5 ms·

Soylent Taste Test

62 points by jhonovich 12y ago

tekni5 12y ago
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 12y ago
  > 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 12y ago
    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.
  - camillomiller 12y ago
    Very good point, but soylent actually goes a bit too far on the opposite directions. It's a nerdy, mechanistic answer to the problem and, because of that, it won't solve it. It's clearly a strong byproduct of the messed up American way of eating, which is, as you said, the outcome of a long term strategy by the food and distribution industries. The answer is well priced well balanced and tasty food sold next door to your daily fast food. So, if soylent would really want to change the way America eats, the should be funding a lobby, hire some philosophers and become a politically active think tank. Now they're just a nerdy company that will not appeal to anyone. Not to obese fast food goers, nor culturally elevated liberal people that are aware of the importance of eating well as a social activity and a pleasure, and can make the terrible connection to the much too famous movie -- soylent green.
- fudged71 12y ago
  "it doesn't sound like it's being developed by people who know what they are doing" and "I bet it would be as effective as Soylent" don't fit well together, you're being hypocritical.
  - tekni5 12y ago
    Not really because I mentioned "as a food replacement for a few months.", people have reported that Soylent worked for them for some period of time (weeks or months as I understand). All I am saying is that other products that exist may have the same effect. But Soylent isn't marketed as a short term meal replacement, it's marketed for long term use which I assume means years. You can survive on quite a few things for a short period of time, doesn't mean the product is good for you.
- aianus 12y ago
  Where do I go to buy me some Plumpy'nut? Serious question.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
TheBiv 12y ago
YouTube link for mobile users: http://youtu.be/HRDcdaQMRDc http://youtu.be/HRDcdaQMRDc
bignaj 12y ago
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
FreakyT 12y ago
Personally, I'm looking forward to Soylent being available at grocery stores...
chrisarrons 12y ago
I've been wondering what it tastes like. Glad to hear other people describe it!
freyrs3 12y ago
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".
- shaunol 12y ago
  The eventual goal is not just as a meal replacement but a full diet replacement that eventually won't need to leverage crops, for areas with no arable land. Most meal replacement shakes I've seen (not including those used in the medical industry) aren't suitable to replace your entire diet with and are generally very expensive per meal because of this. Most also warn against using the product to replace every meal with. I think it's very good to have a mainstream product like this that attempts to cover 100% of the suggested daily intake, simply to bring into debate what the daily intake should really consist of? And if we can achieve it in countries that are too far from supply of actual crops.
  - 001sky 12y ago
    "a full diet replacement that eventually won't need to leverage crops, for areas with no arable land." How will they make soylent? there are plenty of foods with 100kcal per/0z. that are shelf stable and natural (and healthy). Shipping in powder X vs other food Y is a false differentiation. Its neither more healthy nor, nor less bulky, nor cheaper to ship. Lastly, you will need to ship in water which is 4-5x the weight of food per day.
    - digitalpacman 12y ago
      You ship them soylent... watch the videos if you are interested. The problem to solve world hunger is not growing the food, it's logistics.
      - freyrs3 12y ago
        The problem to solve world hunger is to be able to distribute staple crops more efficiently to places which don't have access to existing markets. There's no conceivable way that some highly refined meal-replacement product for the first world can be more economical than access to bulk amounts of grains. Even Soylent as an emergency food is an order of magnitude less economical than the existing solutions for famine relief, which are themselves extremely expensive in bulk.
fdsary 12y ago
The sommelier guy would get the top comment on HN every time
digitalpacman 12y ago
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 12y ago
  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 12y ago
    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?
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
    - 001sky 12y ago
      This explains the math. 140 cal/28g. Prep time <5min. http://andrewskurka.com/adventures/alaska-yukon-expedition/food-nutrition/ http://andrewskurka.com/adventures/alaska-yukon-expedition/f... Also, on general Considerations in Food Items: http://andrewskurka.com/2010/the-5000-calories-per-day-wilderness-diet/ http://andrewskurka.com/2010/the-5000-calories-per-day-wilde... A worked example in more detail (see "Daily Rations"): http://andrewskurka.com/2012/food-planning-for-multi-day-hikes-and-thru-hikes/ http://andrewskurka.com/2012/food-planning-for-multi-day-hik...
nazgulnarsil 12y ago
People interested in Soylent may be interested in the whole food alternatives, MealSquares and Ambronite.
- AndrewKemendo 12y ago
  Thanks for those. I have said that if there were a "bar" version I would go for that - looks like mealsquares is that.
- fidlefodl 12y ago
  I was not aware of those, thanks for the links! I'll be curious at how much Ambronite ends up costing
  - nazgulnarsil 12y ago
    Ambornite is currently $32 a day IIRC. MealSquares are aiming for $12. Compared to $9.6x for Soylent.
bignaj 12y ago
"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 12y ago
  I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Should humanity forsake all modern conveniences and return to the bush?
  - 001sky 12y ago
    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
evan_hornsby 12y ago
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
fidlefodl 12y ago
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
- coderzach 12y ago
  They are man, the illuminati one percent wants to force feed soylent to all the sheeple. /s
- Karunamon 12y ago
  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.
Yver 12y ago
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.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
compcoin 12y ago
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.
compcoin 12y ago
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.

