Your Protein Opinion

Protein Review - Protein Works Whey Protein i-Shake (Red Berry Twist)

Protein Works are perhaps not the most well known brand, but they do have a fairly interesting line of products, especially their single serve formats for their popular whey flavours. They're designed so that you don't need a shaker to mix it and all you have to do is add water and give the bottle a few shakes. This does mean that they (and I) have high expectation for the mixability (and taste) of the protein powder but I'll let you know exactly how it fares.

Taste - 5/10

The flavour is described as 'red berry twist' and often with these protein powders, I find that the more ....inventive and embelished the name is, often the more generic tasting it is in reality. Sadly, this is somewhat the case here as it tastes of a cross between a very average strawberry and vanilla protein powder. However, it doesn't taste bad by any stretch of the imagination, and the small pieces of freeze dried strawberries is a nice and somewhat unique addition.

Macros and Nutrition - 7/10

The macros for this is fairly standard with just under 100 calories for a 19 g serving of protein, and is similar to most other whey protein sources of around 2 grams of protein per 10 calories. In addition, it is stated to contain bee pollen (for added nutrition presumably) which is somewhat unique but in the end, a fairly superficial point. Also, it has a fairly clean ingredients list which is a definite plus.

Mixability/Texture - 9.5/10

Now here is probably the most interesting and unique aspect of this product, which is also one of its selling point in that all you have to do to rehydrate this powder is add some water (or milk) and give it a shake in the supplied bottle, therefore bringing convenience to people who don't like to use or bring shakers. This does of course rely on the protein being fairly fine as there is no metal whisk to help homogenise the mixture. Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised as all it took was 3 shakes and the drink was ready with no lumps whatsoever. This is a definite plus, and quite important as the whole premise of the product relies on it.

Cost - 6/10

I picked up a single serve bottle (as I wanted to try all their, admittedly large, collection of flavours, which I will all review in the near future) for £2.29 (~2.62 euros) which is definitely not cheap, but is expected as single serve proteins all seem to be exortibantly expensive. Having said this, you can buy a bigger serving of 500 g for £15.99 which is a fairly average and reasonable price, and the website often offer 30 % discounts throughout the year.

Bonus - 1 Point

Most of the points of this protein (whey) is fairly standard, however, it does mix well and the raspberry pieces are a nice touch which is why I'm giving it one bonus point.

Total Score - 29.5 Points

Overall, this protein powder is fairly standard and I would recommend getting it if you want to have a convenient, more 'sleek' single serve format (which so far, is fairly unique) and has been convenient when I don't want to bring a pre scooped serving in a plastic bag. Other than that, there isn't a huge reason to go out of your way to buy this, but having said this, there is nothing bad about this product either so you can try picking it up if you just want to try something different. Additionally, the ingredient list is short and clean which does give me a little more reassurance that the company cares about its product outside of just optimising the macros.