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Ask HN: How do you improve Soylent's flavor/texture?

12 points by houseofshards ↗ HN
Soylent noob here. Just placed my order a few days back and expect to receive v1.1 in a few weeks. However I read that Soylent tastes really bad. Any suggestions/tricks about how to make it taste better while not ruining it's nutritional balance completely ?

24 comments

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frabrunelle
I've tried eating Soylent 1.0 almost exclusively for two weeks and I really enjoyed it. I wish I could have access to more Soylent, but I live in Canada and Soylent is very rare. I used a blender to mix the Soylent and I added frozen strawberries and sometimes mangos, peaches or bananas. I also sometimes added soy milk. I am also open to try adding other ingredients to Soylent, but I would need more Soylent.

Frankly, I would easily eat it for 90%-100% of my meals. They said in a recent email that they are going to ship to Canada in March 2015...

What I like the most about it is that it's easy to prepare and when I prepare one pouch, I have enough to drink/eat for almost two days. Also, I think it tastes really good. And I love the vision of the company.

reportingsjr
I'm curious to see how this plays out when more people eat soylent for longer periods of time. I could see it as a great supplement to most meals to make sure you are getting most of the nutrients that you need while still eating a variety of foods.
bjourne
Why don't you brew your own then? http://diy.soylent.me/
frabrunelle
Yes, I'm definitely considering it. But I'd rather just wait a few more months (March 2015) and finally get the official Soylent shipped.

As much as I like the taste, for me the main selling point of Soylent is that for example, I could buy 28 bags of Soylent at once and automatically get more every month. Not have to worry about buying and preparing food.

mrfusion
Was it filling enough? That would be my main concern with a liquid diet.
frabrunelle
Yes, I didn't feel the need to eat anything else. Just drinking one glass of Soylent would satisfy me for a few hours. I ended up drinking 3 or 4 glasses per day.
mrfusion
Could you by it on eBay? I haven't checked, just curious.
frabrunelle
Yes, it was on eBay that I bought it. But I haven't found a listing in Canada for a while now.
hashtag
I ordered several months ago and still waiting so I wouldn't expect to receive it in a few weeks unless you get lucky. It's actually already past the initial estimate they gave me and emailing got me a response of not being able to estimate a date of when I'll receive my order
scottlocklin
I find it amazing that people take this idiotic idea seriously. Newsflash: there has always been protein shakes. Stuff you can buy at GNC is almost certainly a lot better for you than this garbage.
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JeffL
Protein shakes that I'm aware of aren't attempting to provide a complete and balanced diet, they are attempting to provide a supplement.
copperx
Meal replacement shakes attempt to provide a complete and balanced diet.

Some examples:

http://www.naturalhealthyconcepts.com/raw-meal-vanilla-GL2-p...

http://www.luckyvitamin.com/p-19447-ultimate-life-the-ultima...

arisAlexis
the first one is a soylent killer
mrfusion
First one looks good but how can it be a meal replacement with 0 cholesterol?

Also it's $3/serving, but each serving is 300 calories, so you'd have to eat at least 6-7 servings per day = $18-$24 per day.

sytelus
Can this solve world hunger? I'm guessing making this as non-profit and using the labor and material in under developed countries, may be this can be produced with even lower price or even given away free. Any balanced meal that can be given away free on massive scale can potentially solve the world hunger. In fact it can change world for real. Once food problem is solved, people can live anywhere without worrying about jobs. That even might solve problem of slums and housing. Sure, one still needs sanitation and electricity and other needs like education and clothing - but food had been the most challenging of all needs.
karterk
The reality is quite complex. The problem in most developing countries is the actual distribution of food, rather than the price of food. Apart from infrastructure issues, there is also widespread corruption and hoarding.
linuskendall
Bananas and eggs could solve world hunger - and in fact are available and affordable to many people who you might classify as hunger. Sure, some kind of protein shake in liue of peanut butter might be a good handout in periods of starvation - but hunger is a way more complex issue than lack of physical access to calories or nutrients and there is certainly no powder or "technical fix" for the issues involved wit hhunger.
[dead] linuskendall
Bananas and eggs could solve world hunger - and in fact are available and affordable to many people who you might classify as hunger. Sure, some kind of protein shake in liue of peanut butter might be a good handout in periods of starvation - but hunger is a way more complex issue than lack of physical access to calories or nutrients and there is certainly no powder or "technical fix" for the issues involved wit hhunger.
atlantic
Lack of food is rarely a problem that is found in isolation. It usually exists in a context of social and political turmoil. If first-world countries want to stop people from going hungry, a good first step might be to stop exporting arms, rather than concentrating on handouts.
JeffL
I've been adding a couple of tablespoons of dark chocolate cocoa powder. The first couple of days, I was kind of barely choking it down, but by day 4, I woke up with a strong craving for it. Now, just over a week into it, I would classify it as mostly neutral in taste and don't mind it at all. I certainly enjoy the ease of pouring a glass from the pitcher in the fridge as opposed to making a sandwich for lunch.

By the way, it really does seem to turn out a lot better if you mix it with room temperature water as the brochure suggests, and also mixing an entire pitcher by shaking seems to come out way smoother than when I was trying to mix just a glass or when I tried to mix it in a blender.

shepardrtc
Buy a tub of EAS chocolate protein powder. $20 for 2 lbs.

Just mix a scoop of that with some water (I do about 4oz), and then pour that mixture into your normal amount of Soylent. Mix the result and serve. Makes it much more palatable.

nathairtras
I would try it before worrying about fixing the taste. It really isn't that bad. Nor is it that good. It just kind of... is. Been drinking it for around three days, not exclusively, and the best I can say is that it tastes deliberately inoffensive. Which in my mind is a plus.