Looking to start your Huel journey but aren’t sure whether to go for the Ready-To-Drink or powder option?

Search no more! Today we're comparing the 2 different Huel options.

Nutritionally complete Huel is the easy way to have a meal replacement including all of the benefits you would receive from a meal, with less fuss and planning.

Whether you would like to lose weight, bulk up or gain muscle, Huel can be used to aid your goals.

But which kind of Huel is best for you?

We're comparing Huel Ready to Drink vs Powder across:

In this article we will be looking at the benefits of both Huel powders and ready-to-drink options to help you decide.

Huel Powder 3.0 is the original complete meal. It promises complete nutrition in powder form. This Huel powder is recommended to be mixed with water in a shaker or blender, and is ready to drink.

From only £1.51 per serving, this option contains 400 calories. It contains a balanced macro profile of 37:30:30:3 (carbohydrates, fat, protein, fibre). Huel powder also contains phytonutrients, kombucha, probiotics and 26 essential vitamins and minerals.

Huel is used for people with busy jobs and lifestyles that need to make nutritious meals quickly. With the calories already worked out it makes it easier for users to stick to a diet and the low cost per portion makes it an easy meal replacement option.

Huel Powder 3.0 is available in a range of flavours including salted caramel, vanilla, chocolate, banana, berry, cinnamon swirl, coffee, mint chocolate, original and unflavoured and unsweetened.

Huel Powder is very easy to mix with other ingredient to make a range of different shakes and smoothies. You can blend Huel powder with fresh and frozen fruit or vegetables, as well as ice. You can mix with water or milk - to adjust the consistency and texture of your meal replacement shake.

Pro’s

Con’s

Huel Ready-To-Drink is a delicious nutrition meal in a bottle that can be drank, without having to mix it with anything else. Huel RTD's are ready to grab and go wherever you are. It has a tasty, smooth consistency and requires no mixing, just a simple shake.

Every Huel Ready-To-Drink bottle contains all 26 essential vitamins and minerals, protein essential fats, carbs, fibre and phytonutrients and is naturally gluten-free.

A balanced macro split of 35:20:42:3 (carbohydrate, protein, fat, fibre) and provides 400kcal per bottle.

Huel RTD is made from plant-based sustainable ingredients like oats, pea, rice, flaxseed, coconut, and sunflower.

Huel Ready-To-Drink is designed for users that are always on the go and don’t have much time to prepare a meal but can benefit from all of the nutrients that Huel offers.

Huel RTD is available in eight delicious flavours including iced coffee caramel, strawberries & cream, berry, cinnamon swirl, salted caramel, banana, chocolate and vanilla.

Pro’s

Con’s

Both Huel Powders and Ready-To-Drink formulas include 400 calories with the macros including protein, essential fats, carbs, fibre, phytonutrients, and 26 essential vitamins and minerals. Huel powder also includes kombucha and probiotics.

The balanced macro split of Huel Powder is 37:30:30:3 (carbohydrates, fat, protein, fibre) whereas the balanced macro split of Huel Ready-To-Drink is 35:20:42:3 (carbohydrate, protein, fat, fibre).

Huel Powder and V1 of Huel Ready-To-Drink used pea and rice protein whereas V2 of Huel Ready-To-Drink includes pea and hemp protein.

No matter which option you go for, Huel is a healthy choice when it comes to nutrition on the go.

Huel products in general are convenient as you have all of the benefits of a nutritional meal to enjoy on the go, whatever your lifestyle.

They're spot on for grabbing a breakfast on the go, preventing snacking between meals, or drinking when you're busy at work.

However, Huel Ready-To-Drink is the most convenient as it ready to drink whenever without no preparation, mixing or blending. The delicious taste is there without having to add more ingredients.

This speaks for itself. What is easier than picking up a bottle, and drinking it? That's exactly what Huel RTD allows you to do. 

You can also pack it in your bag, if you know you have a long day ahead. Huel RTD's are a great supplement to add to your diet if you're looking to lose weight.

Huel powder - whilst still convenient, require you to add milk or water, and either shake or blend it. This means if you're using Huel on the go, not only do you have to carry a shaker with the powder in it, you also need to make sure you have water or milk on hand to mix it.

On Reddit’s Ready-To-Drink Huel-Is It Healthy forum, bhay105 said, ‘I used to live off of fast food, pizza, grilled cheese, and pasta. I've replaced most of those meals with Huel and I feel so much better. Is it the absolute best food I should be eating? Probably not but it's sure as hell a lot better than what I used to eat. I've always struggled with meal planning, shopping and cooking, so the convenience feels like a literal lifesaver for me.’

On Check Me Owt’s Huel Ready-To-Drink review, it stated, ‘Thankfully, the convenience of the RTD bottle is perfect for keeping you out of trouble in any situation you find yourself in.

For me:

I prefer to consume it in between meals where the temptation to snack on unhealthy treats are at its highest.

The fact that it also contains 400 calories, 20g of protein, 34g of carbohydrates and 18g of fat means that I’m able to stay satiated until I find the time to consume my next meal.

