Actually trying to make an effort to find the best tasting protein powder isn’t a joke, and it’s not easy either.
That’s because for the most part, protein powder drinks just taste awful.
You can easily get this impression when you’ve read enough customer reviews about the taste, and that’s especially true with the reviews written by those new to protein powder drinks.
When you’re used to soda and Starbucks Frappuccino drinks, the taste of a drink with protein powder mixed in can make you gag instead of go gaga.
Sometimes the problem even starts before you drink—because it doesn’t look all that appetizing to begin with.
In many cases, the protein powder doesn’t even mix in properly, and the clumps of powder really don’t make you thirsty for this drink at all.
5 Top Brands – Best Tasting Whey Protein Powder for Men
Editor's Advice for Ladies: You can take products reviewed below. But most of our female readers prefer brands designed for women, so we also reviewed 4 superbly tasting brands for YOU: FitMiss, PrettyFit, NLA for Her & Jamie Eason – immediately after these 5. Also click to our full protein powder for women guide here. |
Whey is in the view of most health experts a better form of protein than others.
It contains a wide range of easily absorbed amino acids along with other nutrients.
Studies show that whey protein improves muscle development and boosts workout recovery. (3) This is the list for men, and there’s a focus on providing protein for greater muscle development.
Whey protein is rather notorious for its bad taste on its own, but then there are several flavor options that can overcome this unpleasant attribute.
1. MusclePharm Combat Protein (Order: AMAZON)
No doubt, one of the best tasting whey protein brand.
Available in 10 flavors, with vanilla and chocolate milk probably your best bet if you’re mixing it with milk.
You also have Cookies n’ Cream, and even a Cappuccino flavor if you want to try it with coffee.
It also has various fruity flavors like Strawberry, Blue Raspberry, Fruit Punch, and Triple Berry if you wish to mix it with just water or with a juice drink.
Note: You may read full reviews on this page.
Its benefits include:
- It provides 25 grams of protein.
- You get whey protein concentrate, isolate, hydrolysate, and even micellar casein. So regardless of what type of protein you believe is best for you, this has it all.
- The different types of protein also offer different rates of release for the proteins, so you’re getting protein at all times of the day even when you’re sleeping.
- This builds lean muscle, boosts strength, and improves recovery.
- It mixes very well, as it is designed to mix even with cold water.
- It contains BCAAs and glutamine.
- When you drink this chilled, many find the taste fantastic. There’s no weird aftertaste, and there’s no grainy flavor either.
- It has 1g of sugar at the most, yet it’s also quite sweet as well.
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2. BSN SYNTHA-6 Whey (Order: AMAZON)
This time you have 14 flavors to choose from, so you can’t say that it’ll taste bad. At least 1 of these flavors will be to your liking.
You do have the Vanilla Ice Cream flavor here, as chocolate varieties like Choco Cake Batter, Choco Milkshake, Choco Peanut Butter, and Cookies n’ Cream.
The unique benefits include:
- It provides 22g of protein, along with 10 g of essential amino acids and 5 g of fiber.
- While you can use this to make sure you get your RDA of protein, it is better known as a protein powder to help you develop muscles.
- It also helps with your recovery.
Note: Read full reviews of all Syntha 6 brands.
- You can also use this as a meal replacement, as it can make you feel full for hours. You do get up to 15g of carbs as well with your “meal”.
- It sure tastes like a milkshake. You should really try this with milk instead of other fluids to mix with.
- BSN which makes Syntha-6 makes several types of workout supplements, and they tout this as their best-tasting protein supplement in the market.
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3. Muscle Milk Genuine Protein Powder (Order: AMAZON)
A name like “Muscle Milk” does make it quite clear what it’s for, doesn’t it? Still, you don’t have to force yourself to drink it, as you have 10 flavors to pick from.
You’ve got several varieties of chocolate flavors, a couple of vanilla variations, banana, strawberry, and even a banana-strawberry combo.
So what can you expect from this?
- This is truly for massive muscle gains, as it offers a hefty serving of 32 grams of protein per drink. It’s safe to say that this will provide you with the raw material your muscles need to repair themselves.
- It also has 3 grams of leucine, and of all the amino acids leucine is the best for boosting protein synthesis.
- You will have another 280 calories to work with for energy and for bulking up, if you wish to move up from a skinny frame.
- The calories also make this drink a nice meal replacement.
- This can be added to not just water but also to pancakes and smoothies.
- This helps build lean muscle, provides energy, and encourages workout recovery.
- It is gluten-free.
- As a meal replacement, you also enjoy 9g of fat, 20g of carbs, and 3g of sugar. You also get 2g of fiber.
- It also tastes just like a milkshake.
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4. Jay Robb – Grass-Fed Whey (Order: AMAZON)
This comes in 4 flavors, with chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and “Tropical Dreamsicle”.
