1) I wanted something different from natural whey flavors like plain whey
I started looking into Syntrax’s Nectar products because:<br />1) I wanted something different from natural whey flavors like plain whey, vanilla, and chocolate<br />2) I wanted to mix in a tsp or two of creatine powder into my protein drinks and not have it taste terrible.<br /><br />Furthermore you’re supposed to take creatine daily so I wanted something I would enjoy drinking every day that wouldn’t be too sweet or bitter. Creatine tastes very bitter and metallic and does not go well with the milky base flavor of most whey powders. As an avid cook I know how to mask and balance flavors, and to cover up bitterness, you can use sweetness and/or sourness (among many other things). So, I bought a sample pack of 10 Syntax flavors from MyBariatricPantry.com, and here’s my tasting reviews:<br /><br />Roadside Lemonade - 9/10 Covers up bitterness of creatine, but is a bit too sweet to have every day and just not quite enough tartness for me. Very close though. I really expect lemonade to be sour and I wasn’t finding enough of it. It could possibly work if you watered it down or if you like lemonade a bit on the sweeter side.<br /><br />Strawberry Kiwi - 8/10 Covers up bitterness of creatine, but is a bit too sweet. This one surprised me in that strawberry flavoring can often be overly sweet and I don’t normally enjoy it, but by adding kiwi it balanced the sweetness and brightened it a bit with some tartness. That said, this one was still too sweet to have every day.<br /><br />Caribbean Cooler - Never arrived! They gave me two Roadside Lemonades instead.<br /><br />Fuzzy Navel - 10/10 Covers up bitterness of creatine, and is the best flavor in my opinion of them all. It was actually the most tart/sour of any of them with a surprisingly natural peach flavor and not too sweet. I found myself wanting to drink more after the first sip! I was truly shocked by this as I was expecting an overly sweet peachy candy flavor, but this is the flavor I went with and works perfectly for my uses.<br /><br />Apple Ecstasy - 3/10 Covers up bitterness of creatine, but is way too sweet for me. Reminds me exactly of green apple jolly ranchers in flavor and sweet/sourness. Very artificial tasting and hard to get down except in small sips.<br /><br />Pink Grapefruit - 8/10 Covers up bitterness of creatine, but was slightly too sweet. I was hoping this would be the winner as I love grapefruit, but if there’s anything I expect from grapefruit it’s sourness, tartness, and bitterness, which I hoped would mask the chemical bitterness of creatine. Instead it was more sweet than tart with an aftertaste of grapefruit. It did cover it up, but was slightly too much like candy for me. You could dilute it a bit more with water and it would work for an every day protein drink though.<br /><br />Crystal Sky - Crystal Sky - 7/10 Wow, this one surprised me. First, it covers up the creatine. Second, it tastes way better than it looks. The bright bubble-gum blue color and smell is definitely off-putting but the flavor is actually not too sweet and balanced some with good tartness. It definitely has some tropical hints of banana and pineapple, but they are balanced by its sourness. It's not the most natural tasting flavor, but kind of reminds me of if you took a bunch of sweet tart flavors and mixed them together in your mouth with a sip of pina colada. I definitely couldn't drink this every day, but I would have no problem with it once in a while to shake things up.<br /><br />Lemon Tea - 6/10 Covers up the creatine taste. Unfortunately the color of this one looks way more like a cappuccino flavor than lemon tea, which is not too nice to look at, but the flavor isn't bad. It's exactly like an arizona ice tea, but this means it's way more sweet than sour, which I wouldn't want to drink regularly.<br /><br />Wild Grape - 1/10 Could still taste the creatine slightly and it was brought out by the slightly chalky Tylenol grape child chew tablet flavor that I used to have as a kid. Very sweet with only a bit of sourness to put it off. Somewhere between grape jolly rancher and medicinal grape flavor. It was difficult getting this one down for me.<br /><br />Cappuccino Latte - 1/10 Could still taste the creatine a bit and the flavor was overpoweringly sweet. Was like a frappucino gone haywire. Definitely could not have this every day and I’m a coffee lover. The aftertaste was like colored sugar dots on paper I used to have as a kid—just cloyingly sweet. Had to mix with actual coffee to get it down.
Rating: 5 stars