 For many, many years, humans have eaten food. It's what sustains us. It comes from the earth. It comes from the seas. Now, it comes from science. This is Soylent, a scientific-looking amalgam of protein, flour, vitamins, and minerals that first made waves as a crowdfunded project last year. A project whose goal was to straight up replace food. Yes, all of it. Technically, Soylent is food, just not any kind that you're used to eating on a regular basis. It's supposed to give you pretty much everything you need to survive, and nothing else. There's no joy to Soylent, only purpose. It's just cheap, nutritious liquid that dispenses with the entertainment and social aspect of eating and gets down to business. Subsisting on Soylent costs less than $10 a day. Here in New York, $10 is good for a couple packs of gum, so a full day's worth of calories for that amount of cash is actually a really good deal. And if you're in a time crunch, it just takes a few gulps to put a meal down. Of course, the first step to eating Soylent is getting it, and right now, that's very hard. It turns out that the promise of a mega-efficient, no-frills diet has a lot of people buzzing. And the hype has left the company with a backlog that runs several months long. You can make your own Soylent, or some variation of it if you're enterprising enough to dig up and deal with the mess of the ingredients. They offer a whole DIY site with forums, in fact. But that defeats the purpose of saving time with ultra-efficient nutrition in the first place. Anyway, once you dig up some Soylent, the next challenge is making it. The product ships to you in individual packets, one per day, seven per box. The company also ships customers a two-liter pitcher and a metal measuring scoop. The pitcher is key. In fact, you don't need the scoop at all unless you want to futz around with making individual servings. But you're better off just dumping an entire packet into the pitcher and filling it up to the top with water. You have to be careful here, because the act of dumping the bag into the pitcher causes a little plume of Soylent powder to form. The company also ships matching bottles of a fish oil-canola oil blend that looks a bit like those little bottles of shampoo you get in hotel rooms. You're looking at a full day's worth of everything that has to go into your body to keep it running, or so Soylent says. 2,010 calories of beige liquid. Once you clean up the mess, you shake the pitcher for 30 seconds. I found that shaking usually opened up some air bubbles in the powder, which means you have to add a bit more water as you go. When you're done, you stick it in the fridge, let it sit overnight so it gets smooth, and you're ready to have all your biological requirements met with just a few sips. You just have to get that whole pitcher down by the time you go to sleep. Now, the moment of truth. The drink. Since Soylent first made headlines, you've probably read some pretty disgusting descriptions of what this stuff tastes like. Don't believe them. It's not bad. It's certainly not delicious. But it's not going to make you gag. The best way I can describe it is like if you took a few spoonfuls of peanut butter in a blender with a lot of milk. It has some richness and creaminess to it, and just the tiniest hint of sweetness. It tastes like sustenance. I drink Soylent for a full month, and let me tell you, it gets boring. It's doable. Like I said, it's not gross. But there's a social aspect of eating and drinking that Soylent simply isn't built to provide. Fortunately, the experiment was pretty painless. Apart from some occasional digestive discomfort, I felt healthy the entire time, and I never really felt hungry. There's a ton of protein in Soylent, so I guess that's no surprise. Over the course of the month, I lost somewhere around 12 pounds, but my usage was a little extreme. The company says they don't imagine most people use it as a 100% meal replacement the way I did. They see it as a convenience thing. A breakfast here, a lunch there. And when you want to eat real food, you go ahead and do it. In that regard, Soylent isn't all that revolutionary. You can walk into your local grocery store right now and find an entire aisle of meal replacement bars and shakes. But Soylent seems to be both cheaper and more nutritionally complete than most of them. Would I do another 30-day stint on it? Absolutely not. But could I see myself drinking it here and there? Definitely. Assuming I'm ever able to work my way through the waiting list.
 For many, many years, humans have eaten food.
 It's what sustains us.
 It comes from the earth.
 It comes from the seas.
 Now, it comes from science.
