
Soylent Taste Test - jhonovich
http://www.nytimes.com/video/technology/personaltech/100000002907606/soylent-taste-test.html
======
freyrs3
I don't understand why Soylent receives the press it does, meal-replacement
shakes have been on the market for quite a long time. The entire phenomenon
seems to just be a marketing gimmick around some misguided notion of it
"replacing food".

~~~
sneak
Meal replacement shakes are expensive, inefficient, and unhealthy compared to
Soylent.

They usually ship with the liquid/water mixed in, and the cost/kcal is
substantially higher, with the carbohydrate concentrations much, much higher.

~~~
jljljl
Do you have a source or proof for these points? Last I checked a serving of
Ensure was a good bit cheaper than Soylent.

Shipping with the liquid/water mixed can often be a convenience, and at least
Ensure also offers it's product in a powdered form:
[http://ensure.com/products/ensure-powder](http://ensure.com/products/ensure-
powder)

~~~
gnoway
The cost of a serving of Soylent varies based on the amount you've ordered.
The cheapest it goes for is ~$3.04 per serving - $255 for a monthly shipment
of 28 days worth.

The 'buy online' link from the Ensure page you posted lists their powdered
product at $65 per 6 pack of 14oz cans. The serving size is 57g, so there are
about 7 servings per can; a serving costs about $1.55.

Each Ensure serving is 250 calories, with 9g protein, 9g fat, 34g carbs (13g
sugar, 0g fiber) and between 10 and 60% of all the major vitamins and minerals
(most seem to be 25%).

Each non-vegan Soylent serving is 670 calories, with 38g protein, 24g fat, 84g
carbs (2g sugar, 9g fiber) and between 33 and 57% of all the major vitamins
and minerals (most are 33%). The vegans do their own thing with an oil
additive (Soylent ships a fish oil/canola blend) so the published nutritional
information is not accurate for vegans.

So without actually doing all the arithmetic, I would say that I would
probably need 2.5-ish Ensure servings for every 1 Soylent serving to equalize
calories. I would be getting more vitamins out of Ensure, but also more sugar
- most of the carbs - and no fiber at all. The price would be close but Ensure
would be more expensive.

[http://abbottstore.com/adult-nutrition/ensure-powder-
vanilla...](http://abbottstore.com/adult-nutrition/ensure-powder-
vanilla-14-oz-container-case-of-6-00750#.UnqVXxCE7To)

[http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0421/5993/t/4/assets/Comple...](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0421/5993/t/4/assets/Complete-
Soylent-Nutrition-Facts.pdf?29423)

~~~
gamblor956
As I was informed on another Soylent thread, you need to compare Ensure
Complete with Soylent. Ensure Complete is a MRE, Ensure (the standard product
line) is not.

~~~
gnoway
Thanks, I didn't see that. Upvoted. I also didn't see the 'subscribe and save'
link for 10% off; the prices above are not fair to regular Ensure, which is
basically at price parity with Soylent.

Ensure Complete is more expensive than Soylent and, while much more complete
than regular Ensure, is still arguably less complete than Soylent. I think the
only things it has going for it are taste (presumably), availability and an
established brand name.

[http://abbottstore.com/adult-nutrition/ensure-complete-
milk-...](http://abbottstore.com/adult-nutrition/ensure-complete-milk-
chocolate-8-fl-oz-bottle-case-of-16-62758)

------
tekni5
I wouldn't mind a product that can replace food, if it's cheaper, more
convenient, provides all necessary nutrition and eliminates the feeling of
hunger.

However the biggest issue I have with Soylent is that I cannot trust it. It
hasn't been tested long term and it doesn't sound like it's being developed by
people who know what they are doing.

Also let's stop pretending it's something new, stuff like Plumpy'nut have
existed for a while, used in developing nations for malnutrition treatment. I
bet it would be as effective as Soylent as a food replacement for a few
months.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumpy%27nut](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumpy%27nut)

~~~
evv
> However the biggest issue I have with Soylent is that I cannot trust it. It
> hasn't been tested long term and it doesn't sound like it's being developed
> by people who know what they are doing.

Totally valid point, but look at the alternatives for people without the time
and money to buy nice ingredients and cook for themselves. I used to eat fast
food nearly every day out of convenience and because I didn't know how to eat
better. Frozen dinners are no better.

It's not that I think food executives don't know what they are doing. In fact,
I believe they are knowingly lowering the nutritional quality of affordable
food.

