About a month and a half ago I started using Cytosport's Muscle Milk (Naturals). The claim is this:
Muscle Milk helps grow muscle faster than gainers, whey or even creatine. This increased muscle growth is possible because Muscle Milk is the first product patterned after Nature’s ultimate anabolic food—human mother’s milk. Locked within the composition of human mother’s milk are long-held secrets to muscle growth potential. We took the next step and actually duplicated these important muscle growth factors into Muscle Milk. Muscle Milk helps you grow muscle like never before.
So what is the verdict?
Flavors & Texture
Chocolate w/ skim milk: WOW. This tastes like a damn chocolate milk shake! Seriously, this is the best tasting protein mix I have ever tasted. I've never found a mix that made me actually feel excited and guilty to drink but this definitely hits the nail on the head. I would compare it to drinking a brownie of awesome. I didn't experience anything gritty from this.
Chocolate w/ water: Okay, not AS good as with milk, but this still tastes excellent. Add a couple of ice cubes to your water before mixing and you are ready to go. As before, no grit, so this is by far the choice of the three for me.
Strawberry w/ skim milk: I'll give this 4 out of 5 stars. It is still pretty great tasting and I can see using this if I need a change. It doesn't cause the guilty pleasure sensation of the chocolate flavor. I didn't notice any gritty texture mixing with milk.
Strawberry w/ water: Alright, still tastes good... but I have to say I experienced the gritty texture slightly. Not enough to really bother me but it is still there.
Vanilla w/ skim: I was rather disappointed with the Vanilla. Perhaps it is my taste buds, but it really doesn't compare to either of the two previously mentioned flavors. I won't be buying Vanilla again unless I want to mix it with fruit or something else. Out of the three this was the grittiest of them.
Vanilla w/ water: Hmm. While this still beats the typical protein mix... this wasn't all that great. I ended up having this obvious after-taste and gritty feeling in my mouth for probably 10 minutes after consuming this. By far the loser.
Overall experience. Does it work?
I have not been using this before I go to the gym. If I start, I will update this post to reflect that. I have however noticed decreased recovery times since I started using this before bed. Prior to using Muscle Milk I would mix a whey protein shake at this time. I would wake up at 4am having to use the restroom starving with a feeling in my gut like I didn't eat dinner. Since I started using this before bed I no longer wake up feeling this way. Instead, I wake up feeling like I did before I went to sleep. I'm very impressed by this product and would recommend it to anyone looking for a shake mix to use before bed. I'm sold.