Adventures in nutrition: Premier Protein shakes (review)

In January, I won a "Protein Pop" box prize from Premier Protein via Twitter (@PremierProtein). In the box I found two chocolate shakes, two vanilla shakes, and two of three different flavors of bars: chocolate deluxe, chocolate peanut butter, and yogurt peanut crunch. (See my review of the bars here.)

I decided to take about a month to try all my samples and see what I thought before writing my reviews. That way I could see how my body liked them in addition to how much my taste buds liked them.

The shakes: Until this point, my experience with protein drinks has been mostly negative. I would mix powder with water or milk and meet with dietary suffering like chalky texture, insolubility (read: chunks of gloppy powder), overbearing taste, and unpredictable body responses--bloat and nausea being the most common.

The Premier Protein shakes were none of those.They come as liquids, not powders, which I think helps solve the problem with taste quite a bit--it's controlled by the company when the beverage is packaged. I'm not measuring and mixing and hoping I get it right so I taste what someone else deemed to be acceptable...

The vanilla is like a liquid version of vanilla yogurt. It goes down easily and mixes well with berries in the blender. (Definitely a delicious way to incorporate the shake into my diet!) It's not overly sweet and has no yucky aftertaste like other vanilla protein drinks (powders) I've tried.

The chocolate is even more delicious, however. One of my favorite post-workout treats is chocolate milk. While milk is a great source of nutrition in general, I know that adding sugary chocolate syrup makes the treat just that--a treat. But Premier Protein's chocolate shake is delicious in its own right, and is more nutritious than my chocolate milk in numerous ways.

The shakes come in paper cartons like a juice box (think of when you were a kid!) with a top that opens by unscrewing the lid. (I had a defective lid that popped off the carton, but I poked open the foil cover and used a straw instead. I had another lid, though, that didn't seem attached properly because it dribbled on me...)

So outside of the minor issue of the lids, I give the Premier Protein shakes my highest recommendation.