So while they might not have experience in the food industry, at least the
soylent folks are focusing on the nutrition of their customers as opposed to
pure profit.

~~~
tekni5
Not sure if you can compare fast food to Soylent, because there are many
different types of fast food and not all of fast food is bad for you. Fast
food can also contain vegetables, live cultures, and various assortment of
ingredients which are good for you. Overindulgence of anything is bad, fast
food just makes it easier because it's easy to get, generally tastes good and
is packed with a ton of calories. If you ate fast food very carefully, then
you'd probably be okay.

Furthermore, there probably isn't a simple shortcut to nutrition. If you want
to be healthy you need to be involved in what you eat.

I'm sure the driving force for Soylent is profit as well, otherwise they would
have done years of testing and scientific studies, before releasing a mix of
chemicals as a solution to food. I suspect they'll get sued down the road,
there is no way to predict what long term effects this will have when someone
decides to use it for years.

------
evan_hornsby
I like what Chris Dixon had to say on Twitter: "NY Times has a wine critic
review Soylent. Reminiscent of the time they had a literary critic review
Twitter."

[https://twitter.com/cdixon/status/472159432332148736](https://twitter.com/cdixon/status/472159432332148736)

------
bignaj
"The modern man does what he can so that he doesn't have to walk, doesn't have
to lift heavy things, doesn't have to sweat, doesn't have to meet others in
person, doesn't have to take responsibility, doesn't have to love, doesn't
have to hate, doesn't have to care, doesn't have to cook and even doesn't have
to eat! So in the end he doesn't have anything! He has no life left as it all
has been artificially removed from him so that he could just do nothing,
accomplish nothing, think nothing, be nothing and live not and be comfortably
nothing. Comfort is death. Life is a struggle. Life is a messy, unsanitary and
trigger tripping struggle."

~~~
psychometry
I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Should humanity forsake all modern
conveniences and return to the bush?

~~~
001sky
Hey, some people _want_ take the elevator to the gym and work out on a
stairmaster...or put their bike on their car to drive to the place where they
can ride their bike...away from all the other cars...=D

------
fidlefodl
Sometimes i have a hard time telling if the hostility towards Soylent is just
normal HN flare, or something meaningful.

Sometimes i think people assume we're going to force Soylent on them o_O

~~~
Karunamon
Sadly, it's not just HN. The negative reactions to this stuff range from the
misinformed to the head-scratching to the downright idiotic.

Check the comments section on the recent NYT or Ars Technica articles - it's
much of the same.

------
nazgulnarsil
People interested in Soylent may be interested in the whole food alternatives,
MealSquares and Ambronite.

~~~
fidlefodl
I was not aware of those, thanks for the links!

I'll be curious at how much Ambronite ends up costing

~~~
nazgulnarsil
Ambornite is currently $32 a day IIRC. MealSquares are aiming for $12.
Compared to $9.6x for Soylent.

------
fdsary
The sommelier guy would get the top comment on HN every time

------
digitalpacman
My biggest gripe, which has me real close to complaining to the times about
it, is he didn't even talk about any of the other avenues of flavoring the
product that the owners advertise themselves. Never once mentioned adding
chocolate, or vanilla, or peanut butter. You can add anything you want. It
helps, isn't great, but it makes it much better. Also he didn't mention if he
left it in the fridge for a few hours to let it settle. Which you're supposed
to do in order to let the rice protein mix well. All of which the owners
mention, but no actual facts are in the article. It felt like he wanted to
complain.

~~~
001sky
These are good points for discussion. But the counter-arguments is that they
add cost, complexity, and time.

I can readily buy 2000 calories of food that are shelf-stable for under the
$9/day price of solent. That are equal in weight (500g), hit a target of 15%
protein, are compact in volume... and far more palatable for long durations.

Soylent has going for it that its easy 1-step and always predictable with
minimal preperation and packaging. Once I start having to mix or pre-soak,
Soylent has no apparent advantage to the system I just highlighted above.

It basically becomes _assemblage_ if not outright cooking. And the need for
something like a fridge? Again I think it is capital intensive and sort of
against yhe minimalist ethos/usp of soylent.

~~~
mreiland
I wish I could prepare, cook, eat, and clean a meal in the time it takes to
create a shake, drink it, and wash out the cup.

Do tell, what's your secret?

~~~
001sky
This explains the math. 140 cal/28g. Prep time <5min.

[http://andrewskurka.com/adventures/alaska-yukon-
expedition/f...](http://andrewskurka.com/adventures/alaska-yukon-
expedition/food-nutrition/)

Also, on general Considerations in Food Items:

[http://andrewskurka.com/2010/the-5000-calories-per-day-
wilde...](http://andrewskurka.com/2010/the-5000-calories-per-day-wilderness-
diet/)

A worked example in more detail (see "Daily Rations"):

[http://andrewskurka.com/2012/food-planning-for-multi-day-
hik...](http://andrewskurka.com/2012/food-planning-for-multi-day-hikes-and-
thru-hikes/)

------
TheBiv
YouTube link for mobile users:
[http://youtu.be/HRDcdaQMRDc](http://youtu.be/HRDcdaQMRDc)

------
bignaj
There was a big debate on HN about the accompanying article yesterday:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7814005](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7814005)

------
Yver
Spoiler alert: it doesn't taste like much.

As for the rest, it's the usual Soylent article being rehashed. If you're
looking for a bland, cheap alternative to journalism, this is for you.

------
compcoin
From my prospective Soylent does not taste like anything because it has never
been shipped to me after receiving one notice of delay after another. I bought
a week supply on Kickstarter nothing ever arrived after what seems to be a
close to a year. They have missed multiple delivery time frames. I have since
bought some competing products (Phood) while I waited and still wait.

------
chrisarrons
I've been wondering what it tastes like. Glad to hear other people describe
it!

------
FreakyT
Personally, I'm looking forward to Soylent being available at grocery
stores...

