Flavors Tried: Choco and Vanilla
Nutrition: 120 Calories, 2g Fat, 2g Carbs (2g Sugar), 24g Protein
It’s no secret that I love Barebells protein bars. I believe that both their regular protein bars and soft protein bars are the best options on the market today.
So when I finally came across their protein shakes, I had extremely high hopes.
I mean, when the bars are as good as they are, and then they turn around and make a protein shake with ultra-filtered milk (like Fairlife), how could they possibly miss?
You obviously read the title of this post, so I can’t possibly spoil this for you. But they missed big time.
On the macro side of things, these shakes are really impressive. These are made with ultra-filtered skim milk, leaving behind very little fat and sugar, so you get 24 grams of protein for only 120 calories.
But that’s basically where the positives end for me.
First of all, can we talk about the name & branding really quickly? I know I’m a branding nerd, but the design reminds me of a circus. I get that they’re going for an old-school kind of look, but it isn’t working for me.
And the name “Milk Drink” just feels off to me. Maybe they were just trying to be different, but when you have Nurri and Quest both settling on using “milkshake,” maybe there’s a good reason for it.
“Milk drink” just doesn’t sound appetizing. At all.
I’m being overly-critical, I know. Had the product itself been better I certainly would not be as critical. But this vanilla “milk drink” is one of the most generic-tasting protein shakes I’ve had in a long time.
You can tell immediately from the smell that this is going to be a really artificial-tasting vanilla protein shake, and that is exactly what it delivers.
The shake itself is really thin, which is okay if it delivers on good flavor (like Nurri), but it tastes watered-down as well.
I hoped that pouring this drink into a glass would improve the experience because sometimes the taste of the metalic can throws things off, but that did not alter the flavor in this case.
The choco flavor was a slight step up from the vanilla, but chocolate is generally a much “safer” flavor since you only need cocoa powder to get the main flavor in there.
You’d never mistake this for chocolate milk- I suppose it’s in the same family as Yoohoo (which, ironically, is a “chocolate drink”), but it tastes like a watered down protein shake.
You don’t get punched with the same artificial flavor as the vanilla, but it’s a very generic chocolate-protein flavor, not chocolate milk.
A couple of years ago, I tried the Barebells protein shakes from overseas, and I thought they were fine. I was not very impressed, but they were servicable (and not to dwell on the name any longer, but those are indeed called milkshakes).
I was worried that these drinks would be the same protein shakes repurposed for the US market.
Fortunately, that’s not the case.
Unfortunately, they somehow managed to deliver an inferior product.
Are these the worst protein shakes I’ve ever had? No, you could do worse,
Will you regret buying these? Honestly, you probably will. If you have the expectations that these are just going to be really average protein shakes, then maybe you won’t be disappointed.
But Barebells has set such a high bar with their lineup of protein bars, and these shakes don’t come anywhere close to that standard.
