We’ve listened to your feedback and that of many other Hueligan’s over the years and have taken some of the most requested changes and combined them into an alternative Huel: Huel Black Edition.
Huel Black Edition has an alternative macronutritional ratio to Huel Powder and will give more Hueligans flexibility in their day-to-day diet.
no artificial sweeteners (sweetened with stevia + organic coconut sugar)
<5g sugar per serving
kombucha for B-vitamins
added probiotics
green tea extract for polyphenol antioxidants
gluten-free
available in Vanilla and Chocolate flavors
plus all the other great things you’d expect from Huel, eg all 27 vitamins and minerals, high in omega-3s, high fiber, low sugar (less than 5% sugar), phytonutrients; like all Huel products, Huel Black Edition is nutritionally complete at 2,000 calories and each meal contains the right amounts of essential nutrients.
Some of our biggest requests are around a reduced carb version of Huel and this version has a macronutrient ratio of 17:40:40:3 (carbs:fat:protein:fiber). This is genuinely our most requested Huel ever and we’re so excited to release it.
Add two scoops of Huel Black Edition (90g) to water in a shaker, shake well and consume.
Why there’s no kelp in Black Edition
You might be wondering why Black doesn’t contain Kelp. We wanted to give you a little more backstory about kelp.
We’ve removed kelp from Black Edition based on feedback from Hueligans here about its inclusion in v3.0
We are seriously considering removing it from v3.0 in time, but nothing is confirmed yet
The reason kelp was included is that we needed a source of natural iodine to sell Huel directly in Japan. Kelp was, and still is, a great solution for this.
The intention was always to get a source with no risk of contamination, which as you’ve pointed out does exist; however, this has proven difficult to source and was not possible further down the line.
It seems that Black Edition removes oat and includes a greater proportion of tapioca starch? Can we anticipate that Black Edition will have a smoother texture than ‘regular’ Huel powder?
This is really cool - I am excited to try it. I can’t seem to find a way to order 2 bags of Huel Black (vanilla and chocolate) with one bag of regular v3 Berry. Is there something I am missing?
It looks like it’ll be essentially two separate subscriptions – one for Black Edition products, and one for ‘regular’ Huel. It seems to be that way with bars, RTD, and powder – at least in my experience.
I also think I’ll go with the Black Edition once I need more Huel. In part because of the omission of sucralose. I understand the science doesn’t indicate, necessarily, that it’s horrible, but I’d rather go with a more natural sweetener when possible.
I’m gonna sit this one out, boys and girls. No oats. I’ve really grown to like the oat-based taste of Huel powder and RTD. Besides, now that I am on a starch-based diet, the Huel 3.0 is gonna be a better fit for me. But that is cool that the company is expanding and offering a different macro approach while retaining the original formula (well, close enough). I hope it brings in more customers and bolsters the company.
But who is to say that one day I won’t be eating my words about Huel Black? Afterall, I kinda changed my mind about the Huel RTD. A year back I originally said I wouldn’t need a RTD formula. But after trying some, I had to eat my own words because now I see how convenient it is. Huel RTD has saved me a few times when I didn’t have time to prep my usual Huel ahead of time. I like to keep about 5 of them in my wine fridge, just in case.
I am really tempted to make some Huel Black memes, but I’ll abstain so we can keep this thread more serious. I think we’ve already had our dose of drama threads for a while.
@JamesCollier I feel silly asking, but is the green tea extract in Huel Black enough to have a significant caffeine dose per 400 calories? I mean, is it > 10 mg or are we talking insignificant? Based on the order the ingredient is listed, it looks to be a small amount.
I would love to try Huel Black and have been anticipating a low carb version, but why isn’t there a non flavored option like the original? I have been Hueling for about a year now and I have always vetted the product because of it’s clean, simple and flexible meal base…yet now I feel excluded!
I purchased once the ad came out. Loving it! The texture is easier on me, and the gluten free factor is critical to why I’m even able to Huel it up. It definitely dissolves easier for me, too.
