Hey there,
My partner and I have been Huel subscribers for a few years now, averaging a few hundred of dollars of products every month (mostly Hot & Savory Pots, along with a few drinks). We wanted to share some feedback about the way Huel experiments with new flavors. Specifically, when you discontinue something, could you please consider doing so only to a flavor OR texture, but not both at the same time?
Like others, I’m saddened that some of my favorite flavors are going away (Hot & Savoury update - Real talk), but I understand the business realities there and can accept them. In particular, I will sorely miss the Chick’n Alfredo that I’ve had for breakfast almost every day of the past few years It may have been bland, but it was my kind of bland!
But anyway, what makes it an even more unfortunate double-whammy is that not only is that particular flavor going away, with it we also lose the most pasta-like texture currently in the US instant pot range. The new chick’n & mushroom is similar enough in flavor to the departing alfredo, but the pasta noodles in it are totally different texture (and gives it a much more soup-like than pasta-like overall texture, in my opinion).
To be specific:
- The old Chik’n Alfredo pots had big ol’ corkscrew pastas that were nice to bite on and actually felt like a real pasta dish (maybe “fusilli?” not sure)
- Similarly, the old Chik’n and Mushroom bags (the bulk kind, not the single pouches) also had big penne-style pastas with a chewy texture.
- The new Chik’n Mushroom replaces that with tiny tiny corkscrew spirals (sorry, not sure of the proper term, maybe fussilini or gemelli?) that barely absorb any water. They don’t really bulk up like the others used to, and just kind of remain as “background” to the overall pot. That makes it feel more like a noodle soup than a pasta dish.
All of that would be fine if there were another “thick pasta” option available in the US instant pot range, but with those changes, I think we’re left with only the thin “rice noodle” equivalents (in the Asian flavors) and the tiny thin screws of the Chick’n Alfredo. (Unless the Cajun one is different, but we really dislike that one… and it’s also not creamy like the chick’n ones.)
I of course don’t expect you to keep unpopular flavors around forever, but were we the only ones who liked the thicker noodle textures? We’d love to have something like that again in the instant pots, i.e. if there were a variant of chick’n noodle with the old bulk pouch texture instead of the new tiny noodles. Or something different but still creamy. (Whatever “Fiery Chicken” is sounds fantastic! We don’t have that in the US, though?)
Thanks for reading