Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey Protein Powder, Rocky Road, 5 Pound (Packaging May Vary)

Great tasting chocolate flavor with cleanest ingredient list of all the chocolates. Serving size mixes perfectly in my 1 cup of Fairlife skim milk that has 13g protein. I get a great protein boost of just under 40g in one shot. Its fine texture allows it to easily mix in one cup. Great value for the money buying in the 5 lb size.

First off, I'd like to say that I'm not a nutritionist, or a health nut / fitness bro. Just a regular dude who eats right and works out / runs a few times a week. That being said, this is a great Whey Powder and I am very subscribed to this brand alone. I used to use Muscle Milk Protein Powder, but under the advice of my friend (who is a health/lifestyle adviser) I dropped the MM Brand and switched to ON. To keep it short and sweet, I will list some things to note followed by my personal experience / tips with using this great product. Things I've Noticed: 1. ON Brand has a much more basic ingredient list, with no nonsense or 'padding' to increase their profits. It's mostly Whey Protein, and a few other things for taste and texture. 2. Speaking of taste and texture, this stuff is the real deal. I've only tried two flavors so far, Rocky Road and Strawberry, but they are both excellent. The flavor is very light and palatable, in the sense that you can go through the 5 pound tub without getting sick of the flavors and having to choke them down. It's also not sludgy at all, it mixes so easily you could probably use a spoon, though I use a Blender Bottle. The powder is extremely fine and flour-y when compared to my past protein powder choices. 3. It also doesn't clump together after initial blending. For example. I'll pre-mix my drink before I leave for work at 2:00, and I store it in the cooler until 6:00 or 7:00 and it is just as new. 4. The only downside I've noticed about ON is the price. It is a little pricey at just under 60 dollars for 5 pounds, but I think that with something you put in your body to support your health, it is better this way than to settle for inferiority. Personal Tips: So, in my few months of using ON Brand, I've also found that it does wonders in the mornings when you need a quick protein shot but don't have the time. Often on these mornings, I will mix the whey powder into shakes / smoothies. Like I said, I've only used the two flavors, but here are the smoothies I make with them if you are interested: Strawberry -> 1.5 Cups Whole Milk, 1 Banana, 4 - 6 Strawberries, 3 Ice Cubes, Strawberry ON Powder Chocolate PB Banana -> 1.5 Cups Whole Milk, 1 Banana, 2 - 3 Tbsp. Peanut Butter, 3 Ice Cubes

The Rocky Road flavor by far is the best flavor out of all the flavors offered by Optimum Nutrition. I have tried double rich chocolate, extreme chocolate and vanilla but all of those have that metallic artificial sweetened taste to it. It was hard to drink with water especially on a cut. On the other hand the rocky road flavor is really good and doesn’t have that metallic taste to it, the flavor tastes original similar to the ice cream and with milk it’s even better. 10/10 would HIGHLY recommend rocky road over all flavors if your not so sure about which to pick. This does keep me full with one scoop to eliminate that craving for food or sweets post workout if you’re looking to cut and get lean. Pros: - Best tasting - Easy to drink with water - No after taste - Tastes like the real deal Cons: - Slightly clumpy (Usually all powders have this con) - On the sweeter side - Might make you want more (Tastes like a desert which is a pro for me)

I always buy ON whey. I prefer the gold standard whey over the isolate, even though the isolate has a few more grams of protein per scoop. I've had several different flavors, and I like to try something different each time. I was not a fan of the vanilla shake, it reminded me of cake batter ice cream..I love cake batter ice cream, but I was expecting it to taste more like plain vanilla, and I just dont like the idea of drinking cake batter, so I wont be buying that flavor again. I really like the Chocolate Malt flavor and I think that's my favorite so far. I most recently purchased Rocky Road because of the rave reviews. I definitely really like it. I usually drink it with water, although it honestly doesn't taste very much like the ice cream flavor if you mix it with water. If you mix it with milk, it tastes AWESOME and very similar to the ice cream. However, I usually use water for various reasons and so I don't love it quite as much as I would otherwise. It has a weird aftertaste (with the water) and I don't really know how to describe its general flavor, other than very "artificial"... I feel the need to chug it to "get it over with" because I dont really enjoy the rocky road flavor that much (unless it's with milk, but I dont usually use milk). Chocolate malt tastes good with water or milk, same with Double chocolate. As always, this protein blends super easily with water or milk, I always use a shaker cup so I have no idea how easy it mixes with a regular cup and a spoon/fork, but probably easier than most other proteins in my experience. Never clumpy.

