Chocolate Protein Powder Tier List: 15 Proteins Tested

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I bought and tested 15 of the most popular chocolate whey protein powders on the market, and today, I’m comparing them head-to-head in the ultimate tier list.  

The Tiers

Here are the tiers:

1. Chocolate Royalty – This is reserved for the absolute Kings and Queens of chocolate protein. These are rich, smooth, and downright luxurious.

2. Cocoa Dream – These chocolate proteins are almost top-tier, falling just shy of perfect. These are the products that will knock it out of the park in almost all categories but fall short in one or two areas. 

3. Mocha Maybe – This tier is for the middle-of-the-road blends that get the job done, but leave you wondering if maybe there’s something better out there

4. Fudge Fumble – These protein powders have potential, but there are some major stumbles in regards to taste or texture that leave you wanting more

5. Bitter Bummer – The lowest of the low, the disappointing duds. These protein powders are chalky, clumpy, have awful aftertastes, or are just plain unappealing.

The Rankings

Transparent Labs Milk Chocolate

Tier: Cocoa Dream

Our Thoughts: Transparent Labs doesn’t necessarily hold my number one overall spot for flavor. However, when we put the Transparent Labs’ chocolate flavors (of which there are two) head to head with the other protein powders that don’t use any artificial flavors or sweeteners, nobody else even comes close. 

My first method of comparing these protein powders was to mix them all with the same amount of water and do a blind taste test back to back. 

Actually, my first method of taste-testing was to try 2-3 products per day throughout the day, but all of the flavors started to mix together and I couldn’t really differentiate between the brands as well. So I came up with the idea to mix up every single one at the same time so that I could try them all side by side. 

I put all of the naturally sweetened protein powders  together in the same cohort. This included the two Transparent Labs flavors, Levels, Legion, Thorne, and the two flavors by Naked Whey. When I lined them up from best to worst during the blind taste test, the two top spots both went to the Transparent Labs proteins. 

For me, the Dark Chocolate flavor (which I’ll discuss next) has a richer, stronger taste than the Milk Chocolate flavor, which is why I dropped this flavor down to the second tier. As far as the naturally flavored options are concerned, however, both flavors by Transparent Labs do a great job. 

Transparent Labs Milk Chocolate had great mixability with a smooth, creamy texture. No clumps or chalkiness here! 

Read my full Transparent Labs review here

Transparent Labs Dark Chocolate 

Tier: Chocolate Royalty

Our Thoughts: As I said, when it comes to the naturally sweetened and flavored proteins, Transparent Labs really left the other products behind. Whether the Dark Chocolate or the Milk Chocolate flavors take the top spot for you could come down to a matter of opinion. The Milk Chocolate was slightly sweeter, but I found it had less overall flavor than the Dark Chocolate. 

Since I pitted them head to head mixed just with water, Dark Chocolate came out on top for me, taking the Chocolate Royalty tier. 

If you plan to use the protein powder for smoothies, oatmeal, or baking, then you might prefer the lighter taste of the milk chocolate. 

Like its Milk Chocolate counterpart, the Dark Chocolate protein powder by Transparent Labs mixed easily and entirely with no clumps or chalkiness. 

This is significant because when testing the other naturally flavored proteins, a constant between them was a more gritty or chalky texture. This was especially prominent with the Naked Whey products. 

Not only did the Transparent Labs proteins top the charts for taste and mixability, but when we combine this with Transparent Labs’ reputation for high quality ingredients and testing standards, they’re a company you can feel confident investing your money in. 

I tried every flavor of Transparent Labs protein. Read more here.

Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey Double Rich Chocolate

Tier: Fudge Fumble

Our Thoughts: I never make a ton of friends when I give my opinion on Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey protein. This protein is incredibly popular, due mainly in part to the fact that the company Optimum Nutrition has been around for decades and is set up for global distribution, meaning that people across the world can access their products. 

Optimum Nutrition’s quality is good, I am not trying to say otherwise. I just find it’s taste and mixability to be incredibly sub-par, especially when compared to similar products on the market like many found on this list. 

The flavor is very bland, especially when just mixed with water. Gold Standard Whey was one of the proteins that had the worst mixability. When using a traditional shaker cup, there were a lot of clumps and left over residue along the side of the cup making for an overall unpleasant drinking experience. 

If I were in a bind, or this was the only protein powder I had access to, it’s not so bad that I would throw it away, but it definitely leaves me wanting more.

The one big advantage I will give to Optimum Nutrition is that, as I briefly mentioned above, they have some of the best global distribution with their products available to purchase in more than 100 countries. They also have a wide variety of sizes available to suit all budgets, whether you want to buy in very small quantities at a time or you want to invest in bulk sizes to get the lowest cost per serving. 

