

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

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&#x2F;tricks about how to make it taste better while not ruining it&#x27;s nutritional balance completely ?
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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

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striking
Lee Hutchinson of Ars Technica added vanilla extract (and purple food
coloring) to his Soylent. If you're interested, here's the rest of the
article: [http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/09/ars-does-soylent-
the-...](http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/09/ars-does-soylent-the-finale-
soylent-dreams-for-people/)

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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.

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bjourne
Why don't you brew your own then?
[http://diy.soylent.me/](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.

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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.

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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.

~~~
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.naturalhealthyconcepts.com/raw-meal-vanilla-GL2-p-garden-
of-life.html?gclid=CjwKEAjw2MOhBRCq-Nr87_j-
lDASJAAl4FNhcEDnyNg4qP5nV3FwFXBAD7qTP_d-X6zPVaVnRbXlKBoCDsDw_wcB)

[http://www.luckyvitamin.com/p-19447-ultimate-life-the-
ultima...](http://www.luckyvitamin.com/p-19447-ultimate-life-the-ultimate-
meal-30-servings-1200-g?ProductSku=68565&utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=fpl&utm_term=UltimateLifeTheUltimateMeal30Servings1200g423oz&utm_content=68565&utm_campaign=googlebase&site=google_base&scid=scplp2949077&gclid=CjwKEAjw2MOhBRCq-
Nr87_j-lDASJAAl4FNheybNT-0sDHzcme8i96UAKOR3mQN6IDmWt1QflOH0DxoCGPrw_wcB)

~~~
arisAlexis
the first one is a soylent killer

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

~~~
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.

