Olympian Labs Beef Protein Isolate Powder - 24g Protein, BST Free, 2g BCAAs, Muscle Building Amino Acids, 32oz Chocolate Flavor | Post-Workout Recovery & Muscle Growth Supplement for Athletes & Fitness Enthusiasts

I don't know what kind of longer-term effect this may have because I just got it and wanted to note first impressions.First, it needs a blender. So what? Big deal? What is it with big, bad bodybuilders that they are so set on using a shaker bottle? I doubt this would work in a shaker bottle. It doesn't dissolve that way. Couldn't care less for two reasons. 1) I work out at home, a foot from where the blender sits 2) Even if I didn't, I'd just blend it first and take it with me. Then I'd shake it as I drank it.Again, big deal. Why so much whining about that?Flavor? Ok, I'm the one who wanted to try beef-based protein powder. And I'd say that it doesn't taste quite lovely. Not necessarily unpleasant, just that there is a flavor not exactly like a chocolate milkshake (I got chocolate) but more like veeeery slightly burned meat. That's probably not a good description, because burned meat is too strong. Just the tiniest bit of a flavor I recognize from other meat-based protein powders. It's extremely slight, I have to make a point of focusing to notice it when I made a shake with this alone, but it isn't a delicious creamy wonderful thing like the whey/casein protein from New Zealand that is actually delicious with no flavoring whatsoever - I mean the pure, unflavored-at-all bulk powder I got five pounds of once. I mean really slight, barely there unless you are thinking you can use this powder completely by itself. And why is that so important?I was already using Boost, so I threw a bottle into the blender along with a fiber supplement that has just a slight nutty flavor, again slight, and I happen to love the taste of the chocolate Boost. So what I got was Boost with another 27 grams of meat-based protein, and coincidentally, the flavor works out to something better than Boost alone, because Boost is kind of a concentrated flavor that's a bit too strong. So interesting there that something I wouldn't probably use by itself is mixed with something I like by itself and the combo is better than either.So how is this a bad thing so far? A flavor that's great when I'm done with it and a method of blending that is perfect once the Boost and the fiber supplement is in there, a fiber supplement I wanted to include here and there anyway. Plus I'm adding unflavored bone broth powder, unflavored collagen powder, and unflavored essential amino acids. That last one alone wouldn't work, but it doesn't seem to cause the overall flavor of the shake I make with all of them to have any kind of flavor I don't like.And since you don't know me and I don't know you, so there's no point for me to brag, not that it's something worth bragging about - I'm apparently what's known as a supertaster. You can look it up. I have a particularly acute sense of taste and I notice things other people don't. My whole family is this way. One of my relatives could tell the waiter where the butter was kept in the refrigerator from the taste and she'd ask him to get her some from the original box that it came in. And if the waiter tried to play games she'd catch it right away, and fortunately, she was a good tipper.My point is that if something has a flavor component that's disagreeable, I'm going to notice it. There are some people who can drink the worst wine because they don't discriminate flavors well; I'm the opposite.If I can make a great shake with this product then it doesn't have a flavor that's a problem. The shake I end up with is something I find myself wanting more of and I have to control how many of them I drink a day, not the other way around because I enjoy them so much and the way they make me feel.I noticed something just now - I got some of this powder on my hand, a bunch, and then as I went to drink the shake I rinsed it off, or so I thought. In fact, a few areas where the powder was got just wet enough for the powder to turn into a substance that is now stuck to my hand like glue once it dried. I can remove the stuff in whole pieces, fortunately, but scrubbing off the smaller pieces actually took a little energy. I can see why it forms chunks and won't dissolve well in a shaker.Again, so what?I'll eventually get back to comment on the effects of the protein, though I'm not sure it's going to be so easy to isolate that effect exactly with the various things I'm mixing, but I remember that over time as the mixes change, I eventually know which thing seems to be doing what.I'm ordering a second container now.