Instant coffee and Huel, actually getting caffeine?

Hello all,

I’m trying to use Huel for as many meals as possible, including breakfast. So naturally, I thought of putting some instant coffee in my morning Huel to get the caffeine. I was inspired by Soylent’s caffeinated RTD option. I mix up two scoops of Huel along with two tablespoons on instant coffee the night before, let it chill, and drink it in the morning. I’m using Black edition, with one cup soy milk, one cup water, one tablespoon stevia and one teaspoon cinnamon as well.

I don’t really detect any coffee flavor in the morning. I also notice that there are a lot of black speckles in my stool later, what I am assuming to be undigested coffee grounds. This has led me to wonder if any of the coffee is actually being absorbed into the Huel at all? Is there something about the hot water process of brewing coffee that just putting it into the Huel and letting it chill overnight is missing? If the coffee grounds are actually being absorbed, roughly how much caffeine (vs drinking black coffee) do you roughly think I am actually getting?

Also, while poking around about this, I’ve seen some things that have led me to believe that at one point there actually was a coffee-flavored, caffeinated powder version of Huel. Whatever happened to this?

Ideally, I would love it if Huel had a caffeinated RTD option that I could just slam in the morning, something a bit lighter than the powdered mix. It takes me about an hour to make it through one mixed Huel drink, while in the past I’ve done the Soylent RTD and was able to slam it in 5-10 minutes like any other drink. I might switch back to that for my breakfast and use Huel for the other meals.

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Hi Taylor. Two tablespoons is a lot for one Huel meal so there is likely going to be issues mixing. You could either try finding a finer grounded instant coffee or adding cold-brewed coffee to your Huel.

There is a coffee flavor available in the EU and we are always looking to expand the US flavor range.

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I’ve done this with a cold brew and/or letting this cup sit in the fridge to get more of the flavor. But I do still get the stool you describe, I just think coffee beans aren’t that digestible. Consider the fact there’s coffee brands that are produced by beans semi-digested by animals.

I also do things like brew tea and use that liquid as base for my meal. It’s hard to remember tea (not herbal) has caffeine that competes with coffee. But if you’re not a tea drinker or looking for that coffee flavor, yeah, finer grounds, cold brew, or even an instant coffee drink mix might be the answer.

Happy I’m not the only one that thought about this to merge morning coffee and Huel. :+1:

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Only two tablespoons? I used to use around 4, now I just pour in the instant until it’s a small pile, maybe half a scoop of huel. Now I just make cold brew and use that to make my huel.

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You’ll be getting just as much caffeine as you would adding that instant coffee to hot water, you’re still consuming it after all. It’s worth noting that instant coffee does not contain any coffee beans/grounds, as it’s just the freeze dried product of brewed coffee so I don’t think it’s a digestion issue if you’re getting the instant coffee particles in your stool, more so that they’re not dissolving fully in the mixture.

Like Dan said, this is likely due to mixing issues. Up the amount of water you add or decrease the amount of coffee added. Alternatively, dissolve the instant coffee into water beforehand, then when fully dissolved add it to your huel powder and shake away, that should work but again you might need to adjust water/powder/coffee amounts if you’re not getting everything to dissolve.

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I like the Soylent Cafe drinks - a good RTD option for the morning. You could just add caffeine - but be careful about the quantities since people have ODed on caffeine. Soylent adds other stuff to it also, it is not just Soylent + coffee.

Are you mixing in ground coffee beans or instant coffee? There is a difference. Ground beans need to be brewed with hot water while they sit in a filter. Instant coffee is coffee that has already been brewed and then freeze dried so it dissolves in water when you make it. And two tablespoons sounds like a lot. My instant coffee takes one teaspoon per 6oz of water.

I’ve always added a tablespoon of instant coffee to my shaker of Vanilla Huel.