Hi there! I have a request to make. A natural flavor option (well technically everything is “natural”, but you know what I mean). I totally understand that for cosmetic reasons, having a low-ish “400 cal” per meal sounds cool. But lean humanoids like me don’t mind calories. What we do mind is, all these new kinds of sweeteners going around these days. Can you please appease us by creating perhaps one “all natural sweeteners” kind of flavor? 400 calories or 500 or 600, no problems.
Edit: If someone at Huel sees this, I am aware that I can buy the unsweetened version and add my stuff to it. But if I could really go to kitchen each time, I would just make myself a breakfast with a smoothie.
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They offer an unsweetened/unflavored Huel that you can add any flavoring to that you want.
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I appreciate your answer, but the whole point of Huel is to have something which you can just shake and drink. If I have to go to kitchen everytime, I might just make myself a smoothie and eat some bread with it.
You know, you can just drink uu and water
You can put sugar in with the powder
You could use a bottle of flavored water or whatever level of diet through full sugar juice.
I wonder if anyone has used powdered milk with Huel powder to make creaminess but shelf-stable until use.
Chai powder and hot cocoa packets would fit this profile too.
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The issue with using natural flavors without sweeteners is that the taste is quite off. For example, let’s use the current flavors available through Huel, vanilla, chocolate, and berry.
Vanilla itself would never lend itself well to being packaged with a dry powder without some level of processing that would include adding sugars and/or alcohol to extend its shelf life.
Berry would have a better chance at being a natural flavor, although without preservatives, candying, or extracting as viable options (all add sugars of some type) then the only alternative is freeze drying the fruit and adding it later on to the finished Huel powder. However, freeze dried fruit, specifically berries such as strawberry, with no sugar additives, is significantly more sour than what many of us would associate with fruit, quite expensive, and the costs to adapt to this process would far outweigh consumer demands for such a product.
Chocolate, well chocolate’s easy. You can add unsweetened chocolate baking powder to U/U, but be forewarned that unsweetened chocolate tastes horrendous.
All natural sweeteners sounds like a great idea… Until you realize most “natural” sweeteners aren’t really that sweet, the exception being honey, blue agave nectar, and fresh, ripe, fruits. None of which lend themselves well to being added with a dry powder that requires a substantial shelf life. As far as sugars go, Huel has been very upfront and open about their use of sugars and the nutritional impact of them. If you have any concerns regarding which sugars are used in which products, I’m sure you could ask Huel customer support to explain them in detail, although they are also printed on the back of the bag under the ingredients list.
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Sugar was out because of the effect on the GI and obesity. Xylitol is a good natural sweetener but is just not sweet enough, we would have to put so much in to create the same mildly sweet Huel we have now. Xylitol also has a laxative effect, so the amounts we would need to use would cause adverse side effects. Stevia is bitter at the amounts required.
It is something we are continually looking into though!
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I appreciate all answers. Thanks Miked, milk powder is actually a good idea that I didnt think about. Thanks for your answer too, Maria. Thanks for working on it Huel!
For me, using powdered milk defeats the purpose of going plant based. There’s competitors that are whey based for that…
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Yeah, milk is gross
But it’s still an option for people who don’t feel that way
Peanut butter is great, but not an option for those who even share a kitchen with someone who has an allergy
I defer to a quote by Yukon Cornelius:
“You eat what you like, I’ll eat what I like”
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Thanks DM87. Good to know that. I am not even aware of such competitors who provide a near-full nutrition meal (but are whey based). I might consider them if I can find them. (I do share some animal abuse concerns, but you can always find someone who is certified ethical by a third party… other than that I don’t mind animal products usually).
Well it would definitely be better if Huel comes up with a tasty product without artificial flavors.