My Experiment With Jake - EU Soylent

Recently I saw the news of Soylent 2.0 coming out. That reminded me that I wanted to try out this future food a while ago but it wasn’t available in EU and with that in Slovenia. There are DIY ways but that was a step too far for me.

The main reason I want to try this is that sometimes there is just no time to prepare food. So in that cases I go for fast food, order in, or eat something prepackaged. Not great for hunger nor for body needs.

So I started googling around and found that there are now a ton of soylents¹ out there. There’s even a website to compare soylents. Amazingly I also found a Slovenian soylent reseller website. What I discovered is that now there are EU soylents as well - most notable being Joylent, Queal and Jake.

There are upsides and downsides to all but I decided to go with Jake. The reason mainly being their packaging - one meal per one bag. Their website is also better looking than the other two (Déformation professionnelle). I have no intention in going 100% soylent anytime soon, I just want to replace shitty meals with healthier alternative. So opening and discarding one bag seems way more convenient than opening a big bag, measuring, and keeping an open bag around for a while.

So I ordered 20 bags and they arrived 2 days later. I was eager to try it so I replaced my lunch that day with Jake. I like their honest FAQ on taste:

In the words of the community: “Pretty much nobody likes it the first try. It’s weird, texture is odd (make sure you follow the directions!!), and the flavor is so hard to pin down that the brain gives up. However, (…) people not only get used to it by the second sip, but end up craving it, within a day to a week.”

And I have to agree 100%. I almost couldn’t make it through first glass:

Jake is…interesting. Not sure if I can actually do this :D

— Miha Rekar (@mr_foto) August 6, 2015

But the one next day was better. And the day after that I almost didn’t notice the taste. Today it still tasted a bit too sweet but it’s not a bad taste at all anymore. I’m not in the craving it phase yet, but I don’t dislike the taste anymore. It sure takes some getting used to, on the other hand - none of us liked wine/beer/coffee/tea on the first sip either.

What I really like about it is that it actually makes me feel full. After I drink the whole glass I’m good for at least 4 hours. This was the main thing I was worried about. If I’d crave food after soylent then I’d go back to my old ways of eating. That plus soylent would double my food intake and do no good.

5 days into the experiment I’m liking this way more than I anticipated. I’ll definitely finish this batch and then order some Joylent and Queal as well just so I can compare the taste.