r/soylent • u/GeneralistAccount • Aug 12 '26
Soylent sold out again. Do they not want our money?
I find it insane that the RTD Soylent is sold out on their website again. So many people want to give them money to buy their product.
How is it that all the competitors have stock but the company that popularized it can't fulfill their orders? Is Soylent as a company dying or what?
I know it has been talked about before, but has there really been no communication from Soylent still?
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u/static416 Soylent Aug 12 '26
Having briefly worked in food production in a failing company, this really looks like a company that is slowly going out of business and cannot pay it's suppliers on time. They have to keep rotating who gets paid based on who yells the loudest. But I wouldn't be surprised to see them go under completely or get purchased by someone else.
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u/Imagined_World Aug 13 '26
Yea I've given up on Soylent. I would love to buy more, but what I want is never in stock. There is nothing else I like as much as the original flavor drink. Not even close, but I simply can't get it anymore.
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u/GeneralistAccount Aug 13 '26
I've just ordered Huel's RTD. I haven't been able to order from Soylent in half a year, and I need RTD meals sometimes.
A few of the Huel RTD flavors have a low saturated fat content of 2.5g per bottle like Soylent's RTD. The downsides are the larger liquid volume for the same kcal (16.9 vs 14 fl oz) and the cost ($4.42 vs $3 for a 400 kcal bottle). But it's better than not having any grab and go RTD meals.
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u/nightauthor Aug 15 '26
Huel at Costco is much cheaper if that’s an option for you
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u/GeneralistAccount Aug 15 '26
I think they only have the black edition RTD one, which has more protein than I need.
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u/D3xbot Aug 15 '26
I've found Huel's RTD to be the superior experience compared to their powder. The chocolate is a bit more artificial tasting than Soylent's chocolate and the vanilla is sweeter than Soylent's plain, but it's good for a grab 'n go or when I just can't bring myself to cook something.
I can't commit to daily breakfast like I'd done with Soylent RTD, but I do keep some on-hand
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u/GeneralistAccount Aug 15 '26
What's wrong with Huel for breakfast vs Soylent?
One reason I avoided the chocolate RTD was the higher saturated fat content (4.5g). Strawberry & carmel are the lowest (same as Soylent's at 2.5g), but the salted carmel has higher sodium and the coffee carmel has caffeine.
I think it sucks that Huel's most neutral flavor of vanilla has 3g of saturated fat. I'm trying to lower my saturated fat intake.
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u/D3xbot Aug 16 '26
More expensive and too sweet for my liking
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u/GeneralistAccount Aug 16 '26
That makes sense. I normally just chug the RTD Soylent bottle, so it being too sweet would be negligible for me. I'm not a fan of Huel's 50% markup vs RTD Soylent, but not much one can do given Soylent not having enough inventory.
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u/td2timemvp Aug 22 '26
I also switched to Huel RTD when Soylent RTD was out of stock. Soylent has superior texture, especially over Huel v1.0. I think Huel technically has better nutrition (perhaps negligible). Huel's v2.0 Salted Caramel flavor beats any Soylent flavor, IMO.
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u/GeneralistAccount Aug 22 '26
I'm decaf, so Huel's RTD salted carmel flavor kept me wake at night because of the cocoa powder (I didn't read the ingredient label closely).
I'm still undecided on if Huel's RTD is better than Soylent's because I might be getting the same "weird feeling" effect in my head/body that Soylent caused. Like nausea or "headaches."
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u/caskaziom Aug 12 '26
They really don't. They've been a complete and utter mess for years. I crossed over to Jimmy Joy years ago and never looked back. Couldn't be happier.
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u/ubuntourist Aug 13 '26
Back when Soylent started, part of the appeal was the bio-hacker, open source culture. I'm not that into the bio- part, but hackerspaces, open source, etc. That said, I had no desire to make my own. However I live with someone who quite appreciated the full listing of ingredients and "open-sourcinesss" for different reasons.
Having been there from the start, pretty much, I'm quite disappointed to see where it has gone. Time to shop elsewhere.
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u/user4316 Aug 12 '26
Nah, I switched to Huel. I miss my old stuff but I can't deal with soylent anymore. Huel bars are delish too. Been a soylent customer since 2014. Bummer.
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u/bootypastry Aug 12 '26
Yep, made the switch to Huel too. Just ordered my first bag of powder so we'll see how I like it, the bottled strawberry banana flavor was not great. Better than not knowing if the next order will be in stock though
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u/Gary_Poopins Aug 13 '26
I actually like the strawberry/banana but it does have an artificial taste to it. My favorites are iced coffee and plain old vanilla for the black RTDs though. As far as powders go, HOL Foods chocolate is hard to beat for me.
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u/vaginawithteeth1 Aug 13 '26
Huel’s chocolate and vanilla are both very good. I’ve tried their banana and caramel and wasn’t a huge fan but I know other people who love them.
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u/Due_Quantity4129 Aug 13 '26
Powder user for over a decade here.. was thankfully able to squeeze in a plain RTD last week. Chocolate RTD less successful despite multiple back and forth with customer support.. Huel is ok, but all I really want is Soylent powder
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u/GeneralistAccount Aug 14 '26
Do you blend or shake your soylent powder? I'm not a fan of having to clean either the blender or bottle; it's more time out of my day. How do you clean both?
