After trying TrueNutrition.com’s 38 flavor sample pack, I made a few choices for further experimentation.

Unsweetened Chocolate.

I wanted to try unsweetened chocolate to see what it’d be like. Would the sweetness of milk be enough? I don’t really care for artificial sweeteners, so could adding a little cane sugar work out? What else could be done?

My usual consumption practice is to use 2 heaping scoops, which ends up being about 50-ish grams of protein. I put it into a 16 oz glass, then I add as much liquid as needed to fill the glass. I don’t know exactly how much liquid I use… probably at least 8 oz, but I add the liquid up to the rim, then stir… the liquid level goes down, add a little more, topping off trying to keep the glass as full as possible.

First time was with milk, HEB Mootopia skim milk. Oh no no no… that wasn’t good. It was like cardboard. But this stands to reason. I remember as a child seeing “baking chocolate” and just thinking “Wow! That’s a HUGE chunk of chocolate!”, then biting into it and recoiling in horror at the lie that is baking chocolate. 🙂  Unsweetened chocolate just doesn’t cut it, and there wasn’t enough ratio here with the milk to help out.

Second time I added 1 tsp of sugar made from evaporated cane juice. That was just a hint better but still not great. I added a second teaspoon and that made it palatable. I stopped there, figuring 2 tsp (for the way I make it) was minimum.

Later on in another drink I did try adding more sugar; I tried with 3 tsp and then with 4 just to see. I think 3 is mighty tasty, and 4 you find yourself tasting more of the sugar as a dominant flavor. So really, I’ll probably stick with 2 because that seems sufficient…. at least in milk.

I tried mixing in water. Using 2 tsp of sugar was enough to remove the cardboard flavoring, but not really make it yummy. Still, I think 2-ish tsp is sufficient to allow you to drink things down and not gag. I reckon if you mixed with other things, like in a smoothie with frozen fruit, that may be enough sweetness to compensate. All depends what sort of sweet tooth you have, I guess.

In the end this settles to me as a reasonable staple flavor. It’s chocolate. I’m happier adding a bit of sugar than using artificial sweeteners; sure it’s a bit of carbohydrate, but meh… you just compensate for it elsewhere.

I bought the TrueNutrition.com 38 Flavor sample pack and ran through all 38 flavors. My experience with each is documented across 38 individual postings, made after I tried each flavor.

Overall I was impressed. The flavors are of course going to be artificial in nature, some lending towards being reminiscent of kid cereal or candy. That’s not a bad thing, just a question of your palate. For me, that made a lot of the flavors not to my liking. The kid in me wanted to like them, and I could see perhaps having one or two drinks of them, but buying 10# of whey isolate in bulk and having to go through 90 servings well… it needs to be a flavor I can handle. But that said, given the structure of TrueNutrition’s business, I see no reason why I can’t buy 10# of a staple flavor and a few 1#’s of fun flavors for some variety. In fact, I plan on doing just that.

I reckon many are flavored with artificial sweeteners, due to 1. the aftertaste in my mouth, 2. given this is sold for “health reasons” a lot of those folks aren’t going to want the calories a natural sweetener would bring. I should note these are 100% of the flavors offered by TrueNutrition, because when you look at say the whey protein isolate and hit the menu for flavors, there’s a lot more than 38. Some of those are specifically listed as unsweetened, and I might be curious to try some of those because I honestly do not like artificial sweeteners and would prefer to avoid them. I’d be curious if the unsweetened mixed in milk would be alright, because the milk might be sweet enough. Or if not, adding a pinch of raw sugar is just fine with me. Besides, adding any flavors adds to the price, and I reckon a pinch of sugar is going to be a LOT cheaper.

Ah, I knew they had this on their website somewhere. From their FAQ section:

What are the ingredients in your Premium Flavor systems?

The Premium Flavor line will contain the following list of ingredients:

Ingredients: Natural and artificial coloring and flavoring, Acesulfame Potassium, Sucralose, Modified Food Starch, Silicon Dioxide, Maltodextrin.

These flavor systems will not contain any lactose, soy, wheat gluten, or animal byproducts whatsoever.

What are the ingredients in your Natural Premium flavor systems?

The Natural Premium Flavor line will contain the following list of ingredients:

Ingredients: Natural coloring and flavoring, Stevia natural herbal sweetener, Maltodextrin.

These flavor systems will not contain any lactose, soy, wheat gluten, or animal byproducts whatsoever.

What are the ingredients in your standard Unsweetened flavoring options?

The standard Unsweetened flavoring options will be left completely unsweetened unless you select a sweetener in the Sweeteners drop down menu that appears below the Flavoring drop down menu. The ingredients for the Unsweetened flavors are:

Natural and Artificial flavoring, Modified Food Starch, Silicon Dioxide, Maltodextrin.