Read my full Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey Review Here

PE Science Chocolate Truffle

Tier: Fudge Fumble

Our Thoughts: This was such a shock to me! I am glad I did this taste test blind, because I love so many of the PE Science flavors, I would have been biased in favor of this protein powder and probably would have ranked it higher. 

This was one of my least favorite proteins when they were all compared head to head. It tasted extremely bitter, so much so that I struggled to taste the chocolate flavor through the bitterness. 

I tried several times to drink it, but I struggled to take more than a small sip at a time. I was shocked to turn the cup over and discover that it was PEScience, because I absolutely love so many of their flavors. Cake Pop and Cookies and Cream are staples in my supplement cupboard! 

PEScience also had extremely thick and had a very gritty texture. 

As a quick note, in order to compare them more accurately, I mixed every product with the same 6oz of water. Since PEScience has some casein protein in its formula, which is a slower digesting type of protein that mixes up thicker than whey, it’s expected that this will have a thicker texture. When you mix it with slightly more water, closer to 8oz, the texture balances out. It’s still thick, but much less gritty. 

I sampled this one on separate days, on its own rather than compared head to head with other products and it definitely tasted better, but the bitter untones were still really prominent. 

Unfortunately, the PEScience Dutch Chocolate is a hard sell for me overall. 

Read my full PEScience Protein Review here

Dymatize Iso 100 Gourmet Chocolate

Tier: Chocolate Royalty

Our Thoughts: Dymatize Iso 100 took the number one spot for flavor and mixability in my head to head rankings. It dissolved extremely well and made for a really pleasant drinking experience. 

It had a fairly bold taste without being too sweet. This was surprising for me, since a lot of the Dymatize Iso 100 flavors are notoriously sweet (like Flintstone’s Fruity Pebbles). As a hydrolyzed isolate, this protein powder has also been filtered to remove the excess lactose (as well as carbs and fats) which makes this a good option for individuals with lactose sensitivities. 

When it came to the protein powders that ranked highest for taste (Iso 100, Nutricost, and Myprotein), deciding which ones made it all the way up to Chocolate Royalty came down to secondary factors. 

All of these top ranking proteins are third party tested, so we can be confident that all products are made with high quality ingredients and no amino acid spiking. The fact that Dymatize Iso100 is made with hydrolyzed isolate and is therefore virtually lactose-free makes it more suitable for a wider audience, pushing it into our top tier. 

I really couldn’t find anything to dislike about this protein and I am kicking myself a little bit for having not tried this chocolate flavor sooner. 

Find my full Dymatize Iso 100 Review here

Naked Whey Chocolate

Tier: Bitter Bummer

Our Thoughts: I appreciate what Naked does with their products and keeping everything as natural, organic, and minimal as possible but I just can’t bring myself to drink this one. Despite having coconut sugar and 8g of carbs (5g of sugar) per serving, it doesn’t have any sweetness and it has very little taste. It’s bland, bitter, and all around just so unappealing. 

In my blind taste test notes, I had just written “Really bad. No flavor. Yuck.” 

It’s expected that if you pair a minimalist, all-natural protein powder against those that use artificial flavors and sweeteners or additives like lecithins to improve the mixability, there will be some differences in overall flavor and texture. To try to mitigate this, I compared all of the naturally flavored products against each other in a separate taste test. 

Even when compared to the other natural protein powders like Legion, Transparent Labs, and Levels, the Naked Whey had a noticeably bad taste. 

The mixability was also poor, and this product expanded so much when I shook it up that it was the only brand that I had to bring out extra cups for. All of the other proteins dissolved enough in 6oz of water to fit nicely into my glasses. Both Naked Whey flavors needed extra glasses brought out because they got really frothy and thick when shaken up. 

I tried several times to give this protein powder a go and even when tested on its own, away from the blind taste test, it was my second least favorite protein powder (second only to the Naked Whey Double Chocolate). 

I do try to be fair in my assessments, so in an attempt to find a purpose for everybody I do think that Naked Whey has a great company philosophy and manufactures high quality products. If you are trying to avoid any non-nutritive sweeteners, including stevia and monk fruit, then Naked Whey is a viable option. 

You can read my full review of Naked Whey protein here

Naked Whey Double Chocolate

Tier: Bitter Bummer

Our Thoughts: There’s not really much more to say here that wasn’t just said about the Naked Whey Chocolate flavor. The Naked Whey Double Chocolate flavor holds all the same complaints for me that the other flavor does, except that this one tasted extremely sour and bitter. 

It was only after tasting this Double Chocolate flavor that I moved the Chocolate Naked Whey flavor out of my personal lowest ranking. The double chocolate definitely has a darker chocolate flavor, but the sour and bitterness made the regular chocolate flavor more sweet and palatable in comparison.