Technically, there’s actually a 5th flavor which is flavorless, so it won’t affect the drink when you add the protein powder.
Benefits include the following:
- The milk from which this whey protein comes from is from farm-raised, grass-fed cows. So it doesn’t come from cows that have been fed with feed filled with all sorts of synthetic chemicals and growth hormones. If you insist on organic stuff, then this is it.
- This gives you 25g of protein, along with 125mg of calcium and 180mg of potassium.
- It doesn’t have soy, lactose, sugar, or any artificial flavors, sweeteners, and colors.
- You get best results from a blender and it won’t taste or feel grainy at all. Add it to water or milk, and you can add some fruits in the blender as well. You can also try it with yogurt, nut milk, or coconut water.
- It can work as protein for muscle development, but others use it for weight loss.
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5. Natural Force Organic Whey (Order: AMAZON)
This has cacao bean (their version of chocolate), vanilla bean, and coffee bean flavors.
That should at least make it easy for you to determine if you like any of the flavors or not.
You will want to try these flavors out, for the following reasons:
- The protein comes from milk that came from cows that were fed grass all year round.
- To get the most from this, you should mix it with almond milk or milk from grass-fed cows. You can also add a scoop to your baking mix, waffle, or pancake.
- It has been certified organic by Quality Assurance International.
- It’s been certified Paleo-Friendly by The Paleo Foundation.
- The Orthodox Union has certified that this is kosher.
- American Humane certifies that the production process for this whey protein is humane.
- The NSF also certifies that this is a non-GMO project.
- It works as a protein supplement with 20g of protein per serving. That single serving provides you with 42% of your protein RDA, according to Natural Force.
- You also get calcium, sodium, and potassium.
- There are lots of price discounts, and if you buy 4 you get 15% off.
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3 Top Brands – Best Tasting Whey Protein for Women
Women can use whey protein as well to make sure that they get their required daily protein allowance.
Women who lack protein in their diets are more likely to develop osteoporosis and have their metabolism slow down. Their hair can become thinner and their nails can become more fragile.
Searching for the best tasting protein powder for women can be a bit more difficult, so we’ve done the search for you.
a) PrettyFit All-Natural Whey (Order: AMAZON)
This is available in natural vanilla flavor, which many women do find tasty.
It contains just 5 ingredients, and they’re all natural.
Here are the benefits you get to enjoy:
- You get 25g of protein. That’s half your protein daily requirement in just one serving.
- It only has 100 calories.
- It builds lean muscle, controls your food cravings, and encourages healthy fat loss.
- It’s 99+% lactose-free, and is non-GMO and without harmful hormones.
- It contains digestive enzymes so you don’t feel bloated.
- The mix is very fine, so it can mix with water, milk, coffee, juice, yogurt, or baking mix.
- It’s fairly new, but the vast majority of reviews from customers just give it perfect scores.
- It’s foamy and light, and there’s no aftertaste.
- It’s sugar-free and offers less than 1g of carbs.
- There are no artificial ingredients.
- You also get 5g of BCAAs.
b. NLA for Her (Her Whey) Ultimate (Order: AMAZON)
Yes, the “Hey Whey” name is cute.
But you also get 4 flavors, with chocolate éclair, vanilla cupcake, peanut butter banana split, and even pumpkin pie.
Women will love this because:
- It’s been formulated specifically for women. It helps with building lean muscles, boosts recovery, and also fuels your muscles if you’re going with high-intensity training.
- It provides 28g of protein, and that’s more than half your daily protein requirement.
- You also get 5 grams of BCAAs and 10 grams of glutamine.
- It also has 24 vitamins and minerals.
- This will help with weight loss as it can really curb your appetite. Many consider this the best tasting protein powder for weight loss.
c. Jamie Eason Lean Body for Her (Order: AMAZON)
Yes, there’s pink in the package, and there’s an attractive and a picture of a slim and attractive woman to really drive home the point that this is “For Her”.
You get a choice between chocolate and vanilla, so there’s not a lot of experimentation.
The 2 flavors do have quite a fervent following, as they’re very popular.
The vanilla tastes like vanilla milkshake actually, and the chocolate tastes like brownie batter.
Take this for these benefits:
- You get 25g of protein, and only 3g of fat.
- You also get sodium and potassium.
- There are no artificial sweeteners, preservatives, colors, or flavors. Everything’s natural. It is non-GMO and it also doesn’t contain gluten.
- It helps you to maintain your lean muscles and boost your immune system. You basically can take this to improve and maintain your overall health.
- It’s best with milk after a workout.
- You can also use this to replace a meal if you use coconut milk and add greens and berries into the blender.
