I was struggling with depression and ADHD really badly last year, so much that I didn’t enjoy eating or cooking anymore, and I usually love both of those things. So I decided to give Huel a try, as a way to start taking care of myself, and as an experiment for my own work (I’m a food scholar and this whole food simulacra stuff is interesting to me as a field)

The shakes aren’t horrible taste-wise, but don’t expect something really tasty either… They taste mostly like vaguely flavored oatmeal that’s been passed through a blender. My main issue with the shakes is that I didn’t feel really full after having one, and I would feel hungry 2-3 hours later, and each shake is 400 calories, so I could end up having 1200 calories from shakes alone.

I also had the hot meal thing where you pour boiling water on a couple scoops of what is essentially astronaut food. Everything they do is vegan, and I gotta say, some dishes are pretty good, like their carbonara or the green curry. Spaghetti bolognese tasted like eating undercooked pasta with tomato and cough syrup sauce, 0/10. I vastly preferred these because one portion will fill you up for a long time, and because I personally like savory things more than sweets.

That being said, Huel is 90% marketing and convenience. You can find very similar products for a fraction of the price, or if you’re willing to save a lot of money, just substitute what they have for separate, analogous products and make your own ready to eat shakes (you would just have to take a multivitamin and a fiber capsule) with a protein shake more or less.

I still have some bags of huel shakes that I have when I remember they exist. But I can have way more delicious food for a fraction of the price by spending 5-10 minutes more in the kitchen, so it doesn’t really come to mind these days. Of course, I understand not everyone is able to do that, and those kinds of foods are great for that situation.