This is normally enough to keep me going for a good 2 and a half hours before my stomach begins to talk out loud and remind everyone in the room who’s hungry.

The best part is:

I’ll almost never experience that ‘post-meal dip’ in energy when consuming the ready to drink bottle (as I would with most other meals/snacks), as its low glycemic load keeps my insulin levels in check.

This allows me to crack on with the rest of my day, guilt-free and maintain productivity levels.’

Huel Ready-To-Drink has been reported to be much smoother and silkier however Huel Powder has been described sometimes as thick and gritty. This may be caused by Huel Ready-To-Drink already coming mixed and the powder the user having to mix themselves.

Huel Ready-To-Drink comes with a tastier more apparent flavour, however many Huel powder users try to counteract the lack of taste by adding other ingredients and flavour boosters to their shakes.

We're going with the ready-to-drink option here. These have a texture of a regular milkshake - as if you had made it with skimmed milk. No clumps, lumps and no powdery consistency.

The taste of the ready-to-drink Huel bottles, we think is much stronger than their powder counterpart.

On Huel’s Ready to drink vs. Powder – help page, Hoopyfrood1965 said, ‘Having tried and loved the ready made Huel Berry, I went ahead and ordered the powder mainly for the economic sense. Was very disappointed by the powdery texture and weak flavour. Have now used a blender which has improved things a little.

My question is this - what is in the ready made drink compared to a powder based concoction? Less volume, clearly, so in what proportion is it made? What else has been added?’

On Huel’s Ready to drink vs. Powder – help page, Christina T said, ‘Getting good results with the powder is easy after a while - it just takes a bit of experimentation to find the flavour and consistency you like.

The Original vanilla powder has a similar sweetness to the berry RTD in my opinion. Choose a flavour boost that you fancy (mint-choc, mocha, caramel, cacao are my personal favourites). Try adding 100g powder to 400ml water and 1 tsp of flavour boost.

Use a blender or mixer ball to get a smoother consistency than the shaker alone. Refrigerate it to thicken over night.This should give you a better result!

Also adding milk can make a massive difference to texture, consistency and flavour. My preference is oat milk, but dairy milk, or any plant milk also works well.’

On Huel’s Ready to drink vs. Powder – help page, Lastest fuels said, ‘In all honesty, like others said you should think about it like two completely different products.

There are many reasons for this, from the ingredients, to the manufacturing process and the format.

Perhaps the biggest difference is the manufacturing and how it is stored. When you make the RTD, it needs to be in liquid state for the next 6 months + (whatever the shelf life is); avoid the precipitation of the ingredients; keep the smooth texture and still be edible.

In order to do so, you will appreciate that the ingredient list varies (to a degree that the macronutrient split is different):

Oats are first for powder; pea protein and then tapioca starch is for RTD etc. So you have a different list of ingredients. That will affect the flavour.

Then you have industrial blending. Any RTD in the market will be smoother than the Powder counterpart; due to the fact that they are blended in companies specialised making these drinks. The blending process can take minutes or hours; in order to achieve an homogeneous texture.

The location, the water and the process this company uses can also change the flavour of the drink (as other brands have experienced).

All in all, you won’t be able to achieve the same drink with the powder, and I would recommend you instead trying to achieve something you like with it. Either via adding milk; more berries and blending; or going for a different flavour.’

Huel Powder is extremely affordable, coming in from £1.51 per meal. However, Huel Ready-To-Drink bottles start at £3.50.

Huel Ready-To-Drink is available to buy from Snackfully from £25.99 per case of 8.

This is for a 500ml bottle which is 1 serving. You can also purchase individual bottles so you can test out flavours before you commit to a full case.

You can also purchase the Huel bestsellers bundle which is £47.98 for 16 bottles, £68.99 for 24 bottles, £90.99 for 32 bottles and £110 for 40 bottles saving up to 21% and working out at less than £3 a bottle.

Huel as a meal replacement shake is a winner for us, providing nutritionally complete meals on the go. But does Huel Ready-To-Drink or Huel Powder win?

Depending on lifestyle, job and goals can impact your decision as well as the price difference between the two.

If you work for home for example, Huel powder may appeal to you more as you have more time to mix the product, and add other ingredients and a blender is readily available if needed. Let's be honest, mixing some powder and water together in a shaker isnt hard work... cleaning a blender on the other hand...

Huel Powder is also the more affordable option - meaning that eating healthier becomes even cheaper when adding Huel Powder to your diet. 

However, if you are always on the go, and away from home in a busy job. For example running from meeting to meeting, or travelling for work, without access to a kitchen and with not a lot of time spare to prepare on the mornings or evenings.

Then Huel Ready-to-Drink would be the much better choice for you.

If we had to pick only one it would be Huel ready-to-drink. We're prepared to pay a little more for the convenience, taste, range of flavours, and ready-to-drink bottle.

Although this is a more expensive product, the benefits ensure you won’t regret your purchase.