Importance of Protein Powder for Both Men and Women
So why would people want to drink protein powder concoctions when they often don’t even taste palatable in the first place?
Well, that’s because the drink does offer people the extra protein they need.
Sure, you can get protein from lots of meat sources.
You don’t need to Google the fact that you can get protein from beef, chicken, pork, and fish meat like salmon.
You can still do that, but you can supplement with protein based drinks.
Getting your protein from a protein powder drink is a much better option for most people.
Here are some reasons why:
- Buying meat regularly can really be expensive when you’re trying to really consume lots of protein. Protein powder is a much cheaper alternative.
- It’s also much more convenient. It doesn’t take up as much time to prepare a drink like this unlike meat that you have to cook.
- Protein drinks are also easier because you don’t easily feel full after guzzling down the drink. It’s harder to gobble large amounts of meat in one sitting.
- Protein drinks generally indicate how many grams of protein you receive per serving. With meat sources, you’re limited to guessing the amount of protein you consumed.
- Many protein powder options provide the protein with very little fat. With marbled steak, fat is also part of the meal.
- Protein powder containers also don’t take up as much space as ready-made protein drinks. A single container can provide 60 servings—you’ll need lots of space in your kitchen and fridge for 60 bottles of protein drinks.
- For men, the need for extra protein is often all about gaining muscle. When a guy exercises by lifting weights, he causes microscopic tears in those muscles so the muscles need to repair themselves. These muscles rebuild by using your protein stores in your system, and you need to make sure that you have plenty of protein for that purpose.
So with these premium drinks, you can provide the protein that your muscles can immediately use when they’re in repair mode.
Your drinks can make sure that your muscles don’t run out of protein as raw materials for rebuilding.
Of course, Women may not be able to build muscles as big as on a man’s but some women still want to be stronger instead of just slimmer.
The protein helps them to develop muscle to get stronger, whether it’s for a job, for sports, and for anything else.
- Muscles also help with losing weight, because bigger muscles can speed up your metabolism. So you’re burning more calories when at rest when you have bigger muscles. For those who are trying to shed fat, more muscles make more sense.
This is the reason why a growing number of health experts are recommending the inclusion of weightlifting and resistance training to workout regimens, rather than just sticking exclusively with cardio exercises like running.
- Some people may find it difficult to consume the required protein intake per day. (1) People need at least 0.8 grams of protein for each kilo of body weight, or 0.36 grams per pound. This is the amount that can keep you from suffering protein deficiency, and you need even more than that to optimize your health.
For athletes who train intensely and those who really want to develop bigger muscles, this RDA isn’t enough.
Dr. Susan M Kleiner recommends consuming 1.6 to 2.2 grams of protein for each kilogram of bodyweight.
- Plenty of people on vegan or vegetarian diets find it very difficult to find non-animal sources of protein. Sure, there are vegetarian protein sources (2), but you can find protein powders that are specifically designed for vegans and vegetarians. With the best tasting vegan protein powder, you can look forward to compensating for any protein deficiency in your diet.
Vegans are especially challenged when it comes to consuming enough protein in their diets, as they may not wish to consume dairy products like eggs which are abundant with protein.
While plant-based protein can be found with a bit of effort, vegans also need to understand that they need to consume more protein because plant-based protein has lower digestibility.
Best Tasting Whey Protein: Why TASTE is a Big Factor for Many Users?
Yes, it’s true that other factors like protein content and source are all more important.
Yet, plenty of people make it a point to pick the protein powder that suits their taste buds.
- You may prioritize the taste of protein powders because a tasty drink makes it much easier for people to remember to drink up. They want to look forward to the drink, instead of dread it like some children hate the taste of medicine or vegetables.
- The fact is that there are some protein powder drinks that are actually tasty. And if these products exist, then many people who want or need protein powder drinks would rather have those than to force themselves to drink what in their mind is a truly unpleasant drink instead.
- People want to eat and drink tasty stuff. It’s a common desire, and people will wish to get what they want. If it tastes better, then they’re more apt to drink more, which means more protein for their muscles to use.
Exposing the Top Tasting Proteins for Male and Female
So now that we all know the importance getting the tastiest protein supplements, it’s not enough to just list down the ones that taste great all willy-nilly.
The lists have to be organized, so you have a list that appeals to men and another for women.
These groups have different needs in protein powder, so separate lists make sense.
We will also point out the source of the protein formulation, whether it comes from animal or plant sources.
We can even be more specific and tell which plants the protein comes from.
For vegetarians, this type of information will be crucial.
Which is The Most Popular Protein Flavor?
If you look at the most popular flavors for powdered protein, you may notice that these flavors tend to resemble the most popular flavors for ice cream.
There’s chocolate and other similar numerous varieties, along with the ubiquitous vanilla.
