Orgain Organic Plant Based Protein Powder, Creamy Chocolate Fudge, 2.03 Pound, 1 Count

Okay, so I have received a few samples of Shakeology and I love it. What I don't love, is the price. It's $130 for a 30 day supply. I just can't afford that. So, I took to the internet, to find a protein shake that is just as good. After googling "shakeology alternatives" I came across this product. I read the reviews, from several websites. My first concern was taste. Protein shakes can have a strange flavor and I have tried quit a few different ones. Secondly, the price needed to be reasonable. My protein came today and as I opened the box, I just kept saying "please let this be good!" Well, let me tell you, I was so pleasantly surprised. Yes! A great flavor. I made my usual shake of almond milk, protein powder, Pb fit, banana and spinach. I have always had to add a banana to my protein shakes, just so the taste would be bearable. With this, it's sweet (and good enough tasting) that you don't need to add banana. It is sweet, but it has a good flavor. The container is about 3/4 of the way full. This is standard, with powders. It's smooth. It doesn't have a strange aftertaste and it isn't chalky. I am very pleased with the taste. (Please note that my picture, with the shake made, it is green because of the spinach. This does not have a green coloring, but a nice brown coloring, unless you add greens, to your shake. That will change the coloring of your shake, based on what you add to it).

I purchased this product with my own money. Orgain has never given me anything for my thoughts or opinions. I know some reviews are skewed by the reviewers getting paid for good reviews. You are not getting that type of review here.

I have purchased Orgain protein powder 33 times according to my amazon order summary. I have purchased it at a few other places when Amazon runs out as well.

I like the taste, compared to other powders I have tried. It is not a DQ shake, but for a vegan protein shake it is good. I only mix it in smoothies with frozen fruits, and fresh produce. So the powder only provides a little sweetness and a lot of protein. If you hate all protein powders, you will probably hate this one too. Maybe if you hate all protein powders try drinking smoothies with just fruits and veggies, and get your protein from some other healthy source.

I realize there is a subset of people that say "why smoothies"? Just eat food. I was not 326 lbs because I was eating healthy foods. I was in the camp of people that thought fruit was a waste of calories. I mean come on, 2 apples have the same calories as a candy bar. But what I have learned is that two apples will nourish and fuel your body, leaving you satisfied. Sugar just trashes your hormones and metabolism. Calories are not the only thing that made me fat. Excess calories from poor nutrition made me fat. Protein smoothies were my baby step in learning how to eat the right stuff. I knew what to eat. I just did not want to do it. Protein smoothies taste good to me. They helped me to learn how to like eating fruit. I now eat whole fruits in place of junk food. I also eat a lot of fruits in smoothies with Orgain powder.

My overall review is fairly glowing, and I will let my 5 star rating stand, as I have lost over 100 lbs. The positive benefit of losing 100 lbs and keeping that weight off out weighs anything else for me. So maybe my thoughts are biased.
Protein smoothies and an otherwise crappy diet will not help you lose 100 lbs. But protein smoothies, and education may help you learn your triggers to bad eating, and they may help you compensate for cravings, and learn new cravings. It will be a struggle, and it will take time.
I do not use this powder in a shaker cup so I can not say how it does with those. I do use it as a component in a fairly complex smoothie with 3 or 4 types of fruit and some greens and juices. My smoothies are not low calorie. They are good calorie with great nutrition. They are not a full meal replacement, but they are close.
My smoothies run about 300 calories per serving. I consider a meal 500 calories, for my size and activity level. The nice thing about a smoothie is you can pour what you need and share the rest with your family.
My go to smoothies recipe is
1 blendtec designer 625 blender with 4 sided jar
4 oz of POM juice
2 oz of lemon concentrate (gives fruit smoothies a jolly rancher effect)
4 ounces of coconut milk....this will make a thick smoothie, probably too thick for a ninja blender (been down that road) more liquid will help thin the smoothie if your blender cant handle it. When I had a ninja, the liquid had to be to the top of the greens at the least.
3 scoops orgain vanilla protein powder (that makes 33 grams of protein for the full pitcher of smoothie)
2 handfuls of fresh organic power greens (sams club)
2 handfuls of organic frozen strawberries (also sams club)
1 handful frozen blackberry, raspberry, blueberry combo (Sams club as well)
This will make a full jar of smoothie. 48 ounces I think. This is the family size recipie. Don't drink this all your self!! As a meal, this will feed two people. As a snack it will feed 6.

My life is great now at 215 lbs, and I am active. I can play with my kids and ride my bike to work. I could not do that at 326 lbs.
Orgain protein powder helped me. It tasted good enough to make a new lifestyle possible. It has good organic ingredients. It is a great component in my organic smoothies, that we still have several times per week.
Not everyone has the same goals, or problems I had. Your journey will be different.
If you don't find my review helpful, comment. I am not a flamer, I respect your opinion ( I also do not offend easily). I just want to do better reviews.

Update:
For the best price, what I have found is that I can order 4 of these every other month, in the subscribe and save program. I also order some gummy vitamins, so that gets me to the five items needed for the 15% off. Then I pay with my Amazon store card. that gets me another 5% off. SO I get 20% off each jug I order just by making sure I have 5 items shipped every time I get a subscribe and save. If you end up liking this product as much as I do, and don't use as much, you can order 5 and then skip months until it is all gone. I think subscribe and save even has an every 6 months option. Doing it this way gives you five for the price of four. That is how I get the best deal. But other than that I pay the same price anyone else would, and those discounts are available to anyone. Good luck and happy smoothing!

