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Solyent meal replacement shakes review

REVIEW – I love food almost as much as I love gadgets. So in addition to a variety of kitchen gadgets, I like to review food items too. Lately, I’ve been searching for meal replacement shakes and bars to test and ingest. I’ve tried Queal, Huel, and Ambronite shake mixes and have been asked why I haven’t tried one of the first meal replacement shakes – Soylent. You spoke, I listened, and the last time I shopped for groceries at my local Walmart, I noticed that they carried RTD bottles of Soylent, so I bought some. Good? Bad? Made of people? Let’s find out?

What is it?

Soylent (the meal replacement shake) has been around since 2014 and has always been a little controversial due to its name – Soylent. If you’re a child of the 70’s you might remember the cult sci-fi flick called Soylent Green which started Charleston Heston. In this movie, which takes place in the year 2022, the world is polluted and food is scarce so a company creates a new food called Soylent Green which turns out, is made from people. Yum!

Ingredients


The Soylent drink I’m going to tell you about today isn’t made of people (shock!), but is made of soy protein isolate. Yum! Ok, not really, but we’ll get to that.

Soylent is available in powder and in RTD (ready-to-drink) bottles in 6 flavors that include Original, Strawberry, and Cacoa. That’s only 4 flavors you say. That’s because there is a version of Soylent with caffeine. The Cafe flavors include Vanilla, Chai, and Mocha. I can’t do caffeine, so I bought one of each of the regular flavors for $X from my local Walmart.

Each 14oz (414mL) bottle contains 20% of your daily nutrition requirements and 400 calories. The ingredients (original flavor) are: FILTERED WATER, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, MALTODEXTRIN, HIGH OLEIC SUNFLOWER OIL, ISOMALTULOSE, CANOLA OIL, MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, OAT FIBER, VITAMIN AND MINERAL PREMIX, ISOMALTOOLIGOSACCHARIDE, SOY LECITHIN, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, SALT, GELLAN GUM, SUCRALOSE

FYI, the strawberry flavor contains CELLULOSE. Seriously?

The vitamin and mineral premix includes: VITAMIN & MINERAL PREMIX: POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, MAGNESIUM PHOSPHATE, TRICALCIUM PHOSPHATE, DIPOTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, CHOLINE CHLORIDE, SODIUM ASCORBATE, DL-ALPHA-TOCOPHERYL ACETATE, FERROUS GLUCONATE, ZINC SULFATE, NIACINAMIDE, D-CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, THIAMINE HYDROCHLORIDE, COPPER GLUCONATE, MANGANESE SULFATE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE, IBOFLAVIN, CHROMIUM CHLORIDE, BIOTIN, FOLIC ACID, SODIUM MOLYBDATE, SODIUM SELENITE, VITAMIN K1, POTASSIUM IODIDE, CYANOCOBALAMIN, ERGOCALCIFEROL.

Taste and texture

The other meal replacement products I’ve tested or have purchased but haven’t reviewed like Ka’Chava, use pea or oats as their main source of protein. So, I was a little skeptical of Soylent from the onset. I normally try to stay away from consuming a lot of soy products due to my breast cancer adventure 8 years ago, but I figured as long as I wasn’t replacing EVERY meal with Soylent for an extended period of time, it would be perfectly fine to test a few bottles.

The first flavor I tried was the original (vanilla) flavor. I chilled it in the fridge for a day or so and took it to work and drank it for lunch. I found the texture to be thin and watery and the flavor to be an offputting fake shake taste with a chemical after taste. Let’s just say that I was not a fan of it but I soldiered through and drank the whole bottle.

45 minutes later I found myself in the restroom with severe stomach cramps and cold sweats. Let me preface this by saying that I’ve tried other meal replacement shakes and haven’t had this issue. I’m also not allergic to soy and drank soy milk over the years with no issues and have eaten protein bars that have soy isolate in them without issues. I will also say that I will have episodes like this one on very rare occasions, like once a year or once every two years. I never know what brings them on but my first thought this time was that the Soylent caused it.

In an effort to make sure it wasn’t Soylent, I drank the cacao flavor the next day. I didn’t think it tasted at all like chocolate and thought it tasted even worse than the original flavor. But I drank the whole thing and this time I didn’t get sick. So it must have been one of my weird episodes and not Soylent.

The last flavor I tried weeks later was the strawberry flavor and again – ick. To my tastebuds (your experience may differ), Soylent Strawberry and Soylent, in general, tastes the worst out of all the shakes I’ve tried so far by a long shot. Maybe it would taste better if it was actually made of people!

What I like

  • Available at your local Walmart

What I’d change

  • Improve the taste
  • Improve the ingredients

Final thoughts

I personally didn’t like Soylent based mainly on the flavor and then on the protein source and other ingredients. Cellulose? Why do we need wood pulp in a meal replacement shake? Canola oil? Again, why?

