Flavoring (and Sweetening) Protein Powders

When it comes to protein powder flavours, there’s so many delicious flavours to choose from that unflavoured protein powder if often disregarded, but believe us if you have a spare bag of it lying around there is plenty of ways to spice this up! 

Flavouring your own protein powders is REALLY easy and fun too.

Here are a few examples of how you can think flavour (and sweeten) your plain one-ingredient protein powders:

1. Unflavoured protein powder + your sweetener of choice + vanilla essence (or freshly ‘shaved’ vanilla pods) = vanilla protein powder

2. Unflavoured protein powder + your sweetener of choice + cocoa powder = chocolate protein powder

3. Unflavoured protein powder + your sweetener of choice + instant powdered coffee or coffee essence + vanilla essence = latte protein powder

4. Unflavoured protein powder + your sweetener of choice + cocoa powder + instant powdered coffee or coffee essence +/-vanilla essence= mocha protein powder

5. Unflavoured protein powder + your sweetener of choice + vanilla essence + banana flavouring or banana powder = banana protein powder

6. Unflavoured protein powder + your sweetener of choice + strawberry flavouring = strawberry protein powder

7. Unflavoured protein powder + your sweetener of choice + chicory powder = a somewhat malty-tasting protein powder!

SWEETENING YOUR PROTEIN POWDERS

Sweetening your own protein powders is great, because you can do away with any and all artificial sweeteners that you may not like! For example, if you don’t like low-quality sweeteners with dodgy reputations like aspartame and ace-K (i.e. acesulfame potassium), you don’t have to ever consume them!

Sucralose, erythitol, and processed stevia are a lot better options. They’re still lab-derived and in that sense ‘artificial’ (e.g. you can’t find them in nature they way you do in a bottle or pack) but they’re an OK low-carb option. If you want to go fully ‘natural’ with your protein powders though, you can sweeten them using whole fruits (dates are amazing!), whole leaf stevia concentrate (just know it’s pretty bitter!), coconut sugar, date syrup, or honey/agave.

FLAVOURING YOUR PROTEIN POWDERS 

Below is list of some of the best ingredients for flavouring your unsweetened or unflavoured protein powder:

NATURAL FLAVOURS (aka Nature’s Flavours):

These can be added to the vanilla, chocolate, or the sweetened ‘plain’ branch of the tree

Vanilla essence
Cinnamon and other spices
Chai spice
Banana powder
Freeze-dried strawberry powder
Lemon juice or zest
Coconut essence
Orange oil or orange zest
Rose water (if you want to go a bit exotic with your flavours, this one is great!)
Instant Coffee
Instant Coffee Substitute (i.e. chicory powder, for that ‘malty’ flavour)
Peanut butter powder (this adds a bit of extra protein to your starting protein powder too!)
Almond essence
Orange oil or orange peel

If you then want to go into the land of artificial flavours, well, the sky is the limit there. There are companies dedicated to producing a massive array of flavours! Check out, for example, FoodieFlavours.com.

CHOOSING JUST ONE OR TWO PROTEIN POWDERS

“What about the protein powders though? If I could get just one kind, which one should I go for in order to create most of Protein Works recipes?”

Here I’d say go with two: get an unflavored whey protein powder and a pea protein powder, plain.

You don’t need much else!