Soylent vs Ensure Nutrition Drink Comparison Review

As someone who appreciates nutrition drinks for their ability to provide calories and nutrition in a quick and easy manner, I have tried many of these drinks over the years. My favorite go-to drink is the Ensure Plus, usually in chocolate or vanilla. It has a great taste and lots of calories per ounce but it is expensive so I do not buy it often. I have tried many of the store brand nutrition drinks which try to replicate Ensure but they are never as good when it comes to the actual taste.

I have had Soylent nutrition drinks on my radar for some time now and had been wanting to try them for a while but held off on it because of the high cost which seemed to be even more expensive than Ensure Plus. But recently I found a 4 pack of Soylent in the Cacao flavor on sale so I decided it was time to try it out to see how it compares.

Taste:
When it comes to taste, the folks at Ensure know what they are doing. The Ensure Plus drinks are rich and delicious. They have a thick consistency and are easy to drink. I found the Soylent taste to be just okay. It has more of a watery consistency and tastes similar to store brand nutrition drinks.

Nutrition:
The Soylent 4 pack has 11oz drinks while the Ensure 6 pack has 8oz drinks so I did some calculations to see how they compare per ounce on some of the main categories.

Soylent has 320 calories in 11oz which comes to 29.1 calories per ounce. Ensure Plus has 350 in 8 oz which comes to 43.75 calories per ounce. So Ensure has more calories per ounce.

For fat, Soylent has 17g (1.55g/oz). Ensure Plus has 11g  (1.38g/oz) so Soylent has a little more fat per ounce.

For sugar, Soylent has 7g (.64g per oz) vs 22g (2.75g/oz) in the Ensure Plus. So Ensure has a lot more sugar. Soylent uses some artificial sweeteners such as sucralose while Ensure uses sugar which explains the difference in these stats. 

For protein, Soylent has 16g (1.45/oz) while Ensure Plus has 13g (1.63g/oz) so Ensure has a little more protein per ounce.

Vitamins / Minerals:
Both drinks have good coverage for the vitamins and minerals. Soylent has 15% daily value for all of them while Ensure is at 25% for most of them with some being a little higher and some a little lower.

Cost:
The Soylent 4 pack with 11oz drinks is about $9 while the Ensure Plus 6 pack with 8oz drinks is about $10. This makes it seem like the Soylent is more expensive but when you consider the cost per ounce they are actually pretty close in price with Soylent being about $.20 per ounce while Ensure is about $.21 per ounce.

Other:
Both drinks contain a lot of similar ingredients. Once difference I noticed was Ensure Plus includes milk protein while Soylent does not so those following a vegan diet would have reason to choose the Soylent in this case. Ensure does offer a plant based nutrition drink as well but I have not tried that one yet. 

Verdict:
For me, when looking for the best tasting high calorie nutrition drink, the Ensure Plus is still my number 1 pick. It has a better taste and more calories per ounce. But, for those looking for a nutrition drink with less sugar and similar nutrition compared to Ensure, then Soylent would be a good option.