Another day, another protein. Anyone else feel like there is always a new product hitting the shelves? Well, Ryse protein has been around for awhile now but with the release of some of their new flavors this summer, we decided it was time to finally try it out for ourselves!
With unique brand collaborations for their protein powders like Jet-Puffed® marshmallows and Moon Pie™ sandwiches, Ryse certainly has our attention. But will the Ryse protein powders rise up to the flavor reputation or fall flat? Let’s find out!
Who is the owner of Ryse?
Back in late 2017, Nicholas Stella founded Ryse. Only a few months later, Ryse took off and began expanding its offerings – like introducing their loaded protein that we’re reviewing today.
What’s the best Ryse protein flavor?
Currently, Ryse protein is up to seven flavors. We got our hands on 5 of the 7 flavors to give you our personal, legit reactions. As always, reviews are tough because everyone has different taste buds but we did our best to poll a few people for every flavor in order to come up with the final review and ranking order.
In case you skip around to read the flavor reviews, let me say this real quick.
Overall, each Ryse protein flavor is pretty darn sugary (tasting). If that’s not your jam, then I would suggest you add more water (milk alternative, etc.) to your protein shake in order to dilute the bold sugar taste or find another protein powder.
Also, as far as consistency goes we’ve seen mixed reviews online about how well the protein powder blends (or doesn’t) in a protein shake. In all of our taste tests, we had no problems with clumping. If we came across a clump, it’s because we didn’t shake it enough. Nothing a little more shaking couldn’t fix.
But without further ado, let’s get to tasting!
Jet-Puffed Loaded Protein
If I’ve learned anything from tasting these protein flavors, it’s that taste buds truly are different for every person.
Why do I say that? Because each person that we asked to taste this flavor had a little bit different of a reaction.
Personally, I loved this Ryse protein flavor. To me, it just tasted like a more sugary vanilla flavor and had minimal artificial aftertaste (which is super important to me). Nothing crazy to right home about but it felt like a flavor I could have every day and not get tired of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Jet-Puffed flavor made for a great option for protein powder baking recipes as well.
But other members of the team? Not fans. The main complaint was “it tastes too much like a marshmallow and I don’t like eating marshmallows, much less drinking them.”. 😐 …OK, then. You heard it here first. If you don’t like eating marshmallows, you won’t like drinking them (😂).
Peanut Butter Cup Loaded Protein
Raise your hand if you agree that Reese’s peanut butter cups are the ultimate candy (✋).
Well, if you’re in love with Reese’s then you will be disappointed in this flavor my friend. I’m not saying it’s bad, but the overall flavor is much more chocolate forward and not so much peanut butter. But Greg Douchette (a former member of Team Ryse before starting his own supplements company) boasts that this is the absolute best flavor.
One way you could boost this Ryse protein flavor in my opinion would be to use it in a smoothie or oatmeal and add some PB2 or PBfit to the mix. If you look at the ingredients for this protein, you’ll see that it’s made with powdered peanut butter already so it’s just adding a little boost. But if you are someone who mainly uses protein for a shake, then I think you’re better off with the Podium Peanut Butter Crunch protein instead.
Ultimately, this flavor has potential and is still a decent peanut butter flavor option. But if you’re coming around looking for that chocolate and peanut butter pairing, you will be greatly disappointed.
Vanilla Peanut Butter Loaded Protein
Ok so this sweet tasting protein flavor had the group pretty divided. On the first few sips, a few immediately said this flavor was disgusting. But when we dug into the why behind it, it seems to come down to the fact that the Vanilla Peanut Butter flavor is too sweet. Because of that, we decided to make a few other things with it and taste again.
For our second round of tasting we tried 12 oz. of water (instead of 8 oz.) with a scoop of protein in a shaker cup as well as a bowl of plain instant oatmeal and a scoop of the Vanilla Peanut Butter Ryse protein. The overall results were much more positive but the fact still remains that some are going to find this protein powder too sweet.
As far as taste goes, I thought it was interesting that this almost felt like it tasted a little bit more like peanut butter than the Peanut Butter Cup flavor that has powdered peanut butter in it. This flavor is made with peanut flour which usually doesn’t have the added ingredients (like salt and sweeteners) that some powdered peanut butters may have. Overall the flavor was decent and would work well in recipes using vanilla protein powders as an added flavor boost.
Moon Pie Loaded Protein
So the Chocolate Moon Pie flavor by Ryse protein was sold out online at our local Vitamin Shoppe when we were doing these taste tests. Therefore for this particular flavor, we must trust the reviews from strangers on the internet. To gather the most detailed answer to whether this flavor was any good, we combed through every detail left on reddit and basically any store that sells Ryse protein.
What did the majority of these strangers have to say?
First of all, quite a few people mentioned hints of a coffee smell to this protein. Well that’s odd? But overwhelmingly, this protein is described as a mix a caramel milk chocolate flavor with a hint of the Jet-Puffed Marshmallow flavor. Like the other flavors, the sweetness can seem pretty rich when drinking it as a protein shake so that sounds like it’s no exception with the Moon Pie flavor too.