I’ve been using meal replacement shakes as an alternative to eating a cheeseburger and fries, or a bag of chips for lunch. But in this case, I would skip the Soylent in favor of the burger. I know that many people swear by Soylent, but for me, all I can say is no thanks, I’d much rather drink Huel and Queal shakes (also contains soy).

Price: < $4.00 for one bottle. Price varies depending on quantity
Where to buy: Soylent, Amazon, and Walmart
Source: The samples for this review was purchased with my own funds.

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Solyent meal replacement shakes review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 16, 2019 at 11:00 am.

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Ambronite meal replacement shakes review

REVIEW – I’m still on my quest to try a variety of meal replacement shakes and bars in an effort to curb my bad habit of eating unhealthy options for breakfast and lunch during the workweek. The latest meal shakes that I’ve been sampling are from Ambronite. Let’s take a closer look.

What is it?

Ambronite offers complete plant-based meal replacement shakes that come in individual pouches, bags, and tubs. They also offer a green drink mix that provides 1 serving of veggies and greens.

Drinkable Meal Shakes

Ambronite offers its powdered meal shake mixes in three flavors and three package types. They have an original flavor, berry flavor, and banana flavor. They sent me one of the 4-meal bags of their original flavor and 3 individual 1-meal pouches of their berry flavor. No, I don’t like bananas, so I haven’t tried that flavor.

The 4-meal bags are based on 400 calories per meal. So you can actually make each bag last longer by customizing the meals by using less of the powder. One scoop = 160 calories and 2.5 scoops = 400 calories.

Ambronite uses oats and almonds as the protein source along with spinach, flaxseed, and other natural ingredients. Click the image above to see more.

Preparing the meal shakes

To prepare a shake, you just add the number of scoops for your preferred calorie meal and 1-2.5 cups of water in a shaker bottle. The bottle that Ambronite sent to me did not have a shaker ball or a shaker screen in it. I don’t know if that part was missing or that’s just the way theirs is, but using it to mix the shake left some clumps compared to when I use a shaker bottle with a ball or screen.

The resulting shake was a not so appetizing green color but that’s because each serving of the Ambronite meal shake gives you a 2 for 1 punch because it includes greens too.

Each serving is 100% vegan, 160 calories, and provides 10g of protein and only 14g of carbs which isn’t that bad at all. And no Sucralose! Yay!

Texture and taste


I first tried the berries flavored 1-meal shake package and found the flavor to be a vaguely berry-flavored medium sweet shake with a medium-thick shake-like texture. The only offputting thing about the shake is that it has small bits of what I think are almonds in it that make the shake a little “chunky”. I might not mind the almond chunks if the shake were chocolate flavored, but that texture doesn’t seem right in a berry-flavored drink, but that’s just me. You might feel differently.

The original flavored of the meal shake mix doesn’t really have much of a flavor at all unless “meh” could be considered a flavor. It’s lightly sweetened and has the same chunky texture as the berries flavor. I thought I might be able to “doctor up” the shake by adding a tablespoon of cocoa powder and a couple packets of stevia sweetener. It helped some, but not much.

I was able to remedy the problem with the chunks by putting the powder, water, and ice cubes in my Ninja blender. It didn’t help with the flavor though. Given a choice, I would go with the berries flavor, but neither one were enjoyable or all that tasty to me.

AmbroGreens


I don’t eat nearly enough fruits and veggies. I’m lucky if I eat one serving a day, let alone the 3-5 you’re supposed to eat with EACH meal. The AmbroGreens drink mix is a small container that provides 30 23 calorie servings of greens.

Note that while you are getting vitamins, antioxidants, and phytonutrients when you drink the AmbroGreens drink, but little to no fiber. That means that you should not substitute AmbroGreens for real servings of fruits and veggies, but it is a nice supplement or when you’re traveling.


To fix the green drink, you just mix a teaspoon with some water and drink. The flavor wasn’t bad but wasn’t something I looked forward to drinking every day either.

What I like

    • Healthier than other replacement meal mixes I’ve tried so far
    • No artificial sweeteners
    • No artificial ingredients
    • No preservatives
    • No wheat, dairy, or soy

What I’d change

  • Improve the flavor and texture of the meal shakes

Final thoughts

When it comes to ingredients and nutrition the Ambronite meal replacement drink mixes have Soylent, Huel, and Queal beat. They are high protein and lower in carbs and don’t include questionable ingredients like Suclarose and soy. But when it comes to flavor and texture, Ambronite comes in last – at least to my taste buds. I’ll continue to drink the rest of the samples that they sent me, but I don’t plan to order more until they improve the flavor and texture. That said, if they ever add a chocolate version of their meal replacement shake mix, I’d love to try it.

Price: $19.95 and up. Price depends on package size. Cheaper on Amazon.
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Ambronite.

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Ambronite meal replacement shakes review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 22, 2019 at 1:19 pm.

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