62 points by jhonovich 12y ago

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 12y ago
> 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 12y ago
  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.
- camillomiller 12y ago
  Very good point, but soylent actually goes a bit too far on the opposite directions. It's a nerdy, mechanistic answer to the problem and, because of that, it won't solve it. It's clearly a strong byproduct of the messed up American way of eating, which is, as you said, the outcome of a long term strategy by the food and distribution industries. The answer is well priced well balanced and tasty food sold next door to your daily fast food. So, if soylent would really want to change the way America eats, the should be funding a lobby, hire some philosophers and become a politically active think tank. Now they're just a nerdy company that will not appeal to anyone. Not to obese fast food goers, nor culturally elevated liberal people that are aware of the importance of eating well as a social activity and a pleasure, and can make the terrible connection to the much too famous movie -- soylent green.
fudged71 12y ago
"it doesn't sound like it's being developed by people who know what they are doing" and "I bet it would be as effective as Soylent" don't fit well together, you're being hypocritical.
- tekni5 12y ago
  Not really because I mentioned "as a food replacement for a few months.", people have reported that Soylent worked for them for some period of time (weeks or months as I understand). All I am saying is that other products that exist may have the same effect. But Soylent isn't marketed as a short term meal replacement, it's marketed for long term use which I assume means years. You can survive on quite a few things for a short period of time, doesn't mean the product is good for you.
aianus 12y ago
Where do I go to buy me some Plumpy'nut? Serious question.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

TheBiv 12y ago

YouTube link for mobile users: http://youtu.be/HRDcdaQMRDc http://youtu.be/HRDcdaQMRDc

bignaj 12y ago

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

FreakyT 12y ago

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

chrisarrons 12y ago

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

freyrs3 12y ago

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".

shaunol 12y ago
The eventual goal is not just as a meal replacement but a full diet replacement that eventually won't need to leverage crops, for areas with no arable land. Most meal replacement shakes I've seen (not including those used in the medical industry) aren't suitable to replace your entire diet with and are generally very expensive per meal because of this. Most also warn against using the product to replace every meal with. I think it's very good to have a mainstream product like this that attempts to cover 100% of the suggested daily intake, simply to bring into debate what the daily intake should really consist of? And if we can achieve it in countries that are too far from supply of actual crops.
- 001sky 12y ago
  "a full diet replacement that eventually won't need to leverage crops, for areas with no arable land." How will they make soylent? there are plenty of foods with 100kcal per/0z. that are shelf stable and natural (and healthy). Shipping in powder X vs other food Y is a false differentiation. Its neither more healthy nor, nor less bulky, nor cheaper to ship. Lastly, you will need to ship in water which is 4-5x the weight of food per day.
  - digitalpacman 12y ago
    You ship them soylent... watch the videos if you are interested. The problem to solve world hunger is not growing the food, it's logistics.
    - freyrs3 12y ago
      The problem to solve world hunger is to be able to distribute staple crops more efficiently to places which don't have access to existing markets. There's no conceivable way that some highly refined meal-replacement product for the first world can be more economical than access to bulk amounts of grains. Even Soylent as an emergency food is an order of magnitude less economical than the existing solutions for famine relief, which are themselves extremely expensive in bulk.

fdsary 12y ago

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

digitalpacman 12y ago

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 12y ago
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 12y ago
  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?
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - 001sky 12y ago
    This explains the math. 140 cal/28g. Prep time <5min. http://andrewskurka.com/adventures/alaska-yukon-expedition/food-nutrition/ http://andrewskurka.com/adventures/alaska-yukon-expedition/f... Also, on general Considerations in Food Items: http://andrewskurka.com/2010/the-5000-calories-per-day-wilderness-diet/ http://andrewskurka.com/2010/the-5000-calories-per-day-wilde... A worked example in more detail (see "Daily Rations"): http://andrewskurka.com/2012/food-planning-for-multi-day-hikes-and-thru-hikes/ http://andrewskurka.com/2012/food-planning-for-multi-day-hik...

nazgulnarsil 12y ago

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

AndrewKemendo 12y ago
Thanks for those. I have said that if there were a "bar" version I would go for that - looks like mealsquares is that.
fidlefodl 12y ago
I was not aware of those, thanks for the links! I'll be curious at how much Ambronite ends up costing
- nazgulnarsil 12y ago
  Ambornite is currently $32 a day IIRC. MealSquares are aiming for $12. Compared to $9.6x for Soylent.

bignaj 12y ago

"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 12y ago
I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Should humanity forsake all modern conveniences and return to the bush?
- 001sky 12y ago
  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

evan_hornsby 12y ago

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

fidlefodl 12y ago

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

coderzach 12y ago
They are man, the illuminati one percent wants to force feed soylent to all the sheeple. /s
Karunamon 12y ago
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.

Yver 12y ago

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.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

compcoin 12y ago

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.

compcoin 12y ago