modern food engineering taste like? This is a question I've been wondering since I placed my order. Surprisingly, Soylent doesn't taste like much of anything. There's a vague hint of oatmeal or protein powder, perhaps a touch of malt vanilla shake, but the flavor profile is very neutral. The creators of Soylent seem to have kept it this way for good reason. I could easily see getting bored with flavor of a meal-replacement drink I used every day. To me, Soylent tastes like nothing.

My wife disagrees – she thinks Soylent tastes like “sandy protein powder”. And she's not wrong. The flavor is so non-specific that your focus as you drink Soylent immediately turns to the texture of the drink. There's a bit of grit. My first few batches of Soylent were mixed thick, and since then I've been adding more water to get past this gritty texture. The Soylent community has dubbed this texture the “mouthfeel” and one taste of Soylent points out that this is just as key a component as flavor.

My wife made a face when drinking her first glass, and she told me I wouldn't have to worry about her stealing my supply. I didn't blame her at the time; Soylent didn't meet my wildest dreams from a taste perspective. I've learned a bit since then – Soylent is dramatically better cold. Since you mix it with room-temperature water, you need to refrigerate it for about 3 hours to get the ideal taste and mouthfeel.

Energy Levels

I knew going into this experiment that my most important measures of Soylent would be: convenience, taste and energy levels. I was pretty concerned that eating (or is it drinking?) Soylent wouldn't satisfy me like solid food.

When I drink a serving of Soylent, it provides a basic level of satiating fullness without making me feel overstuffed. My energy levels on Soylent are so far fantastic. I feel like Soylent gives me solid and sustained energy, but I get hungry again if I'm sticking to a normal three-square-meals-a-day. So far, splitting up my Soylent into breakfast, snack and lunch has helped me stay satiated.

The Test Goes On

One of the brilliant things about Soylent is that you can eat as much or as little as fits your lifestyle. You don't have to have Soylent for 100% of your meals. If I want to enjoy dinner with my family, when a meal really means something, I do. Soylent isn't replacing everything I eat, but it offers me a healthy alternative to the staple meals that I eat just to stay alive.

I'm hoping that Soylent helps me lose a bit of weight while improving my overall health. Since the calorie-to-serving ratio is exact, I know exactly how much Soylent to eat without weighing food or guessing at portion sizes. To measure the impact of Soylent on my health, I've scheduled before-and-after blood tests to check all the key metabolic markers for my health. Within a few weeks, I should know if Soylent is a health nut's dream food, or a food fad that will pass quickly from my life.

Oh, and remember my skeptic wife who didn't like the flavor of Soylent? I've since caught her sneaking a mug or two of Soylent for breakfast because it is just “so easy” when she needs a quick meal.