Last year, I started taking a dance class. It’s been a lot of fun, but I wasn’t progressing as fast as I thought I should be, so at the beginning of this year – per the instructor’s advice – I started working out twice a week, and began drinking protein shakes/smoothies/whatever you want to call them on the same days.
And, to my surprise, I started seeing results!
Now, I’ll be honest: I’ve never attempted to build muscle seriously before, and due to my allergies, I’ve never tried ‘traditional’ protein powders.
This unfortunately means I can’t give you a comparison between this powder and another – non-vegan or otherwise – all I can give you is my experience with using the product.
Please keep that in mind as you read this review.
I’d also like you to keep in mind who is talking: I work a desk job and found normal working out (weight lifting, treadmills, other generic gym equipment, etc.) to be boring and often, hurt or felt like it wasn’t doing anything (though that’s a completely other post) so I stopped doing it. I still did stretches or some squats a few times a week, but for the most part, there wasn’t much body movement happening.
This also meant I had very little muscle going into the dance class. A running joke in my family was that I had ‘zero’ muscle – which isn’t true because I’d obviously not be able to walk around – but to put things into perspective, I had trouble lifting a regular sack of potatoes. Not carrying, lifting.
Okay, so now that I’ve painted you the accurate before picture of me, let’s get into the good stuff:
The first thing I noticed about this protein powder was it was listed online for $50 (Healthy Planet), and when it showed up, the container was a lot bigger than I thought it’d be.
Protein powder container compared to a Silk Oat tetra pack
The container also boasts all the good things about the powder in an easy-to-read format: 30g of Protein, 5g BCAA (explained as ‘Branched Chain Amino Acids’ in fine print at the bottom of the label), 5g of Glutamic Acid, 1 B/G CFU (Colony Forming Units) and Tart Cherries.
I don’t know exactly why they list Tart Cherries being in the product with all that other stuff, but I assume it’s somehow beneficial. Also on the subject of not knowing what all that means: you don’t have to!
If you turn the container around, it tells you why the things listed on the front are good things and what they do.
The label also says one container is supposed to last for about 19 portions, but my first container lasted for much longer. (I’m actually still using it! Looks like it will be done by Friday, though. Currently at about 37 portions [started January 6th], so by Friday it will have been 39 [April 18th])
I will admit, I don’t use the scoop that came with the powder, I use a Tablespoon, instead. I do this because I’ve been using a Magic Bullet, and the cup size is smaller than the amount of liquid the container tells you to use for 1 powder scoop. So after some quick mathing, I discovered 2 Tbs is the right amount for my cup.
If you’re using a bigger cup, or know what you’re doing, I would assume adjusting the portion to fit your needs would work, as well. Just keep in mind that that will change how long the container lasts.
“Ater,” you may be thinking, “all this is great, but how does it taste?” Good question!
This protein powder has a chalky taste when it’s alone (yes, I taste-tested it by itself for this review, you’re welcome), similar to what So Good Chocolate used to taste like. (I haven’t bought this brand in years, so can’t say if it’s still chalky) It’s more chalk than chocolate, but since you’re not supposed to ingest it that way, I wouldn’t hold that against it.
When it’s blended into a shake/smoothie/whatever though, it either disappears completely, or helps adds to the chocolate-y taste.
My shakes I like to keep simple, so they are just: banana, faux milk (used to be Silk Chocolate Almond but that has gotten harder to find lately, so recently I’ve started using Earth’s Own Oat Chocolate), the protein powder and some peanut butter.
Because I’m using faux chocolate milk, it’s hard to say if the chocolate taste is from the milk alone, or if the protein powder helps. With how strong the scent of chocolate is when you open the container though, I wouldn’t be surprised if it enhances the flavour when blended.
It also blends very easily, but my Magic Bullet is old (was bought around 2014/15) so sometimes the frozen banana makes it hard for the dying motor to get everything completely smooth.
But even when it’s lumpy, the taste is still good!
As for how much it helps with your actual muscle gains, as I said above, I haven’t tried other powders so I can’t compare to those. However, I do think it has helped on my growing muscle journey. I wish I could give you specifics, but I can’t. The only thing I can tell you is it does seem to help my muscles recover faster, and I have noticed a slightly dramatic increase in muscle mass during the three month time. (Though this might also be because I started to work out 3 times a week, as well)
All in all, I would recommend this product for people who want to start working out, switch from their other protein powder or if nothing else, want to make getting enough protein in their diet easier.
I believe this protein powder is doing good, I’m just too much of a newbie to properly explain the science for why.
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This is how much bark was in the bag as soon as I opened it
Those small circle-things are the ‘crunchy bites’
You can see the box is only slightly skinnier than the non-vegan
The soup in the pot
The piece of saus’ge, with a carefully placed ring-shaped pasta on top for size comparison