NOW Sports Whey Protein Isolate Powder Vanilla 5 lb

Liked it

This is a high quality product produced by a long standing American company, known for producing a wide array of vitamins and supplements. I mix this in cold water and find it dissolves well, and the vanilla flavor is fine. There are no added sugars and the protein content is exactly what I wanted.

Excellent value for the price! Taste's good and mixes easy too.

I was very hopeful that I had found the ultimate whey powder for myself. I wanted something that was 1) High quality, 2) All natural, 3) Free of unnecessary additives, 4) affordable, and 5) tasted good. Well, 4 out of 5 isn't bad. This is definitely a high quality powder, it has 80% less cholesterol than the GNC Pro Performance I was using, has ZERO artificial additives, and is very reasonably priced. The only complaint I have, and this isn't a huge one, is the Stevia. Now as far as alternate sweeteners go, Stevia is one of the best all-natural alternatives you can find. Unfortunately it has an aftertaste that can linger just as strong as an artificial sweetener, and the usage in this powder seems just a bit heavy-handed, especially since it does use some fructose as well. Personally I could taste the Stevia more than the vanilla. If you know you like Stevia as a sweetener, then this gets a 100% recommendation. If you are unsure, try out a stevia-sweetened drink from a health foods section and see what you think first. If you dislike the aftertaste, then do what I am going to do next time, and just pick up the Unflavored NOW Whey Protein Isolate and adjust to your own tastes. Unflavored whey powder is almost tasteless, and works great as a base for shakes of any flavor.

Contains xylitol and stevia which yields a nasty, overly sweet taste. Figuratively made my teeth curl and my hair straight. I should not have ordered vanilla - YUCK! Tossed out and reordered plain and will add matcha powder or ashwaganda powder or cocoa powder to make that whey taste more palatable. Yes, they make chocolate flavor, but it includes xylitol and stevia for sweeteners. The only non-glucose-spiking, tolerable sweetener that I know of is monkfruit - - effectively sweetens without overkill. With all of that stated, NOW Foods still produces a very clean product, the plain, unflavored version simplest of all with exactly 2 ingredients, the sunflower lecithin almost immeasurable: just enough to help with stabilization and mixability.

Honestly, I've gotten other products from NOW so I decided to go with it because I wanted a Whey Isolate that was cheaper. But wow, I genuinely dislike the taste of this. It tastes way too 'sweet' and leaves an aftertaste that screams artificial.