How To Make Protein Shakes Taste Better: 6 Easy Ways

Protein shakes are a common drink in the fitness world, offering a quick and easy way to meet your protein and calorie daily requirements.

But let’s be real, a lot of them taste bland, chalky, or even bitter.

With a few easy tricks, you can transform your protein flavor from bitter and bland to mouthwatering and refreshing.

In this guide, we’ll cover the 6 easy ways you can make your protein shakes taste better (without spending money on expensive powders).

If you’re still stuck on choosing what to mix your protein powder with, we listed 10 favorite ideas and liquids to mix it with.

Tricks for Making Protein Shakes Taste Good

Use a blender:

Using a blender is an easy and less exhausting way to create a smoother protein shake with an enjoyable texture.

Blenders are quick, efficient, and make it easy to create a smooth protein shake in just a few minutes.

Plus, you can add ice cubes to make your shake even more refreshing, just like a sports drink!

Use unflavored protein powder:

You’re probably used to ordering flavored protein powder and mixing it with milk or water, just to have the same old bland taste like before.

If you want more control over your shakes’ flavors, we suggest ditching the pre-flavored kind of protein and ordering an unflavored protein powder.

This way, you can experiment with multiple different ingredients, flavors, and liquids to find out which one you like most.

Drinking protein shouldn’t be a to-do task, it should be an enjoyable, refreshing drink post or pre-workout.

Switch up the liquid

It’s a good idea to try mixing your protein powder with different liquids.

There are a lot more liquids than water and milk that protein works well with.

If you’re wondering what you should mix your protein powder with, we listed our 10 favorite ideas you can check out and experiment with.

Just make sure to track the nutritional values of each liquid and align it with your diet.

Add more ingredients:

Want to make your protein shake more filling and more flavorful? The best way to do it is to add other ingredients, like fruits, nuts, or even veggies.

Not only will it fix the flavor of your protein shake, it will also add important nutrients, vitamins and minerals to your shake.

Some popular fruits to add to your shake include:

• Berries
• Bananas
• Mango
• Pineapple
• Apples

Just make sure to mix it well and not overdo it with the ingredients, and you’re good to go!

Add natural sweeteners

Skip the extra sugar, refined oils, and artificial flavoring.

You can add just the right amount of sweetness from the natural ingredients you have at home.

Some of them include:

• Honey
• Stevia
• Maple syrup
• Coconut sugar

Each one of these brings a unique flavor to the protein shake and elevates the overall taste.

Add texture

If you enjoy a thick, creamy shake, ingredients like Greek yogurt, avocado, and tree nut butters are game-changers.

In addition to improving your shake’s texture, you’ll also get additional nutrients from these ingredients.

If you like to drink your protein shakes like a sports drink instead of a thick shake, we recommend searching for fruit-based protein powders.

Why do protein shakes taste bad?

Artificial flavoring:

Companies will regularly load up their shakes with zero-calorie sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose, ace k, saccharin, and others.

Artificial sweeteners don’t feel like the real thing and can leave a weird after taste on your tongue, ruining the flavor of your protein shake.

However, there are companies that use natural sweeteners and healthy ingredients to make protein powders.

At WICKED, we use all-natural ingredients, only 1g of sugar, and keep our powders low-calorie.

Low-quality ingredients:

Some protein powders are made with lower-quality ingredients, which compromise the taste and the quality of the powder.

So, be careful when purchasing your next protein powder.

Make sure you don’t compromise your health (or taste) to save a couple of bucks.

Texture:

Plant-based protein powders typically feel chalky, bland, and have a thick texture to them.

This is because of the higher carbohydrate and fiber plant protein sources

What to look for when buying a protein powder

Look for minimal ingredients

Many protein powders are flooded with unnecessary thickeners, sweeteners, and fillers.

Look for brands that contain fewer ingredients that are natural or plant-based.

Check out the sweetener values

Flavored protein powders mostly use sweeteners, which aren’t necessarily harmful, but you should look to cut them down or avoid them altogether.

Make sure you pick a brand that doesn’t use unhealthy sweeteners in their protein powder.

Look for customer reviews

This goes without saying, look for experiences other people had with the protein powder you’re looking to buy.

If the reviews are mostly negative, it’s safer to completely avoid the brand instead of experimenting with it.

Takeaways

You should be able to craft a tasty protein shake after experimenting with it for a bit.

Each flavor, ingredient, liquid, and mixing technique is different, and the best way to decide what works best for you is to try it yourself.

Remember, the perfect protein shake isn’t one you have to force yourself to drink.