For the last 20+ years I’ve been drinking protein shakes as an athlete and recommending shakes to my athletes as a college Strength and Conditioning Coach. Over that time I’ve seen shakes go from ‘barely drinkable’ to ‘amazingly delicious’.
Since I went vegan a few years back, I’ve seen the plant based protein scene absolutely blow up.
It can be hard to keep up with which companies and products are the best, so I decided to start adding in my two cents on something I feel I know a little something about.
After all, I try every plant-based protein product I can get my hands on and I’ve even broken down my favorite plant-based protein powders out of a group of nine (yes, Orgain is one of them).
For this Orgain Plant Based Protein Review, I’m going to first talk about what I like and dislike about the company as a whole, then I’m going to go through the current line of plant based protein products that Orgain offers.
This article contains affiliate links. If you purchase through one of these links I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Orgain Discount Code: Use Discount Code VEGGL to receive 30% off at checkout at Orgain.com
Orgain Review
What I Like:
Longevity: Orgain has been around since 2008, which is pretty long in the supplement industry where companies come and go every year. When a supplement company has been around for over a decade it usually means they’re doing something right.
Quality Ingredients: Orgain prides themselves on putting high quality ingredients into their products. You’re going to find products that are Organic and Non-GMO.
What I Dislike:
They’re not a 100% vegan company. For me, it’s by no means a deal breaker, more of an added bonus if a company is 100% vegan.
Having said that they do have a solid selection of vegan products when it comes to protein powders, ready to drink shakes (RTDs) and protein bars.
However, they do carry milk-based products as well so especially keep that in mind when ordering so you don’t end up with the wrong product.
Now, onto the products themselves:
Orgain Organic Protein Powder Review
Let’s start with the plant-based protein powder first.
Here are some details as far as flavors, the protein blend makeup and nutritional info. Then I’ll give my thoughts on the protein powder.
Available Flavors
Orgain Plant-Based Protein Powders started with just Creamy Chocolate Fudge and Vanilla Bean and they have now begun releasing a bunch of new flavors.
- Chocolate Coconut
- Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt
- Chocolate Peanut Butter
- Creamy Chocolate Fudge
- Iced Coffee
- Naturally Unsweetened
- Vanilla Bean
Protein Blend Ingredients
- Organic Pea Protein
- Organic Brown Rice Protein
- Organic Chia Seed
Nutritional Info
Varies ever so slightly from flavor to flavor. Nutritional Info listed here is from the Vanilla Bean Flavor.
- Total Fat 4g
- Saturated Fat 0.5g
- Trans Fat 0g
- Cholesterol 0mg
- Sodium 270mg
- Total Carbohydrate 15g
- Dietary Fiber 5g
- Total Sugars 0g
- Erythritol 5g
- Protein 21g
What I liked
The Taste! – Let’s talk about the taste first, after all, that’s the most important part of a protein powder, am I right?
Orgain has some of the best tasting plant-based protein powders I’ve had.
Of course you can blend it up with some PB2, a banana and a little ice and it tastes out of this world. But, almost any protein powder is going to taste pretty good if you doctor it up with extra curriculars.
What I’m talking about when I say the taste is awesome is that I can throw some powder in a Blender Bottle with some Oat Milk – shake it up – and it tastes like a Chocolate milkshake (I’m partial to chocolate over vanilla). It’s crazy good.
Mixability – Orgain powder has excellent mixability. Again, no electric blender needed. Blender Bottle, 2 scoops, Oat Milk and a couple minutes shaking it up here and there as I’m putting all my workout equipment away and it’s ready to go.
It ends up about 97% blended up (just the occasional very, very small clumps of powder). It doesn’t even clump up in the mouth of the Blender Bottle when you’re shaking it up like so many protein powders do.
What I Didn’t Like:
Protein Purity: My only real knock on Orgain Plant-Based Powder is it has a relatively low, what I refer to as, protein purity.
What is protein purity?
Protein purity is the percentage of calories that comes from protein. So, for Orgain, 84 calories (21g of protein) out of the 150 calories in a serving size comes from protein. This comes to 56% and ideally I like to see that number around 70%.
With that being said, you’re still getting 20+ grams of protein in a 150 calorie serving. Not too bad.
Orgain Plant Based RTD Review
Orgain’s Plant Based RTDs (Ready to Drink) come in two main varieties – what Orgain refers to as a ‘Vegan Organic Nutrition Shake’ and a ‘Plant Based Protein Shake’.
Since the nutritionals (and really I believe the overall intent) are very different for each, I’m going to treat them separately here with some of the details and then I’ll give you my review on what I liked and didn’t like about each one.
Available Flavors
Vegan Nutrition Shake
- Smooth Chocolate
- Vanilla Bean
Plant Based Protein Shake
- Creamy Chocolate
Protein Blend Ingredients
Vegan Nutrition Shake
- Organic Pea Protein
- Organic Chia Seeds
Plant Based Protein Shake
- Organic Pea Protein
Nutritionals
| Orgain Plant Based RTDs Nutritionals | ||
| Vegan Nutrition Shake | Plant Based Protein Shake | |
| Calories | 220 | 150 |
| Total Fat | 7g | 4.5g |
| Saturated Fat | 1g | 1g |
| Trans Fat | 0g | 0g |
| Cholesterol | 0mg | 0mg |
| Sodium | 240mg | 450mg |
| Total Carbohydrate | 29g | 9g |
| Dietary Fiber | 2g | 1g |
| Total Sugars | 10g | 1g |
| Protein | 16g | 20g |
Orgain RTD Review
Considering how good the Orgain plant-based powder is, I was surprised that that taste doesn’t seem to translate over to their RTDs.
The Vegan Nutrition Shake (the higher calorie shake of the two) is okay at best and the Plant Based Shake (the higher protein of the two) is just not very good.
If you really need the convenience of an RTD, then they can work – just try to keep them as cold as possible. The colder they are, the better they taste.
But, in my opinion, you can save money and get way better taste by throwing some powder in a Blender Bottle.
Final Thoughts
Go with the Orgain plant-based protein powders and not the ready to drinks.
The taste with the powders is much better and you can can customize and tweak your shake recipe to fit your own personal tastes much easier.
On top of the taste being better, you’re going to save a ton of money over the long haul. A serving of the protein powder comes out to about $1.89, whereas the RTDs are going to run you about $2.50 a piece.
If you’re doing a shake a day after a workout like I do, that can add up pretty fast.
Finally, don’t forget that you do decide to give Orgain a shot you can use our coupon code VEGGL to get 30% off your order at Orgain.com. Enjoy!
