Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey Naturally Flavored Protein Powder, Vanilla, 1.9 Pound (Packaging May Vary)

It's nice tasting and mixes smoothly with minimal effort.

I wanted the Casein because I mostly take it at night before bed. This stuff tastes fine, and gets the job done like regular protein powder. In the past an unfortunate side effect of protein powders is that, they usually leave me gasy/bloated. I've heard if protein powder affects your bowels it's because the protein isn't absorbing properly. With this Casein powder I don't notice any of the bowel side effects. There is essentially no bloating/gas/upset stomach. I just wanted to leave this review in case anyone else is affected by Whey protein. Maybe Casein will be easier on your stomach.

Taste: I'd have to give it five stars for taste. It's not a strawberry smoothie from Jamba Juice, but for a protein drink, it's very tasty. My 8 and 9 year olds beg for sips in the morning. So in the field of protein powders, this one is great. Ingredients: Five stars. Read the label. Clean protein. Naturally occurring BCAA's and glutamine. Stevia, which I'm not a big fan of, is a more "natural" sweetener. Would I like to see some creatine? Sure, but it's not advertised so I'm not going to take points from them. Mix-ability: Shaker cup mixes easily. 20 seconds of shaking and no lumps. Blender, my preferred method, mixes perfectly. No lumps but it does foam up a bit. Have not tried the spoon method. Packaging: I'm going to roll a few things up in this category. The scoop is always at the bottom! Frustrating. I don't like that a "rounded" scoop is a serving. What is a "rounded" scoop? Why not give us the correct size scoop and we can all agree on a level scoop? Maybe it's my OCD. Has a huge opening for easy scooping all the way to the bottom. Thank goodness for the color coding flavor strip. The flavor is typed in small print and practically blends in with the background. The color strip makes it easy for me to grab my strawberry or chocolate flavor without having to read. Pricing: Good. Are there less expensive ones out there? Yep. Have I tried them? Yep. Are they just as good? Close. At the end of the day ON has a reputation to live up to so I can trust that they are not going to cut corners. For me, it's worth the extra few pennies per serving. Literally. A few pennies for quality, dependability and peace of mind.

It doesn’t taste as good as I expected and it froths up a lot if you put it in blender.

Powder came in huge clumps. Hard to dissolve in water even after shaking in a blender bottle