I just cracked open my first bottle of Soylent 2.0, the prepackaged, premixed version of Soylent that their website describes as "Delicious Soylent in convenient ready-to-drink 400 kcal. bottles." Well, I don't doubt at all that it's convenient. And it is indeed ready-to-drink. And I fully accept that it is nutritious. But I disagree that it is "delicious."
When I think of "delicious" foods, the things that come to mind are pizza, sushi, ice cream, warm chocolate-chip cookies, and a good steak. After half a bottle of Soylent 2.0, I can safely state that it is not nearly as delicious as any of those.
So what does it taste like? Imagine really, really weak chocolate milk if you made it with unsweetened cocoa powder and skim milk. Now, back off the flavor about 75%. That's pretty close. There's also a very mild oat (?) flavor in the background, but it's tough to notice. It's certainly not "delicious," but it's not yucky, either. It's just kind of blah.
The taste (or lack thereof) isn't the most surprising characteristic of Soylent 2.0, though, it's the texture: There isn't any. The texture is like a very thin paint. There is absolutely nothing to chew or to provide any sort of mouth feel whatsoever. Water wets. Milkshakes have frozen granules and a variety of textures. This is neither. It more
coats the mouth, but uniformly and without any sort of
foodiness to it. It's a bit off-putting initially, but only because it's odd...not because it's totally unpleasant.
I'm drinking this at room temperature. I've read other people's opinions who enjoy it more when it's chilled. I'll try that next time. Maybe. If I remember to chill it first. And actually, that's the real attraction of Soylent 2.0 for me: zero prep. If I'm crammed at work and just don't have time to go get food, I can break open a bottle and have something akin to a lunch while I'm working. Clean-up consists of tossing the empty bottle into the recycling bin. Nice.
More as I know it...
