Every right to be bummed. It’s a bad product experience, and worse—it’s an error that messes with people’s lives. This is health and diets they’re monkeying around with.
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Did you even try it? I was having the same clumping issue until I started doing that. Maybe try it first you goof.
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You know what I haven’t seen anyone discuss in relation to the clumping and taste issue? Water quality.
If there is something in your water that makes clumping more likely, but the test kitchen used filtered water (or their tap water is just different) then maybe nobody experienced the severity reported by those with the issue. Idk what that something might be, but if anyone having clumping problems could test my theory with some bottled or filtered water, it would be interesting science for all to know.
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Why was his post flagged? He called me a “goof”. That’s pretty tame. Actually, it’s very tame by internet message board standards. We’re just having some friendly banter here. No need to involve the po-po
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This isn’t true at at all. We are looking into it but it’s important to understand the scale of the comments coming in (which the forum and reddit is just a small part of).
Thanks for your feedback Thomas. Kombucha has no effect on the flavor of Huel, you can check out the changes here.
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I couldn’t agree more, i actually created a forum account just to say this, clumpy, terrible tasting. I have to mix in a shot of espresso just to make this wallpaper paste palatable. I’ve cut my orders in half and may stop outright if this continues.
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Dan. If you (Huel) are saying that none of this was a problem in formulation, nor have you seen it somehow on your end at all—while on the other hand you have customers complaining about terribly clumpy product…sorry to say it, but that is a QC issue. As someone who has shepherded literally millions of products into the global marketplace for two decades, either someone is pulling batch samples off of the production line and testing (good quality control), or they are not (not on top of quality control). Also, here’s a customer service tip—including for your chat support team. When customers (many of which seem to be long time customers…faithful even, given the startup nature of your business) tell you that the product they’ve received is for all intents and purposes, not good at all—instead of trying to run around an negate their opinions, or in the case of chat support, telling them “sorry, you can buy old stock from the outlet” — you should perhaps consider another path toward trying to keep these early adopting customers on the hook. How about getting them good bags of food that they rely on? Do you not understand that people here might tend to take their nutrition seriously, and that having to modify diets or have bags of useless product laying around might be problematic?
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Bare in mind that some people had issues with v2.3 and no longer do with v3.0 and vice versa and no one has had any issues with either. If what you’re experiencing is down to the type of water, shaking or how it’s being stored from fulfilment to consumption then this will take longer to pin down.
We have a great team here all with at least degree level education in a variety of food, nutrition, and manufacturing roles. We know what we are doing, we have taken your feedback on board and we are looking into it.
Your options haven’t been negated, you can still buy v2.3 for now as mentioned and I’m sure the Customer Experience team offered you other avenues of support. The nutrition has not been affected, I’m telling you this as someone part of the nutrition team who has conducted these tests from pre-launch to present.
This is my last comment on this post because there’s no more information I can provide to you.
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Wow, the previous version must have been sent from the Gods above, because I actually like the taste of 3.0. I’ve not tasted any other version, so i have no context, but I’m so surprised that people don’t like the taste or consistency of this formula. Compared to all the other horrible protein powders I’ve tried over the last 35 years, this is wonderful. What am I missing?
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Reading all these replies makes me nervous to start up my 3.0. I ordered some and am still finishing up what I’ve got left from the prior iteration
.
Does anyone have experience with the 3.0 UU?
I’m in a love-hate relationship with the taste, I can get used to it. I use a blender bottle (Those bottles with a metal whisk ball), and so I have to drink the clumps. They are a bit awkward, but I am getting use to the fact they’re there.
I guess I’m in the minority, but I’m very happy with the new 3.0 powder. I ran with 1.1 for a good amount of time, but just couldn’t continue - the flavor got to me and I couldn’t choke it down. I left for quite a while, until I got an email about the new 3.0 and bit. I bought a chocolate and vanilla. I’ll admit, I am not a fan of the chocolate, but I think it’s better than the old one. But I won’t reorder it. It has a weird taste that follows the chocolate flavor. Vanilla, on the other hand, I’m straight up addicted to. I love the new vanilla.
The problem with evolving products like this is that you’re eventually going to piss everyone off at some point. I was an early backer of Soylent when it was limited. Every time they changed it, there was uproar and dissent. Then the next release would flip things again, with a new group loving it, an old group hating it. It’s just going to happen. I couldn’t stand the last version of Soylent I ordered, so combine that with not being crazy about the ingredients, I started shopping and stumbled on Huel.
And as much as I love the current vanilla, I’m sure it’ll get “improved” at some point and I’ll hate it and leave for a bit. Everyone has different tastes.
It’s unfortunate to finally get the taste you love and then it changes, but it’s going to happen to everyone.
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Agreed. One thing I think we should keep in mind is we are not here for good tasting food, but rather nutritious food. We could always go to the nearest fast food joint if looking for something that tastes pleasing. Huel has a lot of ingredients in it, so finding the right flavor profile without drowning it with unnecessary fats, sugars, and/or salt can be tricky.
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The issue here is that according to Huel, the clumps shouldn’t be there at all, and say that they haven’t experienced it themselves. I’ve expressed my dismay regarding the apparent lack of checks on the production run (if you’re sampling during QC, clumpy product wouldn’t make it out) but we’ll just have to see what they end up doing here.
It may take time for them to track down the lumps. I work in I.T. and sometimes users will report problems you’ve never experienced, or you’ll come across them yourself if lucky, and based on the code written, the problem should be non-existent. Then begins the long dull process of debugging to figure out why something is wrong when all logic seems to say otherwise.
I do want to believe though they could find the existence of the lump problem by just mailing themselves some bags using FedEx and see where how it goes. As for what’s causing the lumps, I’m not a chemical engineer, so I couldn’t even guess if I wanted to.
Fortunately, this isn’t nearly as complex as your work—staying on top of QC with production of something as simple as formulated powder is a relatively simple task…which is mildly concerning that it’s such a head scratcher on their end, having never seen it. Any production QC would entail pulling product, mixing, checking for consistency and performance, as well as testing the obvious ingredient performance.
It very well could even be something as simple as the water chemical make up for the water they use versus the water they use. Also I wonder if they use a machine to shake it or do they actually test by shaking a batch in one of the shakers provided by hand? Just curious because I know I have no clumps with my blender so if they are using a machine it might just be more efficient than a human can be and cause no clumps. Food for thought! I’m sure a Huel staff member can answer that.: )
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I’ve had clumpy Huel 3.0 as well. I don’t mind the taste, but I can see why people wouldn’t like the aftertaste with the vanilla.
I prefer to just use the Huel shaker to make my shake and with the previous versions in the US I never had issues mixing it. So far I’ve tried the chocolate and vanilla, with the same clumpy results.
People shouldn’t have to learn some trick or method of making a shake, you should only need to add some water to the powder and shake it to have a smooth shake.
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It it helps the Q/A team, I just tried vanilla Huel Black and it had the same “lump” quality as vanilla Huel 3.0. Something in the new formula has to be the culprit.
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From the people who eat kelp, they say it does have a fishy taste if prepared a certain way. Also, they come could come in contact with shellfish and other products. I’m very sensitive to fishy tastes and when not, I could get sick from small amounts (I doubled over one time because there was lac-resin on orange peels and just touching the peel and then the orange was enough to make me sick). Those are my issues.