Shopping for whey? The first question you should ask yourself is what's more important to you, taste or results? Hopefully the lot of you chooses the latter. However if you chose the former I wouldn't recommend this product and would instead recommend "Syntrax" nectar protein. That stuff literally tastes as good as Koolaid. I have been taking Gold standard Whey for about 6 months and I have appeared to have gotten better results. I know for sure my arms have grown in size. As far as taste goes, a majority them taste OKAY, but nothing thus far has been amazing. I will update my reviews as I try more flavors. ****Note**** I drink my protein with water only so it may or may not taste better with milk/almond milk. Chocolate Mint - 6.5 out of 10. After suffering through a 5 lb tub of Cake Batter I next tried Chocolate Mint. I would say the of the flavors I have mentioned thus far this is my favorite. The chocolate flavor is definitely more pronounced than the mint, which is subtle. Rocky Road - 6 out of 10. For me Rocky Road was a tad better than tolerable. It definitely wasn't scrumptious or anything, but I thought it was much better and sweeter tasting than chocolate malt. Chocolate Malt - 5 out of 10. I couldn't say this tasted like a chocolate malt truthfully. It tastes about as close to a chocolate malt as the bubble gum flavored medicine did back in the day. There are worst flavors though. Cookies and Cream - 4 out of 10. I thought the flavor was slightly tolerable. There are small granules that I suppose act as the replacement cookies in this. Sometimes you notice them, sometimes you don't. That was really the only unique thing about this flavor. French Vanilla Creme - 4 out of 10. I thought overall the flavor was slightly tolerable, but definitely wasn't one of the better tasting ones. Also wasn't the worst so I guess that's something right? I will say it definitely was closer to an actual French Vanilla Creme flavor than Cake batter was. Cake Batter - 1 out of 10. Not sure what cake-batter flavor they were trying to replicate here, but they swung and missed greatly with this attempt. I would say the initial taste was slightly tolerable, but the impending aftertaste is horrendous. I would liken the aftertaste to soap. Unfortunately I just bought a 5lb canister of this flavor. My goodness this is going to be a LONG wait till I finish this off.

rocky road: I love this flavor. I was worried it may be too strong or too sweet and it wasn't.. it was very subtle. The rocky road flavor tasted like the extreme milk chocolate flavor with a hint of marshmallow. I LOVE marshmallows so this was really good to me and a few hours later I wanted another shake. I tried it both cold and warm. The first time with water and creamer(I didn't have milk) and the second time just water and it was still good with just water. cake batter: just received this flavor and it tastes even better than rocky road, the taste is faint but it's nice, just a basic cake flavor but not gross or overly sweet! i tried milk chocolate also and that was good as well. The only problem was that there were some small clumps but they weren't that bothersome I still liked it. Overall the flavor is great but it doesn't mix as well as other proteins I've used before. I still would definitely recommend it especially if you like chocolate and marshmallows.

Best flavor ever. It honestly feels like I’m drinking a chocolate milkshake every time. Great taste, smooth texture, and makes it easy to look forward to getting my protein in. Definitely my favorite flavor so far.

Many other companies making protein powder will try to convince you that their product is something special. For example they will say it’s derived from a specific source or that it’s a special flavor or that it’s natural. This gives them an excuse to jack up the prices and screws the consumer. I like how optimum nutrition just has completely straightforward and simple packaging that just simply states its premium protein powder and what it can do for you. They also offer the best prices in bulk. I bought the 10 pound bag since I’ve already purchased three 5 pound containers over the years and wanted to save money in the long run. I don’t think there are many other seller on Amazon selling this much protein powder in bulk and such high quality and low price. Only the 1 pound package is completely a rip off because it costs $40 and I’ve bought it at places like target for less than 30 bucks.