Another massive factor is the lower carb and higher protein values. Health issues ended up necessitating it, so this product is a God send. I actually had cancelled my sub because of the need to drop carbs down. In all, I have less gas and bloat, a better energy curve, and am just overall pleased with this one. I can see myself being a subber for years to come!
I’m considering ordering Huel black at some time in the future, but my one concern is, why the sugar? I’d like to try to low carb version because I’ve had some issues regulating blood sugar as a teenager, but I’m not sure if that’s a good idea if the new version is sweetened with sugar. I understand wanting to move away from Sucralose, but why not stick with just stevia?
I just started on Huel black this week and am enjoying it, although I wondered the same thing. I think I saw a Huel rep respond to this question elsewhere stating that they had had requests for a product without artificial sweeteners. Personally, I find stevia cloyingly sweet and wouldn’t want any more in the product than is already in black. 4g of organic coconut sugar is a relatively small amount (about a teaspoon). Maybe they’ll eventually respond to requests for a UU version.
Stevia is less sweet than sucralose. To include it at the levels required it would go over regulatory levels. High levels of stevia also bring a bitter aftertaste.
Huel Black Edition is still low in sugar and we are currently having the glycemic index tested to provide you with more information.
Is Huel Black still low FODMAP given the higher proportion of pea protein - I understand this is normally only low FODMAP in small amounts? If not, I appreciate Huel is a vegan brand so whey isolate isn’t an option - could alternatives be used (higher rice protein content perhaps?)
Would you consider an option for regular Huel to have the coconut sugar/natural sweetener? I’ve used U&U to avoid the sucralose but unfortunately can see this hasn’t been removed in V3. I would much prefer the slightly higher sugar content (which is still low) to having low sugar/artificial sweeteners.
Does the cherry powder impact the taste in anyway (especially thinking about U&U)? Is there a reason it’s not included in Black?
Is the added probiotic safe for long-term use/in conjunction with other probiotic families?
It’s mentioned that the kombucha is for added B vitamins - is this powder standardised and does this not increase the overall B vitamin content over previous versions? I’m mainly concerned around increased Folic Acid from the powder due to the potential risks being researched (e.g. some studies on prostate cancers) - particularly if the UK government is supposedly planning to start adding this to all bread as well in future.
It’s not been considered at the moment, but we look at everything. UU v3.0 Powder is still an option with the stevia-sweetened Flavor Boosts
Cherry powder? do you mean Berry powder?
Yes, though do be mindful not to consume massive amounts of other probiotics
The amounts of B-vitamins in the products are as per the nutritional values, eg here. Note none of the folate in Huel is Folic Acid - it’s all natural folate (from the ingredients and the kombucha) or L-methylfolate which we add. There is no upper limit of consumption of natural folate whereas there is for Folic acid from supplements or food fortification, so there are no concerns here.
I meant the acerola cherries - are these flavourless extracts.
With the flavour boosts - I didn’t find the 3g amount in the sample sachets worked with U&U (not much flavour) and the package said they are intended for Original. Is a higher amount needed to compensate?
With the folic acid, I was asking as some websites tout kombucha/kombucha powder as “rich in folic acid” so was wondering whether this was true/if this is inadvertently being added with the inclusion of the kombucha powder.
Sorry, @RichB - I see what you mean now! Yes, the acerola cherries are flavourless; they are present for vitamin C. The reason they’re not in Black Ed is that when doing our early product development, we found they did impact the other ingredients making the product taste not quite right. However, this was in the early stages and we will be looking at putting them into a future version.
With the Flavor Boosts, the amount used is subjective and some people do like a little higher inclusion.
The scientific community does seem to use folic acid as the generic nomenclature of choice for folate/folic acid even though it can give rise to confusion. There is no synthetic folic acid in Huel, just natural folate.
So this appears to be a Huel for the keto crew. That is a big change in macronutrient rations. Can Huel Black be considered a complete food in the way that regular Huel and its competitors is (i.e. you could live off of only the one product)?