Hey Guys!
Remember back in December, I dropped an update regarding Hot & Savory and the changes that we were making, you can find that post here. I’m here to drop some exciting news on some changes and updates we’ve got coming up for this range! These updates will consist of the following:
- Global revamp to Grains - new update you’ve not heard before (good news)
- Bolognese USA update (good news)
- Noodles in Meals Packs?
- Variety Boxes
- Last chance to buy page (outlet)
Grains Revamp!
I am really excited about this announcement! Since Grains launched back in 2020, we haven’t made any changes to this range. Grains are less popular than our pastas, likely because they’ve not met expectations. That being said, we’re excited to announce we’ve been working on improving the taste and giving these flavors a fresh look!
The project had 3 main goals
- Main goal: Elevate the taste and texture as well as removing the more random inclusions
- Secondary goals: We’ve streamlined our ingredient list to make things more efficient for our supply chain. For example, we used sweet potato in our Spicy Indian Curryflavor, but not in any other options, which lead to complexity. By reducing and streamlining this it has mitigated some, but not all, of the increased ingredients costs we’re facing. Plus, this makes it easier to source ingredients locally and benefit from economies of scale.
What are the changes?
Richer, more authentic flavors – Every recipe has been improved, with Thai Green Curry now more fragrant, Mexican Chili smokier, Spicy Indian Curryricher and Yellow Coconut Curry creamier
Better texture – Larger, plant-based pieces replace pea protein nuggets in most flavors and a new improved ‘mince’ is used in Bolognese (spoiler alert, it’s coming back!) & Mexican Chili, massively improving texture. We have had to remove quinoa and reduce flaxseed, this massively benefits texture as both ingredients contributed to that slimy, gel-like texture our Grains had. Quinoa is also an expensive ingredient, so there are multiple reasons for its removal. As a result of these changes there is an improved rice-to-sauce ratio that makes this look closer to something you’d make at home.
More vibrant ingredients – Fresh additions like green beans, adzuki beans, and sweetcorn make every meal look and taste better.
Nutrition refinements – With ingredient changes, some of the nutrition has changed, but we are still providing a highly nutritious, complete meal:
- Protein remains the same (24-25g per serving).
- Fiber is slightly lower by 1-5g per serving, due to the removal of quinoa and reduction in flaxseed, but making the texture significantly better.
- Carbs are slightly higher by 6-16g per serving due to replacing quinoa with rice, again massively improving texture and appearance
- Sugar has changed by 1-2g, slightly up in some flavors and down in others for a more balanced taste, but still within the range of the previous recipe. One note is that in the ingredients you will see ‘Sugar’ features much higher up the list. That is because we now include it within the flavor mix, as opposed to a separate ingredient. As I’ve described above, some of the sugar has gone down, despite now featuring higher in the ingredient deck.
More convenient format – Hot & Savory Grains, as well as Pastas, will now come in Meal Packs, making portioning easier while delivering an even better taste.
If you want more information about the flavour changes or anything else then please just ask, I wasn’t sure how much information to add into this already long-ass post.
Bolognese is coming back to the USA - Meal Pack and Cup!
OK, we really heard you on this one. We announced that we were discontinuing Mac & Cheeze and Bolognese in the USA and you definitely let us know what you thought of this.
Bolognese is going to come back, but we’ve made some changes, it won’t be the exact same flavor you had before. The data still holds true to what I said in my December thesis, Bolognese was a low repeat rate product that we feel does not perform well in the USA.
However, in the background we had a new recipe almost ready to release, but based on the data we decided not to release it and that a delist was the right decision.
After your reaction, we have regrouped and gone back on that decision. We’ve developed a recipe we think has a flavour that is more reflective of Bolognese/Meat-sauce recipes in the USA. more of the tomato richness with subtle sun-dried notes and a smooth hint of oregano. It’s the same hearty meal you know and love, just with a slightly more tomato-y sauce, a deeper red color, and a refreshed pasta and mince. We think it will do a better job with repeat rate and popularity and we hope you’ll give it a chance and enjoy it.
In addition, we have heard your calls asking why certain things are available in Pots vs Meal Packs. We will be relaunching Pasta Bolognese in a Meal Pack AND a Cup, so you can choose which format you prefer.
However, Mac & Cheeze will continue to be removed from the USA range as we stand by the analysis we did. We are working behind the scenes on more exciting flavors we know you will love too.
What about Noodles in Meal Packs?
We’ve also heard your calls for this, why not offer every flavor in both formats? When we launched Pots it was just for Noodles and solved a big issue we found where we couldn’t scoop Noodles in a multiserve pouch. We pivoted quickly to put these into pots, which our existing manufacturing partner could do - also Noodles in Pots made sense as they already exist on the market. Pots also solved the perfect-portion problem which was brewing in the background, which is why you then saw some Pasta going into Pots. Meal Packs was a harder format to get off the ground but as you’ve all rightly pointed out, both solve the perfect portion issue.
So, this isn’t an announcement per se, but we are thinking hard about what we want the final range to look like. We do think that adding Noodles to Meal Packs could be a good move, so let us know if you agree. Speaking totally honestly, we are also worried about what that would mean for Pots, because if everyone moves from Noodles Pots to Meal Packs we would be left with a problem for Pots. But maybe that’s ok, we’re working it out. Yes, we are also considering Grains going into Pots too. Let’s see, please provide feedback in the comments about what you would like to see, do Pots still have a place for you? Would you like to see Grains in Pots, or just everything in Meal Packs?
Variety Boxes
We’ve made lots of changes to our Variety/Selection Boxes in all our markets. We’ve been increasing the size of the Variety Boxes which enables us to add more flavors - ideally all flavors where possible. This does also come with some price increases, from increased servings per box but also price/serve increases as these boxes do cost more to put together. Hopefully you like the increased variety we offer and all these have/will be communicated clearly. We are considering increasing to 14 in the USA variety box now that Bolognese is coming back - let us know what you think.
Last Change to Buy Pouches
As we delist products we can’t run down stock to exactly zero for various operational reasons. So we have a few hundred pouches of each flavor of Pouch left over. We are going to be opening a product page on our site where you can purchase our old pouch flavors! We will aim to have this live in May and we will update you when it’s live.
Notes:
- Once it’s gone it’s gone
- They have short Best Before dates - most are less than 90-days. Our official advice is that while Huel has a “Best Before” date, not a “Use By” date, we do not guarantee the quality beyond the Best Before date
- You can’t subscribe to them or add them to your order via the account area
- We will likely discount them ~20%, but I am still looking for confirmation
- The outlet will not be indexable on Google or linked on the website, only via a link we will share here and via email as we don’t have enough to put out to everyone
- This will likely go live for the USA at the beginning of May
We are super excited about these updates to the Hot & Savory range, especially Bolognese coming back, as I know it’s something you guys wanted to see! I hope we covered all bases here, but if you have any questions, let us know and we’ll be on hand to help!
Thankfully I stocked up on both Mac and bolognese and will try to scoop up more if available in May.