So there you go. I’ve never tried Stevia so I might give that a shot just to experiment. I am kinda curious what the flavoring is in the unsweetened stuff….

Anyways, my current plan is to buy a few more options in 1# tubs and try the flavor over time. One taste isn’t always enough to judge, plus it will let me try the flavor in different bases like water or milk or a shake with other ingredients.

I’m going to try:

• Plain – just because. I’ve only ever been able to get flavored whey before, and it’d be nice to see what plain “non-enhanced” tastes like and how that could factor into cooking.
• Chocolate – unsweetened. Try it straight up. Try it with a little sugar. Try it with other things.
• Chocolate – natural premium sweetener, because I’d like to try this Stevia stuff.
• Dutch Chocolate Fudge – premium. This was a favorite.
• Strawberry – unsweetened. So I can have another unsweetened taste point.
• Strawberries N Cream – premium flavoring, for comparison to the unsweetened strawberry, tho it won’t be a straight-up comparison. But I recall liking this one.
• Luscious Peach – premium. I liked this too.
• Wild Berry Blast – premium, because Daughter liked it.

So that’s a bunch more for me to try, but hopefully will give me a little more depth of exploration and firmer idea of what flavor I’d ultimately like to have as a staple. If nothing else, it’s fun and takes some of the boring routine out of whey consumption. 🙂

I bought the TrueNutrition.com 38 Flavor sample pack.

Chocolate Banana

Wife said this reminded her of childhood. Had a lot of that sort of “takes you back” feeling with these flavors, because they do have that sort of candy-like taste to them.

This was alright, but again the banana flavor is that “Now and Later” candy flavor, which just isn’t my favorite (maybe sour apple instead?? well, at least of Now and Later… not sure how well that’d work as a whey flavoring). Wife didn’t like the aftertaste, but she’s even less a fan of artificial sweetener than I am. Really, this isn’t bad, just yet another on the list of not to our personal preference.

But… that was #38. Last packet. Stay tuned for my final assessment.

I bought the TrueNutrition.com 38 Flavor sample pack.

Double Chocolate Mint

This wasn’t too bad… kinda reminds you of Girl Scout Cookie “Thin Mints” but just not as strong a minty flavor. I doubt they could actually put mint oils in here, so it’s not going to be as wonderfully intense a mint flavoring, but really for what it is? Not bad. Mixed in milk and it’s a bit of cookie-like indulgence.

I bought the TrueNutrition.com 38 Flavor sample pack.

Chocolate Orange

Not a fan of any sort of chocolate and orange mix, so I’m not surprised I’m not a fan of this. It wasn’t offensive tho, and tasted exactly like I expected it to taste. Just not a fan of this flavor in any regard in any venue.

I bought the TrueNutrition.com 38 Flavor sample pack.

Bananas and Cream

This was like other “banana” flavors, that Banana Now and Later candy flavor, but this had that hint of creaminess/smoothness to it. I am starting to wonder what they add to make the “cream” flavor.

I bought the TrueNutrition.com 38 Flavor sample pack.

Peaches N Cream

Apart from being a little on the sweet side, this was pretty good. I can’t place much difference between it and the Luscious Peach… sweeter, perhaps, but I just can’t recall the exact details well enough. Something nags at me tho that the Luscious Peach is more to my preference.

I think I’m liking the “peach” flavors tho because while flavorful, they’re mellow and not overpowering.

I bought the TrueNutrition.com 38 Flavor sample pack.

Creamy Peanut Butter.

Hrm. I have actually been looking forward to trying this one mixed in milk, and I felt a little disappointed. I suppose I was looking for a really good nutty, natural or real peanut butter flavor. Instead… I guess it’s more like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup style of peanut butter, and not very strong flavored either.

It’s not bad… I didn’t feel grossed out, just let down. But then, most of these flavors feel closer to artificial candy-like flavors than the real thing, so I shouldn’t be surprised. Don’t get me wrong. It’s OK for what it is, I just set up a particular expectation and that’s my fault.

Tho I must say… it starts to make me wonder about mixing your own flavors. Get some of these more base flavors, like this peanut butter and one of the strawberry ones for a “PB&J” style flavor that isn’t grape jelly, y’know? I reckon you could have a lot of fun with this.

I bought the TrueNutrition.com 38 Flavor sample pack.

Luscious Peach

I figured this would taste pretty good in milk, and I was right. Sure it’s still that artificial flavoring type of peach, but I really dug it.

This might be running #2 behind the Dutch Chocolate Fudge.

I bought the TrueNutrition.com 38 Flavor sample pack.

Banana Bash

Bash is right… this flavor hits you pretty hard. It’s a very intense banana flavoring, like an intense Banana Now and Later candy. Not bad, but a little overwhelming for me.