The Experience

When I opened the pouch, I was presented with fine white powder and scent of vanilla. It tastes like what you’d get if you shoved a box of Dorset Cereals into industrial blender and added some flavoring. In fact, you could probably include the packaging.

You can start your own brand of powdered food by shoving this in a blender

To prepare Huel you must mix it with water. This powder forms clumps as soon as it touches water, and recommended “10 seconds of shaking” isn’t enough unless you are the world’s leading masturbation enthusiast. Mere mortals need a blender or you’ll have to eat it with a spoon. I went for the prior.

After extensive blending I was left with a bowl full of product. Other articles often compare it to milkshake, and I don’t like milkshakes. So my prospects of finishing that “meal” were slim at best.

However, upon tasting it i discovered that it’s not unpleasant at all, and even in liquid form it still reminds me of powdered cereal. A single “meal” is roughly 600 ml of thick liquid, and it took me some effort to consume all of it. It is filling, although I feel strange because I haven’t bitten or chewed anything.

Afterthoughts

Health

This could clearly improve my diet in terms of health. Two thirds of my calories come from MacDonald’s and ready-meals. The sheer fact that nutrition was considered in creating this food is surely an improvement over whatever I get on the average day.

Convenience

Clearly the mixing up this shake is much quicker and dirties less cutlery than any proper meal would. But the point of this product isn’t to replace family dinner, instead it’s coming for ready-and-fast-food for the lazy and sandwiches eaten at work in front of the computer.

On the contrary, it doesn’t beat a ready meal from the nearest supermarket. To prepare the drink you have to dirty a bowl, a blender, and a cup or something else to drink it from. In contrast a ready meal won’t dirty more than one plate.

Now I can see why Soylent has switched to shipping drinks in a bottle.

Financial

At the moment Huel sells 28 meals for £45, that works out £1.6 for a meal. That’s mighty cheap, and it’s also more filling and nutritious than an average sandwich. But if you are looking for the cheapest food source, this isn’t the place.

Almost half of Huel is Oats, that stuff can be bought by the ton! You can buy 5kg of powdered oats for £10 on Amazon, that’s 5(!) times cheaper. Or you could buy ‘normal’ ones from the nearest supermarket and make yourself some good old porridge.

Other ingredients are similarly cheap, rice, peas, etc. All the stuff that does not expire and costs very little, and stuff you can buy in powdered or ‘normal’ form and cook yourself.

Conclusion

When I heard of the idea for the first time, I imagined something sophisticated. I have no idea what I was expecting, but the idea of shoving grains into industrial blender doesn’t impress me — that’s how we produce cattle feed.

The way I see it, there is little value added in having grains powdered and sorted into pouches for you. It’s true that you can’t produce such fine powder at home, but why are we trying to powder food in the first place? The only thing we accomplish is making the food much less palatable. I have only tried Huel, and perhaps other products are better in this regard.

I like the idea of having such a food item, but I need a better execution. And I’d like to see it in solid form, so I don’t have to chug a jar of liquid and call it a meal. I am looking for the level of sophistication like that in manufacturing of chocolate.