Gold Standard 100% Whey Naturally Flavored Protein Powder, Vanilla, 1.9 Pound (Packaging May Vary)

It's nice tasting and mixes smoothly with minimal effort.

I wanted the Casein because I mostly take it at night before bed. This stuff tastes fine, and gets the job done like regular protein powder. In the past an unfortunate side effect of protein powders is that, they usually leave me gasy/bloated. I've heard if protein powder affects your bowels it's because the protein isn't absorbing properly. With this Casein powder I don't notice any of the bowel side effects. There is essentially no bloating/gas/upset stomach. I just wanted to leave this review in case anyone else is affected by Whey protein. Maybe Casein will be easier on your stomach.

I have used this natural chocolate protein for many years and was not happy when ON discontinued it. I kept checking periodically for it and saw the vanilla come back first. I was hopeful the chocolate would be added and was happy to see it eventually return. I go through a container pretty quickly, so I hope the large tubs will soon be available to buy. Thank you for a quality product without all the added trash ingredients. It mixes fine with a spoon and tastes good too.

I feel a rush of good feeling in my blood and face roughly 40 minutes after having this post workout. Very good feeling. I'm not sure if it's this or the organic cacao that I add to it that intensifies the experience. The whey absorbs pretty well in my body and goes in my bloodstream. I'd say my results with this whey protein has been better than my previous whey which was NOW foods whey protein isolate. That one tasted a bit like garbage and made everything taste a little bad. Not very bad, but just enough to make it slightly gross. With this, there's no gross taste or aftertaste or anything that you can recognize as alien in a chocolate milk drink. It taste just like chocolate milk. I'd say a downside is that it is not very potent in taste. By that I mean you'd either have to pour less liquid or use two scoops. If you're using one of those typical 28 oz Blender bottles and you put one scoop of this in it and fill it to the top, it will taste very watery and bland, especially if you use water. After some experiments, I find the best taste is achieved when I use two scoops and fill the whole thing with milk. Like I said above, I also put a bit of organic raw cocoa in there that really highlights the chocolaty tastes and gives it more flavor and character. Pure cocoa is also apparently a super-food. Other than taste, it also seems to be more effective in building muscle than my previous whey product. I don't know if it's placebo or not, but I notice my muscles recover better and I make better strength gains as compared to NOW foods. It also goes without saying, if you plan on buying unflavored whey, you probably aren't fooling yourself. There is a good chance you'll add the additional sugar and carbs in one form or another to add flavor, unless you want to endure a torture post-workout experience. So I think it makes more sense to go with something that's already flavored. One thing I really like about this is the fact that there are no random weird chemicals. You're getting whey, cocoa, 3g sugar, stevia, flavor, emulsifier, and some thickeners. That's it. I really hate having to find any other chemical found in common protein products with flashy labels like potassium chloride, magnesium phosphate, potassium citrate, and especially happy that there are no synthetic, cancerous sugar-substitutes like maltodextrin and acesulfame potassium. All in all, I'm satisfied with my experience and I predict more likely than not, you will be too. Optimum Nutrition is a well trusted brand. This product in particular has been tested by labdoor.com and has a good rating in purity and projected efficacy. I recommend it to anyone who wants to use it as a post-weight-training boost.

Taste: I'd have to give it five stars for taste. It's not a strawberry smoothie from Jamba Juice, but for a protein drink, it's very tasty. My 8 and 9 year olds beg for sips in the morning. So in the field of protein powders, this one is great. Ingredients: Five stars. Read the label. Clean protein. Naturally occurring BCAA's and glutamine. Stevia, which I'm not a big fan of, is a more "natural" sweetener. Would I like to see some creatine? Sure, but it's not advertised so I'm not going to take points from them. Mix-ability: Shaker cup mixes easily. 20 seconds of shaking and no lumps. Blender, my preferred method, mixes perfectly. No lumps but it does foam up a bit. Have not tried the spoon method. Packaging: I'm going to roll a few things up in this category. The scoop is always at the bottom! Frustrating. I don't like that a "rounded" scoop is a serving. What is a "rounded" scoop? Why not give us the correct size scoop and we can all agree on a level scoop? Maybe it's my OCD. Has a huge opening for easy scooping all the way to the bottom. Thank goodness for the color coding flavor strip. The flavor is typed in small print and practically blends in with the background. The color strip makes it easy for me to grab my strawberry or chocolate flavor without having to read. Pricing: Good. Are there less expensive ones out there? Yep. Have I tried them? Yep. Are they just as good? Close. At the end of the day ON has a reputation to live up to so I can trust that they are not going to cut corners. For me, it's worth the extra few pennies per serving. Literally. A few pennies for quality, dependability and peace of mind.