Sunwarrior vegan protein powder

Full disclaimer: I am not a fan of protein powders. So, you may be wondering why I would choose to review one – well, it’s something I’m now including in my daily diet so I thought I might as well do a review as I’ve found one I kinda sorta like in Sunwarrior.

I recently started swapping my usual avocado on toast for a protein packed smoothie in the morning to help with my training, which has plateaued a bit. I’ve already noticed a big difference now that I’ve readjusted my macros (ugh, how pretentious do I sound?!) to get more protein and less carbs throughout the day.

I’ve tried a few different protein powders and so far the Sunwarrior one, while a little lower than others in protein, is the best in my opinion. Besides tasting nice, it also seems to be clean in terms of heavy metal contaminants, which is a serious issue with all protein powders (vegan or otherwise). You can read about the 2010 consumer report here. From my research though, this particular product comes up clean.

Sunwarrior has three different products, and the one I am taking is the Warrior Blend raw vegan protein vanilla flavor. This powder combines pea, goji berry, and hemp proteins with the bonus of medium chain triglycerides from coconut. According to the website, the Warrior Blend has a slightly better amino acid profile than their other products and includes the anti-inflammatory power of coconut to speed recovery.

Here’s a  quick review of the product:

• Ingredients: I like that this is a raw product without soy (I eat too much soy as it is). Each scoop only has 16g of protein but at just 80 calories per serving you can add more than one scoop to your drink. The amino acid profile is also really impressive.
• Taste: the taste of this protein powder is pretty good. I know some people have complained about the added sweeteners, but I need it to make the drink palatable.
• Texture: the texture of this product is slightly chalky – and again – some have complained about this. However, in my experience all vegan protein powders are basically the same in terms of texture. It is something you just get used to (and can be made better through adding fruit, ice, etc).

Because I am not a huge fan of protein powders, I always add other ingredients to my drink including things like soy milk, strawberries, blueberries, spinach, chia seeds and ice. It still doesn’t beat avocado on toast, but it gets the job done.

Do you use any protein powders? What has been your experience with them?