Recently I was lucky enough to receive 3 samples of Kinetica Sports products from Muscle Supermarket. The samples consisted of;
Whey protein strawberry flavour
First to be used was the banana flavour whey protein. The powder was extremely fine and smelt like most banana flavoured products which I find to be slightly artificial. I mixed the sample in a blender on the smoothie setting with milk. Initial reaction was not as I had expected. I’m not a fan of banana flavoured products because of the artificial taste and smell they seem to give off. With this product I had an instant throwback reaction to my childhood when I used to buy mini milk ice cream lollies from the ice cream man that came round our way. Not what I was expecting from a protein shake. Possibly not what the manufacturers had in mind when they made the product. But as a non banana shake man this one certainly had my attention. The shake was smooth, light and airy and went down a treat. No stomach bloat or gas over the coming few hours afterwards.
A couple of days later I turned my attention to the strawberry flavoured whey sample. This one I decided to mix with water so I could compare taste, mixability and such like. The powder smelt okay, mixed easy enough with no visual signs of grittiness or clumps. This time I mixed it by hand in a shaker. That’s were the positives seemed to end. I found the taste quite bland, very thin in consistency and whilst I suffered no apparent bloating afterwards a couple of hours later I was plagued with the dreaded protein gas reaction to something not digesting too well. I’m particularly sensitive to protein supplements these days after having used them for a good 20 years or so. So it was quite a shock to use two similar products yet get such dramatic differences between the two. Banana with milk went down great. Strawberry with water came back to haunt me. Normally its the milk type products that cause the issues not ones mixed with water.
Finally we come to the third sample. I went back to mixing this one with milk and in the blender. Visually it mixed beautifully unfortunately it tasted quite powdery and as I got near the end of the serving there was quite a bit of the product that had settled at the bottom of the glass over the course of the 20 minutes it took me to sip the drink after a hard interval sprint training session. Taste wise you couldn’t really tell that there was orange in there, the mango took over the taste buds yet you could smell the orange both in powder form and once mixed. No signs of bloating or gas with this sample.
On reflection if I had to choose between the 3 sample products the hands down winner would be the banana flavoured whey the one sample I wasn’t all that keen to try because of past experiences with other companies version. Kinetica Sports have hit this one right on the money and I will definitely buy again.
I would like to thank Andrew James from Muscle Supermarket for allowing me to sample the products and I look forward to being able to do so again the the future.
Steven A Barlow, Co founder www.spartan-warriors.co.uk and founder of Spartan Runners “because we don’t just run” © 2013