 This is Soylent, a scientific-looking amalgam of protein, flour, vitamins, and minerals
 that first made waves as a crowdfunded project last year.
 A project whose goal was to straight up replace food.
 Yes, all of it.
 Technically, Soylent is food, just not any kind that you're used to eating on a regular basis.
 It's supposed to give you pretty much everything you need to survive, and nothing else.
 There's no joy to Soylent, only purpose.
 It's just cheap, nutritious liquid that dispenses with the entertainment and social aspect of eating
 and gets down to business.
 Subsisting on Soylent costs less than $10 a day.
 Here in New York, $10 is good for a couple packs of gum, so a full day's worth of calories for that amount of cash
 is actually a really good deal.
 And if you're in a time crunch, it just takes a few gulps to put a meal down.
 Of course, the first step to eating Soylent is getting it, and right now, that's very hard.
 It turns out that the promise of a mega-efficient, no-frills diet has a lot of people buzzing.
 And the hype has left the company with a backlog that runs several months long.
 You can make your own Soylent, or some variation of it if you're enterprising enough to dig up and deal with the mess of the ingredients.
 They offer a whole DIY site with forums, in fact.
 But that defeats the purpose of saving time with ultra-efficient nutrition in the first place.
 Anyway, once you dig up some Soylent, the next challenge is making it.
 The product ships to you in individual packets, one per day, seven per box.
 The company also ships customers a two-liter pitcher and a metal measuring scoop.
 The pitcher is key. In fact, you don't need the scoop at all unless you want to futz around with making individual servings.
 But you're better off just dumping an entire packet into the pitcher and filling it up to the top with water.
 You have to be careful here, because the act of dumping the bag into the pitcher causes a little plume of Soylent powder to form.
 The company also ships matching bottles of a fish oil-canola oil blend that looks a bit like those little bottles of shampoo you get in hotel rooms.
 You're looking at a full day's worth of everything that has to go into your body to keep it running, or so Soylent says.
 2,010 calories of beige liquid.
 Once you clean up the mess, you shake the pitcher for 30 seconds.
 I found that shaking usually opened up some air bubbles in the powder, which means you have to add a bit more water as you go.
 When you're done, you stick it in the fridge, let it sit overnight so it gets smooth, and you're ready to have all your biological requirements met with just a few sips.
 You just have to get that whole pitcher down by the time you go to sleep.
 Now, the moment of truth. The drink.
 Since Soylent first made headlines, you've probably read some pretty disgusting descriptions of what this stuff tastes like.
 Don't believe them. It's not bad. It's certainly not delicious. But it's not going to make you gag.
 The best way I can describe it is like if you took a few spoonfuls of peanut butter in a blender with a lot of milk.
 It has some richness and creaminess to it, and just the tiniest hint of sweetness. It tastes like sustenance.
 I drink Soylent for a full month, and let me tell you, it gets boring. It's doable. Like I said, it's not gross.
 But there's a social aspect of eating and drinking that Soylent simply isn't built to provide.
 Fortunately, the experiment was pretty painless. Apart from some occasional digestive discomfort, I felt healthy the entire time, and I never really felt hungry.
 There's a ton of protein in Soylent, so I guess that's no surprise.
 Over the course of the month, I lost somewhere around 12 pounds, but my usage was a little extreme.
 The company says they don't imagine most people use it as a 100% meal replacement the way I did.
 They see it as a convenience thing. A breakfast here, a lunch there. And when you want to eat real food, you go ahead and do it.
 In that regard, Soylent isn't all that revolutionary.
 You can walk into your local grocery store right now and find an entire aisle of meal replacement bars and shakes.
 But Soylent seems to be both cheaper and more nutritionally complete than most of them.
 Would I do another 30-day stint on it? Absolutely not.
 But could I see myself drinking it here and there? Definitely.
 Assuming I'm ever able to work my way through the waiting list.