Plant-Based Protein Powder In-Depth Review

How we Tested Every Plant-Based Protein Powder

From shakes and smoothies to pancakes, brownies, cookies, crumbles and ice creams, we put these plant-based protein powders through the ringer. We are also big oatmeal lovers and love to add protein powder to our morning oats. Seeing as how we had over 40 flavours to experiment with, this testing process took us a solid three months to execute!

The three most important things that we care about (and that we think you will care about, too) when it comes to choosing the right plant-based protein powder are: Ingredients, Flavour, and Texture. We used a 30-point rating system, awarding up to 10 points for each of these categories.

How clean are the ingredients? Are they allergen-friendly, organic and third-party tested? Bonus points if they have extra superfoods added! Points docked if they use lots of fillers, gums or have added sugars.

Does it have a good mouthfeel? Is the texture smooth and creamy? Bonus points if no sediment or powder is left in the bottom of the cup! Points docked if it’s gritty, overly chalky or has chunks of undissolved protein powder after blending.

#1 Complement

What you see is what you get with Complement. Their clean and minimal (and 100% organic) ingredients are literally slapped on the front of the packaging and clearly show what they’re made of. Lightly sweetened with stevia, no gums, no added sugars, just pure clean plant-based goodness.

#2 Vivo Life

100% organic, no gums or fillers or added sugars. Plus they’ve added 150mg of turmeric and black pepper to each blend along with other herbal extracts, antioxidants and superfoods. 6g of BCAAs per serving. Protein base made of fermented yellow pea, hemp and pumpkin seed protein. A solidly clean choice!

#3 Vedge Nutrition

Extensively 3rd party tested, 100% organic and no added sugars. Protein base consists of pea, pumpkin seed and sunflower seed protein. Points docked though for using several types of gums (acacia, guar and xanthan) which can cause bloating and digestive upset in some people.

#4 Sprout Living

Packed with superfoods across entire line like maca powder, 5 mushroom blends, plant-based collagen booster, matcha, ashwaghanda, and the list goes on. Truly high quality 100% organic ingredients plus they’re all third party tested. No gums, no fillers, but some of the flavours they carry do have coconut crystals.

#5 Sunwarrior

Pretty minimal ingredients list, consisting of 100% organic fermented pea, hemp and goji berry proteins and has added MCT oil for extra BCAAs. No added sugars, but does use guar gums so we docked points for that.

PRICE PER 30G PRODUCT

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE PER 20G PROTEIN

We also thought, just to be really thorough…as we do around here, that we’d show you the prices per 30g of product which is an average scoop size. 

Every brand seems to recommend different scoop sizes from 24g with Complement to 48g with Vega. Sometimes this can be all marketing to put higher serving sizes on their website to make you think like you’re getting more shakes out of your purchase. When you really dig into this you start to see that the ones that tell you to use a smaller serving scoop also have lower protein and calorie amounts.

We always tell people to use a food scale to really be accurate as we found that with some brands if you used a full scoop it wasn’t even close to their recommended serving amount.

Some of these brands offer great subscription prices which drops the prices drastically per 20g of protein. With subscription prices you can usually select how often you want to receive shipments and your orders just auto-renew of your favorite flavors. You can also adjust or cancel any of your auto-renew orders as you please. If you don’t like the product, no problem, just cancel your subscription. This is one of the best ways to get the best prices…in addition to of course to using my discount codes 🙂 
Note: These prices are all based on each brand’s regular price in US dollars.

#1 SPROUT LIVING

COMPLETE COFFEE

Our favourite flavor! If you’re a coffee lover this one will knock your sweaty gym socks off. Tastes like a bold, rich coffee, almost bordering on a mocha. The texture is smooth and creamy and it is pure enjoyment poured over some ice. I look forward to drinking this one each time! PS: Has a great kick of caffeine, too.

#3 VEDGE NUTRITON

vanilla ice cream

Like drinking a bowl of melted ice cream, but in a good way. Rich but not fake tasting, it tastes like real vanilla bean and isn’t overpowering. Just naturally sweet and super satisfying to sip on.

#3 VEDGE NUTRITON

COLD BREW LATTE

Another coffee flavour (I guess you could say we are coffee fiends?) makes it in our top 5. Tastes like a cold foam iced latte, as the label says it does. Creamy with a really delicious kick of freshly brewed coffee — and caffeine!

#4 GOOD PROTEIN

CHOCOLATE CHIP MINT

The smell of it alone is heavenly, and the flavor is spot on when it comes to chocolate chip mint. It’s like having a bowl of ice cream. Refreshingly minty with a really rich chocolate base, not overpowering, rich or sweet. It’s literal perfection!

#5 SPROUT LIVING

chocolate maca

The richest chocolate flavour we’ve ever tried in a protein powder. It’s like the best chocolate milk you’ve ever had. Not overly sweet, and it tastes so real and natural. Could drink this every single day!

Regrettably, Biosteel has managed to create some of the worst monstrosities when it comes to plant-based protein powders. All 5 we tasted (Chocolate, Vanilla, Maple Pancake, Cinnamon Bun and Apple Crumble) were bitter, chalky, chemically-tasting, overwhelmingly fake tasting and just plain unpleasant.

The Apple Crumble has to take the cake (er, crumble) for being the literal worst protein powder I’ve ever had the displeasure of drinking. Tastes like the inside of a vacuum with some cinnamon, and maybe a dash of hairspray. Avoid at all costs!