Update 5-15-17:
I started to use intermittent fasting about a month and a half ago. I still use the protein smoothies as a supplement to my diet, but now I consume all of my daily calories during a 6 hour window, so my body remains fasted for 18 hours in a 24 hour period. I do move that 6 hour feeding window around to fit my schedule, but it is typically from noon to 6pm. I do use black coffee, unsweetened tea, and broth to get through times that I may be hungry. But that was not too big of an issue after the first 7 to 10 days. I eat a whole day's worth of calories, every single day. I just do it in a short window, so my body has a long rest period. There is research that indicates this will help reduce insulin resistance. It can also have a positive effect on the body's natural production and regulation of hormones.
So after about 3 weeks of this new intermittent fasting regimen, I had my annual physical. Sadly I do not have my physical results from past years. But I am fairly confident those labs were terrible when I was 326 lbs. My current weight is around 220, in my bathroom, and around 226 fully dressed after a large dose of morning coffee.
Anyway, my most recent labs looked like this:
fasting glucose 88
Cholesterol 143 (goal <200)
HDL 43 (goal >40) This is the good cholesterol, higher is better
LDL 87 (goal<130)
Tryglycerides 66 (goal <150)
Here is the big one, and it is kind of personal.
I was on Testosterone replacement therapy when I was at my heaviest (326 lbs). The testosterone made me feel terrible, but my natural levels were below 100, which also made me feel terrible. So when I decided to start taking care of my self and lose weight several years ago. I also decided to stop the testosterone therapy. I have not had any TRT for many years now. Probably since 2010, but I do not remember the exact date. Any way at my new healthy weight, and with my healthier eating habits and life style, my natural testosterone levels are 459. That is a fairly good level for a 41 year old male. My TRT levels were much higher (usually 500 to 700), but those were not always balanced levels, so I did not feel as good as I do now.
These labs (above) were not done in a very controlled environment. I do not have baseline labs from before, and I have been trying different things to improve my health. It is hard to completely attribute my great lab work to any one thing. My hope is to inspire readers to take charge of their own health. Try healthy life style habits, and find some they can stick with.
Maybe a protein smoothie per day will be all you do, and you get healthier.
Maybe you decide to eat all of your meals in a 6 or 8 hour window and fast the remaining hours of the day.
Maybe you try multiple things.
I think the key is to identify healthy choices and do them consistently. Protein smoothies can be an expensive way to get healthy. So using them as a supplement, may be a better choice for many. And eating healthy foods will be your best overall choice.
Intermittent fasting is free. But check with your Dr to see if it is right for you.
Getting exercise is also a great idea.
My hope with this review, is to encourage and inspire someone to make healthy changes. To show them that someone else has had struggles (and I still struggle, I wont even mention how badly I did this past holiday season, hence the need to change up a bit with Intermittent fasting). But with effort and consistency, there can be hope. Maybe you wont lose 100 lbs. but maybe your clothes will fit better, and you will be able to be a little more active. I remember how happy I was that my size 42 jeans were not tight any more. Now I can wear 34's, and I have gotten down to 32's when I got my weight down to 206. But so far I have not found that weight very sustainable.

I wanted to keep my consumption of animal protein low and this fit the bill so I tried it.

Yes, it's a bit grainy. (It's got 5 g of fiber per serving so I pretend the grittiness is just proof.)
Yes, it tastes a little chalky.
Yes, the Stevia leaves a bizarre aftertaste.

But I don't understand what else anyone expects from a protein powder made from plants. This tastes exactly like I thought it would-- a hippie grocery store bulk section...in powder form.

Is it delicious? Lol.
Is it smooth and sweet? No and no.
Is it the best tasting protein powder I've ever had? Absolutely not.
Is it as versatile as whey? Hell no.

Is it 20 grams of organic plant protein that goes down relatively easily and makes me feel like I'm not guzzling Brondo or bovine growth hormone? Yes, yes, yes and yes.

Call me crazy, but when I'm looking for an organic plant protein powder, I understand it's not going to taste like a milkshake. And I'm okay with that.

This amino acid profile was emailed to my by Orgain. I hope you find it helpful!
Alanine 1210 mg
Arginine 1690 mg
Asparagine/Aspartic Acid 1860 mg
Cysteine/Cystine 388 mg
Glutamine 3610 mg
Glycine 902 mg
Histidine* 449 mg
Isoleucine* † 997 mg
Leucine* † 1770 mg
Lysine* 829 mg
Methionine* 534 mg
Phenylalanine* 1190 mg
Proline 975 mg
Serine 1040 mg
Threonine* 759 mg
Tryptophan* 185 mg
Tyrosine 1220 mg
Valine* † 1220 mg

Fake product. The printed ingredients are mixed up and monkfruit extract is missing... It also tastes different. See pictures to believe it.

I love this product . It tastes great and fills me up. I need gluten-, lactose- and fructose-free products. This meets my needs perfectly!!

I really wanted to purchase a sample size of this to make sure I like it but couldn't find one. It tastes good! I stir it into my plain oatmeal every morning.

One of the better tasting protein powders, especially of the plant based variety. However, if you have a sensitive stomach like I do, then this may not be the product for you if you plan to drink it alone and on an empty stomach. It may give you a stomach ache like it does for me. I switched to plant based protein powders to avoid this, and have not have this problem with others I tried so far. All in all, it is a great value for the price, taste is great, but be cautious if you have stomach sensitivity.