Best Tasting Protein Powder Flavors, Ranked

Looking for the best tasting protein powder out there? We sampled a variety of cool, inventive, and buzz-worthy flavors. Here’s what stood out.

Okay, honesty hour: I’m a protein powder newbie. Despite having three separate gym memberships (they make them so hard to cancel!), I’m far from a dedicated gym-goer. I hit that elliptical twice a week and, as a reward, my post-workout protein of choice is a fried chicken sandwich from Dave’s Hot Chicken. That’s the kind of person you’re dealing with here, okay? 

In my search for the best protein powder flavors to try, I had to lean on the recommendations of subreddits, fan comments, and other employees in the Mythical office who know their way around a protein shake. That effort even included roping Mythical Kitchen’s resident gym buff Josh Scherer into a protein powder taste test on camera. 

Along the way, I learned a few things. First: You can’t trust the directions. If you’re trying to get the perfect water-to-powder ratio, you’ve gotta measure from the heart. Second: Everyone has their own personal opinion on what you should mix protein powder with. Some people (Josh, for example) prefer to mix it into smoothies, and if that’s not an option, ice cold water. Other people think cold water is difficult to mix, making the powder clump—room temp is the way to go. Other people think drinking protein powder with only water is totally psychotic. “At least mix it with milk,” said several Mythical employees to me, as they watched me shake a blender bottle with growing rage over the chunks of whey that wouldn’t dissolve

You know what I think? I think y’all need to chill out. No matter how many gums, flavor additives, and artificial sugars they add to mimic the taste of a scoop of ice cream, no one is drinking a protein shake for the flavor alone. (You would, instead, have a scoop of ice cream.) So yes, I just mixed all of these with cold water. And, yes, I give you permission to yell at me for that in the comments. Just make sure to also comment with some protein powder flavors you think we should try next! I’m hoping this article will grow and evolve, you know? So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the best tasting protein powder we found so far.

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Best Nostalgic Flavor: Dymatize Fruity Pebbles

Best Nostalgic Flavor

Dymatize Fruity Pebbles

Listen, this one is fun. I know I’m putting it at the bottom of the list, but I really enjoyed the entire experience of Dymatize Fruity Pebbles. It’s thick, a little foamy, and tastes like a Fruity Pebbles smoothie. And with flecks of rainbow pastels smeared into the mix, it looks exactly like the leftover milk in a bowl of Fruity Pebbles cereal, too. The only reason I relegated this to fifth place? I can’t get past the aftertaste of Stevia, plain and simple. It’s still one of the best protein powder flavors I tried of the bunch, but if you’re sensitive to fake sweetener, you might wanna skip it.

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

Best Unique Flavor: Boba Protein Powder in Taro & Thai Milk Tea

Best Unique Flavor

Taro Milk Tea Whey Protein

If heaven was a protein powder, this is what mine would look like: vibrantly purple taro milk tea. When I ordered this, I thought there was no way it would taste like a real taro. In fact, I was convinced it would upset me for being a bastardization of something I deeply love. But I was wrong! They nailed the flavor here; it’s a great balance of earthy and sweet, with a rich and creamy consistency that works well with plain cold water. (I mixed this one with oat milk, too, and found it to be almost too rich for my tastes.) Boba tea fans, I don’t think you have to look much further. This is the best tasting protein powder for you. 

Credit: Merc / Boba Tea Protein

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

Best Cookie Flavor: GHOST Chips Ahoy

Best Cookie Flavor

GHOST Chips Ahoy

I struggled with the order of these top three. If you don’t already know, GHOST is a protein powder brand known for collaborating with iconic snack favorites (like Oreos, Cinnabon, the list goes on) to make enticing, highly marketable flavors. In my GHOST-only protein powder taste test with Josh, we both realized that while some flavors are pretty average, when GHOST delivers on what’s advertised, they really deliver on some of the best flavored protein powder. At the top of that list is Chips Ahoy. This is, quintessentially, a Chips Ahoy cookie in milkshake form, complete with cookie pieces and chocolate chips that get stuck at the bottom, but still taste yummy. It’s undeniably good upon first sip. Why am I only giving it bronze? Simply put, the other top two have a star quality that can’t be beat. 

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Runner-Up: Syntha 6 Cold Stone Birthday Cake Remix

Runner Up

Syntha 6 Cold Stone Birthday Cake Remix

Hey, remember when I said that no one drinks a protein shake for the taste? No matter how much it tastes like a scoop of ice cream? This is the closest a flavored protein powder has come to proving me wrong. Syntha 6 Cold Stone Birthday Cake is thick, frothy, creamy, and does, in fact, taste like Cold Stone’s birthday cake ice cream. It’s bright and sugary (not too sweet, though) and vanilla-forward. Is it jam-packed with additives to achieve what can only be considered a feat of food science? Yes. The ingredients list is hefty. But we’re not here to find the best protein powder flavor for your overall health—we’re here to find the best tasting protein powder out there, and by golly, this is one of them.

Credit: Merc / Amazon

Rating:

9.5/10

Sporks

Best of the Best: GHOST Nutter Butter

Best of the Best

GHOST Nutter Butter

We’re big Nutter Butter fans here at Sporked. They dominate our ranking of the best peanut butter cookies, and rightfully so. GHOST Nutter Butter tastes alarmingly like the smoothie version of a Nutter Butter, and if that concept seems a little strange to you, I get it. I wasn’t expecting to love this. But in a world of too-sweet protein powder shakes, this salty, creamy, peanut-buttery mix is a breath of fresh air—and it’s the best GHOST protein flavor, for sure. The secret, simple ingredient is really just salt. It makes every savory-sweet sip naturally addictive. They’ve done something truly unexpected here, and I have no qualms awarding this the best tasting protein powder I’ve tried to date. 

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Other protein powders we tried: Orgain Fruity Cereal, GHOST Cereal Milk, GHOST Chocolate Cereal Milk, GHOST Strawberry Cereal Milk, GHOST Oreo, GHOST Vegan Cinnabon, MUSCLE MILK Vanilla Creme, Body Fortress Whey Vanilla, Body Fortress Whey Chocolate


About the Author

Ariana Losch

Ariana Losch is a Sporked contributor, webcomic writer, java junkie, and bad TV enthusiast. She only ever feels at peace laying out on a beach like a kebab, roasting in the sun; sadly, she can never move back to Florida, her home state, because there simply isn’t enough good Mediterranean food. You can find her overstaying her welcome at just about every LA coffee shop, working on a screenplay and avoiding all eye contact. (She is embarrassed to be there, please leave her alone.)