I’m a bit of a sucker for vegan protein powders. I started with whey (yuck) before I was vegan because I thought I needed more protein and kind of fell for the “healthy” marketing. Now, I realize that I get enough protein in my regular diet, but I like to make shakes for breakfast because they’re delicious and keep me full for a while. I also like to add a few scoops of protein powder to homemade pancakes and waffles to bump up the protein we eat at breakfast. And of course it makes me feel like I’m being healthier when I make a mug cake and use protein in place of regular flour.

My usual go to protein was always Sun Warrior, but I’ve also branched out to Vega, Orgain Organic (gotta make sure you get the plant based one because they also have whey ones), and other hemp and soy powders that I don’t remember the brand names of.

I recently got a few free samples of NuZest, a new (to the US) soy free, dairy free, GMO free, and gluten free protein powder. I was really excited to try these, and I wanted to try them in the different ways I usually use protein powder.

Texture

I mixed the strawberry and cappuccino in a shaker cup (on two different days, not together), and they are by far the smoothest powders I’ve ever had. Actually, I’ve never had a protein powder that I could just shake and drink, usually I shake it and then whisk it to get the clumps out. This was totally smooth. I made the chocolate in a blender with peanut butter and frozen bananas and obviously had no issues with clumping or it being gritty.

I used the vanilla in a mug cake and it wasn’t gritty at all. It fluffed up just like normal flour would.

Taste

The strawberry tasted like strawberry milk but without the overly sweet, fake strawberry flavor. I was both nervous and excited for that one and purposely tried it with just almond milk in a shaker. I was pleasantly surprised.

I was really looking forward to the cappuccino one because I haven’t had coffee at all this year, and I kind of miss the flavor. It was good but not as strong as I was hoping for. I did dilute it more than the directions said though, so that was probably my own fault. I used 16oz of cashew milk instead of 12oz.

The vanilla was also good. It kind of had a super sweet vanilla flavor (but not bad) similar to other vanilla protein powders. It was awesome in a mug cake with chocolate chips.

I made the chocolate in a blender with peanut butter and frozen bananas. Somehow I missed taking a picture (probably because it was so good and I just wanted to drink it all), and it was delicious.

Ingredients and Nutrition

The ingredients are probably the most important part (along with taste) and they all seem to check out. There aren’t any weird ingredients, artificial colors, or flavors. There’s barely any measured sugar (0g in the plain, and 0.17g in the chocolate).and it gets it’s sweetness from Thaumatin, a protein from an African fruit. (I only looked it up because they were definitely sweet, but no sugar is listed in the ingredients anywhere.)

There are between 90-100 calories in a serving and between 20-22 grams of protein, which is pretty good for a vegan protein. There are less than 2 carbs in a serving, and a very small amount of  fat less than .5g. Sodium is a little higher than similar proteins, but nothing too crazy.

I don’t know a lot about Amino Acid profiles, but I know that it can be difficult to make sure you get the right combination. This protein has all 9 Essential Amino Acids , plus 9 others.

Price

It’s definitely one of the higher end vegan protein powders available, but it’s about the same price ($45 for 500g) that  I started buying Sun Warrior when I first found it. Hopefully, after it’s been out for a while, the price will come down a bit. It’s definitely a good buy for the ingredients (and lack of crappy ingredients), the taste, and the texture.