How do you deal with the Nalgene getting funky once you're >1 days into a trip, or does the Soylent rinse out cleanly enough for it to not be a concern? I used to use Accelerade for a significant proportion of my calories when backpacking - mainly because I have trouble getting down enough solid food when I'm on the go - but switched to Accel gels because the drink mix would leave the bottle pretty nasty after the first day.

> The alternatives, freeze-dried anything, are mostly disgusting and still require carrying a stove, fuel, and require cleanup

I've found Mountain House to be decently close to tasting like real food and requires no cleanup other than wiping the spoon. A Snow Peak LiteMax with a 750ml titanium pot weigh next to nothing, but there is still the fuel canister. I find the MoHo tasty enough that I'll eat it at home or work on occasion if I really don't want to spend any time on a meal.

I haven't had trouble with rinsing out the Nalgene so far. I'm pretty fastidious with my gear, so everything gets cleaned thoroughly shortly after I get home, which helps. Otherwise, while I'm out, if there's a water source nearby I just rinse with that (not dumping the leftovers into the water obviously), if there isn't, I'll pour about half a cup of my supply into the Nalgene and rinse, shake, and scrub thoroughly with my hands.

The older powder was a bit tougher to clean (but not difficult), the newer one is easier.

Mountain House probably got better since I last tried their stuff, but it still requires stopping, cooking, cleanup. I've got an MSR Windburner and I love it for what it is, but if I just want to put down a lot of miles for a quick trip the Soylent is king. I'm >this< close to being able to do a Summer overnight with my 12L BD Bbee.

...of course, developing some serious intestinal discomfort 18 miles from the car would suck, so there's that.

I tried the powder when backpacking like you described when I went on a camping trip last year. The problem is that you need to rinse the Nalgene bottle thoroughly after consuming the Soylent (which means you have to carry excess water, or find a water source relatively quickly). Otherwise it stinks like hell.

I found Soylent 2.0 and Coffiest work a lot better, since their bottles are disposable. Just put it in your trash bag and you're good.

Generally speaking it seems like energy bars targeting the outdoors crowd come in bar form. I can see that... from my perspective a bar's easier to lug around in a backpack compared to something you need to add water to.

That said I agree in another aspect... I'm actually surprised I couldn't find more MRE (not just energy-granola type) bars that specifically market to the outdoor crowd on Google, especially considering things like ultralight backpacking becoming more popular. I could only find one offhand (http://www.greenbelly.co/). Maybe I'm missing more, but it does seem like there would be more of a market for this sort of thing.

REI sells a bunch of stuff that's similar other than not coming in as large a single serving size. ProBar and Bonk Breaker are the two I've found to be most palatable. Apart from the big brands at REI, there's a ton of smaller brands - for example: http://katesrealfood.com/. I suspect the reasons there's not more of this stuff in full meal size is that a third of a pound of dry, compressed food is not the most enticing thing to eat multiple times a day.

Speaking for myself, I also find that after a day of getting your ass kicked by Mother Nature, having something that somewhat approximates comfort food - warm, saucy, even if rehydrated - before crawling into your tent or bivy is a big morale booster.

You've inspired me to give this a go. I do a lot of hiking, but never considered Soylent or the UK equivalent - Huel [1].

Just ordered my first batch of Huel and am going to try it next weekend. Could make my pack lighter and might be more nutritious.

1. https://huel.com/