It’s been more than a year since food substitute/replacement Soylent launched its 1.0 product, and manufacturer Rosa Labs hasn’t been standing still. The company has iterated on the launch formula several times, and the current "version" of Soylent—version 1.5—tastes very different and has a much-modified ingredient makeup from its predecessors.
But this morning, Soylent creator Rob Rhinehart has announced a new development: ready-to-drink Soylent. Called "Soylent 2.0," the pre-mixed product will ship in October to the US and Canada (more international shipping is coming, both for the old powder and the new liquid, but there isn't a solid timeframe). The new pre-mixed liquid will come in 400 calorie bottles, sold in packs of 12, for $29 (if you subscribe to regular Soylent deliveries). That’s about $2.41-ish per 14oz (414ml) HDPE recyclable bottle. Assuming five drinks per day to hit 2,000 calories, that works out to about $12 per day of food. The per-day cost of powdered Soylent runs about $9 per day at its cheapest price.
The 2.0 premixed form again alters the fat/carb/protein ratios of the product, going from 43/40/17 to 47/33/20. The shift results in a glycemic index of 49.2. Soylent 2.0 remains vegan, like the powder, and Rhinehart stressed to Ars that about half of the lipid calories come from algal sources, which he calls a "very efficient, very sustainable way of producing food." The powder has always contained some soy lecithin, but the liquid actually shifts from rice protein to soy for its primary protein source.
The change comes for a variety of reasons, including the water footprint of rice farming and the desire to make as many components of Soylent as sustainable as possible. Rhinehart also says that the switch to soy for protein enhances the product’s texture and taste. There are some public concerns about high consumption of soy, but Rhinehart is quick to dismiss them. "Because we’re not using whole soy, we’re just using the protein isolate…the isoflavone levels are much lower than what they would be in soy flour or tofu. There are some levels, but they’re well below any that have shown to have an effect," he explained. "There was somewhat specious research in the past on what impact soy can have on testosterone levels and those have been widely debunked. We’ve certainly done our research here and we’ll be posting our analysis on the Web as well."
Carb-wise, the drink should mostly resemble the 1.5 product; the drink incorporates isomaltulose (which Rhinehart described as being "very popular in Japan"), which keeps the drink’s glycemic index down. The product still contains "a very tiny amount" of sucralose, which Rhinehart describes as being necessary to mask the bitter taste of some of the vitamins.
Rhinehart says shipments of Soylent 2.0 will begin on October 15, and that date appears to be a firm one. Although Soylent’s launch was plagued with timeliness issues and many customers waited weeks or even months for their orders to arrive, Rhinehart assured Ars that the company’s shipping problems are far behind it. All orders are currently leaving the warehouse within two or three days, and the 2.0 liquid version will stay within that window.
Just because the premixed version carries the number "2.0" doesn’t mean that the powdered variant will be phased out. Rhinehart explained that the powdered form’s lack of water will always be cheaper to ship and will result in a cheaper cost-per-calorie (not to mention that the unmixed variant will be storable for much longer periods of time). "We’re always going to keep our powdered product around," he told us. "It’s also more flexible—a huge number of our users enjoy flavoring the product, and the powder allows for that."
As far as aligning the powder and liquid versions’ nutritional contents and version numbers, Rhinehart says that’s something that will happen eventually, but for now the two will remain a bit different. Rhinehart says he expects to release a new version of the powder later this year, but it won’t be numbered 2.0. "But the philosophies of the nutrition are of course the same: we’re seeking to provide full daily value requirements in a sustainable fashion."
In closing, we asked Rhinehart a bit about the financial performance of Soylent and Rosa Labs; the company has taken venture capital funding previously. Rhinehart said that while he isn’t prepared to talk about any of the company’s finances at this time, he is thankful for the help they’ve received from the VC community. "Today, the company is in a very strong position," he said. "With this product release and the releases we have in the future, we’re going to expand even more… the company is very strong and sustainable and we’re on a very good path."
The pre-mixed Soylent 2.0 won’t be available for sale until October, but Rhinehart has promised us an early sample to try out. As soon as it gets here, we’ll compare it to the powder and see how it shapes up.
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