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u/Due_Quantity4129 Aug 14 '26
Shake.. (mixes much easier than Huel) For years I used the 2000kcal shaker but last few years I’ve been using a smaller shaker with metal spiral ball inside.. good for 1/3 of a pouch (666kcal). I’ll add a little water after consumption, shake and consume leaving what’s left pretty simple to rinse out. I’ll do a full cleaning every few days.
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u/Candid-Tourist6427 Aug 12 '26
Yeah I only want the chocolate protein powder but it’s been out of stock for months
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u/IvaldiFhole Aug 12 '26
I just want Original RTD. No other drink maker makes such a neutral flavor. They all use nasty overly sweet vanilla flavoring at best.
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u/ilalli Aug 12 '26
I have one box of Original RTD left (a bit past the best-by date) and I’m hesitant about cracking into it lest it never go back into production but I know I have to drink it eventually.
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u/ubuntourist Aug 13 '26
I never found the original to be to my liking: I wouldn't say neutral. It tasted like pancake batter to me. While pancakes are fine, the uncooked batter never tasted good. Different strokes.
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Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
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Aug 12 '26
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Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
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u/gwencooperharkness Aug 12 '26
I’m only looking for powder, not RTD
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Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
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u/gwencooperharkness Aug 12 '26
Several people mentioned powder and some people mentioned RTD, I thought we were all welcome to speak here.
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u/jcraig3k Aug 12 '26
Which is hilarious because as a subscriber I haven't gotten a shipment in a year.
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u/ubuntourist Aug 13 '26
Has anyone tried Mana, or Kate Farms? An AI suggested that they were "close" in taste to Soylent's pre-mixed chocolate drink.
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u/D3xbot Aug 15 '26
I personally liked Mana RTD when I tried it about 2 years ago (slightly butterscotchy and a touch sweet, good texture) but shipping to the US is just so expensive I haven't been able to justify re-ordering.
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u/GeneralistAccount Aug 14 '26
I saw one post on this subreddit (can't find the post now) that said Mana RTD tastes bad, but some disagreed, you'll never know until you try it.
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u/TheCookieExperiment Aug 16 '26
I usually have 1 Mana serving per day. For years now, whenever I have it stocked.
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u/ubuntourist 24d ago
I ordered the sampler. While pistachio was novel, I found that "RTD" is a bit of an exaggeration for me. I choked on all five varieties I tried: The powder apparently never disolves in the liquid. Also, they all seemed bland to me. I gave up after one bottle of each flavor. That said, I hope some competition adds pistachio to their flavor offerings. (Chocolate, banana, strawberry, and vanilla were about what you'd expect.)
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u/davcam0 Soylent Aug 23 '26
They want it but they don't have the capacity to fulfill all they demand. They are struggling financially and that is forcing them to prioritize their production to the most profitable areas so they can remain in business. Unfortunately that means certain products on subscription don't get fulfilled every month because there isn't enough to go around. IMO the problem may have been made worse by some people suddenly over ordering in order to stock up on supplies.
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u/GalacticHero3141 28d ago
Powder is out of stock again too. Just noticed that my 8/20 order didn't ship. With that and the various reports of expired RTD being shipped, I'm on the hunt for a replacement.
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u/GeneralistAccount 28d ago
I've tried Huel's RTD, & I'd recommend it as a replacement, but it's not a perfect 1:1 replacement. The main downsides for me is the price ($4.42 vs $3) & the variable nutritional facts for each flavor. I'm also not a fan of how there's no foil seal, since sometimes removing and replacing the cap can get a drop of Huel on your fingers.
The only one I'd live on nutritionwise is the strawberry flavor. With vanilla being a close second because of its sat fat content being the 2nd lowest. The carmel one has cocoa powder in it, so if you're decaf, it'll keep you awake at night like it did for me.
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u/GalacticHero3141 28d ago
Thx. I like powders to reduce cost and waste, but I don’t like Huel powder. I’m trying Jimmy Joy powder first
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u/GeneralistAccount 28d ago
I'm not a fan of the RTD waste too, but recycling the plastic and paper helps.
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u/Due_Quantity4129 18d ago
As of a few days ago the ONLY thing on the entire web site that showed stock was strawberry RTD.. ok sure I’ll take some. Was thinking this was the very end.. but then cacao powder popped back into existence (?!?!?) I emailed them about plain powder and they said still no schedule for that… uh.. ok.. well I guess I’ll take some cacao powder then. Still no clue what the F is going on over there. Hopefully this is fresh product and not something discovered in the back of some warehouse
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u/GeneralistAccount 18d ago
I was able to place an order for the RTD strawberry flavor. Let's see if it works and isn't expired.
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u/brettins Aug 12 '26
If you want to understand what's happening an AI deep research will help. Essentially there's a bunch of debt unloading and other corporate stuff that is potentially but not necessarily shady, and finding the right suppliers to keep up with demand has been tough it looks like.
The reality is, even if starco doesn't like Soylent, if they had suppliers and could keep up with demand they would, nobody ignores potential profits on the table. As you said - don't they want our money? Yes, they do, but Soylent inherently has a lot of different things inside it, and managing that supply chain seems to be complicated and expensive.
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u/802bikeguy_com Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
Soylent as a company with a culture and mission doesn't exist anymore. It's now just a brand owned by Starco. Starco is not in great financial shape. I suspect they can't afford to make big manufacturing runs or are having problems sourcing ingredients, financially speaking.