Of course, there are also the flavorless variety, which is designed to mix with milk, chocolate drinks, and almond milk drinks.
You can even mix them with orange juice and other fruit juices.
It is best if you try flavors from the smallest packages as they will cost less, even though they will have the highest cost per serving.
You just want to find the flavors that suit you.
Then when you’ve determined the flavors you like and found the best tasting whey protein powder, you can then buy them in the largest sizes to reduce the cost per serving.
Don’t forget that the great taste of the protein powder is not just about the flavor. It’s also about its mixability.
When you have large climbs of protein powder in your glass, the drink sure doesn’t look all that appetizing, does it?
Of course, it will help if you have a blender which can really mix things up for your protein shake or drink.
But it helps if the powder mixes more easily with water or milk, so when you’re in a hurry or if you don’t have a blender you can still have that palatable drink to look forward to.
For most people, the best flavor to try out is most probably the chocolate flavors.
These are the same flavors that fill up the top favorite flavors for ice cream.
These flavors for ice cream in the top list include chocolate flavors like Cookies n’ Cream and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.
Here are some of the usual suspects:
- The taste of chocolate is something that none of us forgets, as most of us first develop a taste of it as children. It’s not a taste that we can easily forget either.
For many of us, the appeal of chocolate is that it’s delicious, and most “healthy” snacks tend to be flavorless because of the lack of sugar.
It’s almost sinfully delicious, yet it’s for a drink that helps make us achieve our health goals.
- The vanilla flavor is ubiquitous, as it is found in ice cream, cookies, cakes, coffee drinks, breath mints, malt liquor, granola, and colas. It is also one of the most common flavors in the protein powder industry along with chocolate. It’s offered because it’s a comfortable, familiar flavor, which can rally counter the natural tastes of many protein powders.
- Some people just like the taste of banana. They go well with protein powder chocolates and milk shakes, just like banana mixes well with ice cream when you get a banana split.
- Just like in ice cream, the cookies flavor in protein powder drinks is also quite popular. It tastes like you’re having a snack, which doesn’t sound all that far off from the truth anyway.
- Plenty of people add cream to their coffee or tea, and they can add this to their chocolate drinks as well. Is it any wonder that cream protein powder is popular, especially when mixed with milk?
- This is another favorite flavor for many types of snacks and drinks. Just as strawberries are commonly added to ice cream, it’s also a great flavor to add with your milk. Some even add it to their fruit juices as well.
- Peanut butter. Plenty of us have had the guilty pleasure of spooning a chunk of peanut butter as a tasty treat when we were kids. So of course, the taste remains a favorite for us. It’s another flavor that makes “health” drinks a lot tastier.
Where to Buy Online: Amazon, GNC, Costco or Walmart?
If you’re lucky, you can find protein powder in your local health store or supermarket.
But the selection may be a bit limited, and in small towns it may even be non-existent.
So your best bet is to go online.
While you may stumble upon various freelance sellers, buying from these sources can be rather risky.
Who knows what they’re actually selling?
Maybe they’re selling fakes or contaminated products.
Maybe they’ll just even take your money and send you nothing at all.
Instead, your best bet is to buy from an established retail platform, where they screen the sellers and where customers can leave reviews.
The most popular retail platforms for protein powder products are Walmart, GNC, and even Costco.
You can find a wide variety of protein powder options in these platforms, and they offer reasonable prices and trustworthy customer service.
But your absolute best bet is Amazon.com, which handily won the title as Online Retailer of the Year. (4)
- It offers a wide array of available protein powders.
- The categories simplify your search for the kind of protein powder you want.
- The prices are extremely reasonable, with numerous discounts from many sellers.
- You have a large number of reviews for each product so you get a more accurate sense of the quality and taste of the protein powder.
- The delivery and customer support are topnotch.
If you’re looking for protein powders, just start your search in Amazon.com.
Go straight to Amazon page dedicated to top tasting brands and most affordable
Conclusion
It may seem like the taste of protein powder can be trivial, compared to the nutrient benefits of the protein powder.
But it is absolutely not.
It determines your attitude towards the drink, and this can affect how you drink this.
If the protein powder tastes great, then you will look forward to drinking it, and you’re less likely to forget.
You’re also more liable to use this as a meal replacement for weight loss, if the taste is to your liking.
But if it doesn’t taste great, then there’s a very good chance that subconsciously you will avoid or “forget” to drink your protein shake.
Then you’ll miss out on all those nutrient benefits that may seem “more important”.
It’s true that in times past, protein powder (especially whey) weren’t actually yummy treats.
But the industry has put in some research into the matter, and now some have made greats strides in producing drinks that you’d likely enjoy.
Find the best tasting protein powder according to your taste buds, and you can develop lean muscle, lose excess fat, and generally live a healthier life.
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