There are tons of protein shake type products available for people willing to spend their money on them but a lot of the time they taste nasty, overly sweet or saccharine and sometimes floury and gritty.  I’ve drank my fair share of them in the past and here is my experience on three of the best ways to drink the stuff.

Straight Up

For the no fuss person who just wants his / her hit of protein you can’t go wrong with 30g protein shake and 250ml (1/4 litre) of room temperature water.  Mix in a screw top container and chug in one, without it even touching the sides of your mouth. No fuss, no hassle, no mess.  Straight out the door and on with your life.  Ideal for breakfast.

Velvety Smooth

For those of you that want to take your time with your shake, in the evening perhaps, while you are watching tv.  For someone for whom the standard water or even milk mix is just not enough.  For someone who demands the highest quality in their protein shake drinking experience.  Take 30g protein, 1 scoop of vanilla ice cream and about 500ml (1/2 litre) of ice cold skimmed milk.  Shake for a couple of minutes, let the ice cream mix fully with the milk and powder.  Pour from your mixing beaker into a tall glass if you want.  Hell, you could even stick a party umbrella in it if you wanted, the mixture will usually be thick enough to support it. Kick back and enjoy the smooth cool and creamy drink.

In my experience it is best to use skimmed milk.  Semi-skimmed makes the shake too thick and it won’t mix properly.  This depends on the amount of ice cream used though.  If you only have a small scoop then semi-skimmed will most likely be fine.  I like a big scoop though, so I can’t really get away with semi-skimmed.

Dirty Power Gainer Shake

This is for the athletes amongst us who want to get the most out of their workouts.  A combination of carbohydrates and protein that will help develop your muscle growth to it’s highest potential.  This isn’t the nicest shake in the world but by god does it get the job done.  Combine 30g of protein with 80g oat flour and mix with at least 500ml (1/2 litre) of skimmed milk or water.  This is the shake that I have as I am leaving the gym (water version) and often later in the evening (milk version).  The oat flour gives you a nice stream of extremely low GI carbohydrates that, when combined with the protein, will help your muscles recover quickly from their workout.  Over time this will help you become a better athlete, assuming you carry on training of course!

Elite Athlete Shake

Based loosely on the Dirty Power Gainer shake, this recipe is slightly more refined.  It is for the athlete but for the connoisseur of shakes too.   Mix 30g protein with 40g maltodextrose, 5g creatine monohydrate and 40g oat flour.  Throw in some water, approximately 500ml and shake.  The combination of higher GI carbohydrates coming from the maltodextrose, which is tasteless by the way, and the creatine will help to suck the nutrients into your muscle tissue, radically reducing the recovery time and the muscle gains achieved from each work out.

Maltodextrose is the only high GI carb I have found which doesn’t have a sickly sweet flavor.  Other carbs such as palatinose, fructose and dextrose / glucose are all substitutable for the maltodextrose in this recipe in terms of their nutritional value but if you are using a flavored protein shake the sweetness may be overwhelming.

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I’ve used some high quality products in my shakes, almost exclusively from http://www.myprotein.co.uk.  I’m not sponsored by them but I can heartily recommend their products based on my own personal experience.  The price and the quality is right.  Everything that I have mentioned in this post can be bought from them.  If you want to get a discount on your first order, feel free to use this (my) referral code: MP73163

In Closing

These are simple straight up recipes that can be mixed together in powder form and carried around in your bag throughout the day.  They all can be mixed using a standard screw top protein shaker and don’t require any fancy blenders or such like.  If you are interested in even more exotic recipes, using fresh ingredients that need to be drank quickly, I have scoured the internet and gotten you a couple of interesting links to check out:

76 Protein Shake Recipes from “Fat Loss School”

3 More Recipes from “How To Lose Weight Fast in 14 Days”

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