Here’s a very simple way to make any brand of whey vanilla protein powder highly tolerable when mixed with water and so easy to drink.

There’s no need to make a “shake” every time you want to take whey protein powder for post-workout recovery or whenever it’s time for your muscles to get another hit of absorbable protein.

We all know that whey vanilla protein powder mixed with water tastes absolutely horrible.

Few people can comfortably tolerate this.

Make Vanilla Protein Powder Mixed with Water Actually Taste Decent

What is your favorite bottled juice? Fill a 12 ounce glass with two to four ounces of it, then fill the rest with water, leaving enough room at the top to add a scoop of the whey powder and vigorously mix it (I use a spoon).

Trust me on this: The juice will thoroughly neutralize that awful taste that comes with mixing the protein powder only with water!

I do not know how this would taste if the juice were freshly prepared with a juicer.

I use bottled, no-sugar-added, organic juice because it’s been pasteurized, and thus can sit in the gym locker for a few hours without getting spoiled.

There are many no-sugar-added, organic, all-natural bottled juices on the market: carrot, kale, pomegranate, black cherry, beet, grape, cranberry, you name it.

I use mainly pomegranate, but have also used cranberry and grape.

I’ve found that just two ounces, plus six ounces of water, will neutralize the awful taste of the vanilla protein.

The irony is that I find pomegranate juice, taken straight, to taste just horrible. Absolutely horrible.

Yet when this is mixed with water and vanilla whey, the juice and the powder cancel each other out!

The resulting taste is of a bland though highly tolerable hybrid of something a little fruity and something a little like whey vanilla.

I use pomegranate for its heart healthy benefits, and cranberry, black cherry or grape when the store is out of pomegranate.

Usually, though, I add a little of another type of juice to the pomegranate.

If you want to add more juice, as mentioned, that’s fine (for more carbs post-workout), but know that two ounces should be enough to make the drink easy to ingest.

To add even more nutritive punch to this post-workout drink or however you want to use it, add half a tablespoon of cinnamon (great antioxidant and good for glucose metabolism) and a tablespoon of raw olive oil. You will NOT taste the oil.

I can’t say it enough: Adding a little bottled juice to the water that you mix your vanilla protein powder in will amazingly eliminate the awful taste!

Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.