A last note for the Moon Pie flavor is that some reviewers mentioned a buttery taste which maybe makes sense with it trying to replicate a baked good? In general if you like sweetness, most reviewers seem happy with all of the Ryse protein flavors.
Chocolate Cookie Blast Loaded Protein
Chocolate lovers come and get it the Chocolate Cookie Blast flavor!
But let me go ahead and warn you. This particular chocolate flavor takes awhile to get used to.
There is something semi-artificial tasting that throws you off when you first drink this flavor. Is it trying to be more dark chocolate? I’m not 100% sure. It doesn’t drink like a typical chocolate protein powder though, that’s for sure. You also don’t get any cookies and cream vibes from this either. If you mix it with milk though, you’ll start tasting some brownie batter vibes which is nice.
Personally, I’d buy this flavor again. My initial expectations of what chocolate usually tastes like in a protein powder threw me off but something about this flavor is unique enough to want it again.
Cinnamon Toast Loaded Protein
Like we’ve already mentioned, if you like sweet then you might end up loving all of the Ryse protein flavors with Cinnamon Toast as no exception. As for my initial impression, this protein stinks (side note: it ended up only being this flavor that stinks) when you first open it. But the taste immediately makes up for the smell when you mix this into a protein shake.
The cinnamon flavor is subtle at first but the more you drink, the more the flavor shines. Because of the cinnamon flavor I’d prefer to use it in things like oatmeal or protein balls, instead of drinking it in a protein shake. Even though the flavor was not bad, the team at Moderately Fit ultimately ranked this flavor towards the bottom of the list.
Fruity Crunch Loaded Protein
The Fruity Crunch flavor was the other Ryse protein flavor we didn’t try for this taste test. Honestly we didn’t order it because it didn’t sound that good and we didn’t want to be wasteful if it wasn’t a protein we thought we would use. So we put our detective gear on and went searching high and low for all the related reviews and comments about the Fruity Crunch flavor that we could find.
The consensus? Just as we suspected, the Fruity Crunch flavor option is typically the least fave of the Ryse protein options, especially if you’re just using it for a protein shake. Some reviewers mentioned that the flavor wasn’t too bad if you mixed it in oatmeal though.
Is Ryse protein whey or casein?
Ryse combines whey isolate as it’s primary protein source and mixes it with whey concentrate to create a unique protein powder blend.
Does Ryse protein have artificial sweeteners?
When it comes to sweet, we know by now that Ryse has it covered. But what do they sweeten with? Ryse protein powders have three main sources of sweeteners:
- Organic Agave Inulin
- Sucralose
- Acesulfame Potassium
Well that’s all fine but you might be wondering what the heck some (or all) of those sweeteners are? Don’t worry, we got you. Let’s walk through a VERY brief summary of each ingredient.
Agave inulin (like agave syrup) comes from the agave plant that is native to Mexico. The big difference with inulin is that it comes from the fibrous root of the agave plant and is known to have prebiotic properties.
Sucralose is a sweetener you may be more familiar with as it is widely marketed as Splenda (the yellow sugar packet). It’s another no-calorie artificial sweetener but what makes it different is it does stem from real sugar.
While we are using brands to represent different ingredients, acesulfame potassium is regularly recognized as Equal (the blue sugar packet). It is another artificial sugar that has been around for quite some time as it was first introduced in the United States back in 1988.
As always we suggest you do your own research to make an informed decision but we’ve listed where we got our information in our references section if you wanted to use it as a starting point!
How does Ryse compare to other protein powders on the market?
Taste is always going to be unique to the individual and a personal preference. But what does make Ryse protein different from other protein powders on the market is that they add prebiotic fiber. Adding the prebiotic fiber helps to combat with some of the digestion and bloating issues that tend to be typical when using protein powders.
In addition to prebiotic fiber, Ryse also adds MCTs (Medium Chain Triglycerides) to their protein. You may have heard of MCT oil when Bulletproof coffee became big back in 2011 but essentially, it is believed to boost your metabolism and exercise endurance.
Where to buy Ryse
Be warned. Usually when Ryse announces a new protein flavor, it goes quick. So it’s good to know where you can find some when the time comes.
There are three main sources to get your Ryse protein ordered. You can go to Ryse’s website and purchase protein directly from them. But know that unless you order a ton of product (over $100) you are more than likely going to have to pay shipping costs.
Ryse is also available on Amazon and can sometimes be found on sale for a few dollars off. Typically the brand collabs sell quickest on Amazon’s site.
Lastly, Vitamin Shoppe (online and in stores) does a good job of keeping some of the harder to get flavors in stock. When we were hunting down all the protein flavors for this post, I scored the tub of Jet-Puffed from our local Vitamin Shoppe.
As always, we hope you found this review helpful! Let us know your own thoughts, taste preferences, etc. in the comments. We will also be sure to update our reviews if we get our hands on the last two flavors!
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