I've been consuming soylents for a while now, starting in 2016 with Mana, then at some point when my stash was almost empty again in 2017 I decided to try another one, and as ordering came up again I decided it was a good time to order something else again and check-out queal. Part of this decision was influenced by me trying out Wundrbar in its initial release - I liked the product back then, and I decided it would be nice to order a few bars along the soylent.
So I ordered a bunch of Products, and put some variety into the selection (The ones I've tried so far are marked with (*))
Awesome Applie Pie (*) Smooth Vanilla (*) Funky Forrest Fruit (*) Chocolate Hazelnut Happiness (*) Royal Rice Pudding (*) Cool Chocolate Super Strawberry (*) Banana Mania
Wundrbar - White Chocolate / Vanilla (*)
Go Bar - Dark Chocolate (*)
Boost (*)
and a Shaker.
So what have I learned?
Delivery: 1) Delivery from the netherlands to finland took about 1 1/2 weeks, which isn't uncommon. 2) The products arrived in one huge package, which was unpleasantly heavy AND large, so carrying it through the city to my home was quite annoying.
Contents: Besides the stuff that I ordered the Package contained a small brochure advertising for the products and explaining the dosing. There was a few additional Wundrbars of the Hazelnut sort in there, I hadn't ordered 'em as I liked the Vanilla variant more of the original bars, and I was not aware that they had changed them.
The Shaker: Quick note on the shaker: the shaker is made of plastic that has some quality feel to it, which is a lot better than the cheap shakers Nano was adding to their products, and it doesn't leak as those did either. I know some people might prefer the Nalgene Bottles that Mana used to give you as a shaker, but for the purpose of shaking the Queal Shakers actually do the best job.
Wundrbars: Both of them seem to have been improved in taste and texture, with the two tastes of each bar (vanilla/white chocoloate) + (hazelnut/dark chocoloate) mixed rather than split as they where in the first edition. Eating a bar takes a bit of time, as they are to dry to be eaten fast. After eating a bar, I'm good for about 2 1/2 hours before i get hungry again. The Taste is edible, but not any special highlight
Go Bar: Wow, these taste great and are almost more candy than meal, they are also a bit more "wet" than the Wundrbars, so you can eat them without a lot of liquid, and much quicker. They might be a bit too tasty, as i constantly have to remind myself not to just grab one as a snack - appart from that, they will stop hunger for a similar timespan than wundrbar.
Boost: So boost is a powder that you ideally mix into your Queal. I've tried it without Queal in just Water to get a feel for the taste and its disgusting. It doesn't smell good either, but really the bitterness in the taste is the really bad part. Queal does a suprisingly good job layering itself over the taste, so the only times when I really notice it in queal are the times where I didn't shake the shaker good enough. For effect.. I'd say its like drinking tea. You will be a bit more awake for a while, but no where near the coffein-shot that an expresso or a red bull will give you. From what I've read they are fading out this product and have a new one coming, so lets hope that one will be better, as I definately can not recommend boost.
The Queals: Meals are packaged in 3 meal bags, which comes with the advantage of less trash, and the disadvantage of less conveniance. The package contained a measuring-scoop and 5 scoops are supposed to be a meal, but I found that if I take out 15 filled scoops from a bag, theres about a scoop full left. The Queal website suggests to just pour it from the bag eyeballing the amount - which actually isn't that hard, as when the shaker has the water + 5 scoops, then that usually means the powder is about reaching the hight of the strainer in the shaker - but the problem with that is that closing the bags becomes anoying then (as the powder will fill up the part thats meant to be filled with the plastic of the other bag-wall).
Queal has a very nice and smooth texture, which makes it easy to drink - when being left alone a few minutes after shaking, it actually gets a bit thicker, which I like, as it makes me feel full quicker. The tastes themself are already picked for the meals to be on the sweeter side of food, but they aren't too sweet for every day consumption. All 5 tastes that I tried, for some reason they have a sourness to them, compareable to some sourdough bread, which doesn't fit well with the tastes, but isn't so bad that it completely ruins it. Each meal kills my hunger for about 4 1/2 hours.
For the tastes: Vanilla was about what I expected, a sweet vanilla custard. Chocolate hazelnut happiness, well the name already sais it, its a bit stronger on the hazelnut side than on the chocolate. Awesome Apple Pie was a bit of a let down, generally there is a bit of apple pie, or more like apple-pancake in there, but the taste isn't strong enough, and its not sweet enough to give that cake-feel. Royal Rice Pudding is very ricy tastewise, but could also benefit from a bit more sweetness, also the sour-taste I mentioned earlier is specifically annoying in this one.
Funky Forrest Fruit.. tastes like someone threw a bunch of random fruit aromas in a bowl and then washed the queal in that, it doesn't natural or forrest fruity, just weird, but I kind of expected this to be more on the experimental side of things.
Super Strawberry also tastes rather artificial strawberry and doesn't suit the underlying queal taste well.
Compared to others Compared to Mana: Queal has a similarly good texture, the choice of tastes makes it more interesting, but the sourness and that all of those tastes are on the sweet side makes it a bit more annoying than the more neutral Mana is. Also Mana manages the full-feeling a bit longer (but that might be related to the split in 5 rather than 3 meals) - but has less conveniance with the 2 component mix.
Compare to Nano: Queals texture is a lot nicer than nano, and it solves a lot better in the water than nano too. The tastes are generally better than the ones of Nano, with the exception of Nano Vanilla, which wins vs Queal vanilla, but only because of that "sour" taste that i mentioned before. Also Queal does a lot better than Nano about the full-feel, but Nano is a bit more conveniant with one-bag-per-meal.
Conclusion: So far Queal seems a decent product, and Wundrbar / Go Bar make a very welcome addition, so you actually can have something you bite into rather than just liquids. I hope they can improve the taste a bit more though.