Legion Dutch Chocolate

Tier: Mocha Maybe

Our Thoughts: On a scale of naturally-flavored chocolate protein powders, Legion falls unremarkably in the middle. When compared to Naked Whey, Legion had a decent flavor and a good amount of sweetness. Compared to the two Transparent Labs flavors, it fell a bit short. 

I did write down that the Legion Dutch Chocolate protein had a weird/interesting aftertaste – one that was almost “chemically”. It was only after learning that this was Legion protein that I had an ah-ha moment and went back to read the notes from my in depth Legion review. I had tested the cinnamon cereal flavor and at that time I also remarked that there was a distinctly chemical aftertaste. 

So, this aftertaste seems to be a common thread through their protein flavors. 

Legion did have good mixability with little to no clumps or chalky texture, which can be a common issue with more natural protein powders. 

As far as high quality, naturally flavored chocolate protein powders go, Legion falls squarely in the middle of the pack for me. 

Find my full review of Legion Whey Protein here

IsoPure Dutch Chocolate

Tier: Mocha Maybe

Our Thoughts: This is by far the weirdest experience I have had in my entire chocolate-testing experience. 

When I tested IsoPure Dutch Chocolate on its own for my indepth review, I loved it. I ranked it ⅘ for taste and mixability, and remarked that it had a “good, rich taste” and that it did have a slightly gritty texture when mixed with water but that this was mitigated when I added it to milk. 

When I had it in the line up for the head to head taste test, though? I did a spit take. Twice. I felt foolish but I actually ran to my kitchen sink to spit this one out, it was that disgusting. I tried a few others and then came back to this one again and had the same result. 

I have no idea which ingredients were interacting with the other protein flavors, but compared to the other chocolate proteins, this one tasted extremely sour. 

Isopure does have an added vitamin and mineral blend, so maybe there is something within the formula that was reacting with my taste buds and the other protein flavors to elicit such a strong reaction. (Maybe something similar to the reaction of tooth paste & orange juice?). 

I also thought that maybe this was a bad batch or maybe something was faulty with this particular tub of Dutch Chocolate, so I tried it the following day on its own and it tasted just fine. A decently rich chocolatey taste, though now that my brain was primed to perceive this flavor as “sour”, I could definitely pick out some very subtle sour notes. 

Because of this extremely bizarre experience, I am left to give this product a big shrug and throw it right in the middle of the pack. 

Read about my experience testing IsoPure here

MyProtein Impact Whey Chocolate Brownie

Tier: Chocolate Royalty

Our Thoughts: This was one of my favorite chocolate proteins for its rich taste, smooth texture, and amazing mixability. Even when mixed with just water, the chocolate flavor comes through incredibly strong. 

I took this one with me when I went traveling on a weekend road trip because the bag was easy to fit into my suitcase, and it ended up being a savior as a way to sweeten and flavor my coffee when I forgot to grab creamer to have at our AirBnB. It mixed easily into my coffee with just a spoon or fork to stir it in. 

I get nervous traveling with protein powder in bags instead of plastic tubs – I’m always concerned that the bags will come open and cause a massive mess. I’ve had the opportunity to test MyProtein Impact Whey protein several times and they haven’t let me down yet. 

The only potential downside is that the MyProtein Chocolate Brownie might be too sweet for some palates. If you like a more toned down flavor, then opt for Transparent Labs Milk Chocolate instead. 

Find my full review of MyProtein Impact Whey here

Rule1 Isolate Chocolate Fudge

Tier: Mocha Maybe

Our Thoughts: Rule 1 Isolate Chocolate Fudge testing was an experience similar to PEScience, so I was really glad that I opted to go for a blind taste test method. By that I mean, I have used Rule 1 proteins (both the whey blend and the isolate) for years. There are a lot of Rule 1 protein flavors that I already love, like café mocha and orange creamsicle. As a long time fan of Rule 1 proteins, I would have been more likely to place this one higher up in the rankings if I knew what it was. 

Rule 1 ended up being the first protein powder that I tested in my blind lineup, and I wasn’t disappointed. It has a nice, rich chocolate flavor. I thought it would rank really highly on the list until I started trying the other proteins. As I sampled other brands like Nutricost and Dymatize, Rule 1 fell farther down in the rankings as the flavor fell a bit flat compared to the others. 

When I tested this one on its own at a later date, it had an unidentifiable sweetness to it. If I had to put a label to it, I would say it has almost a fruity quality to it. 

Rule 1 Isolate has great mixability and is a good option for individuals looking for a more mild flavor, but there are definitely more desirable flavors out there. 

Read my in depth review of Rule 1 Whey Protein here

Thorne Chocolate

Tier: Mocha Maybe

Our Thoughts: Thorne protein powder is another one of those brands where if I had never tried another chocolate protein, I would probably be quite satisfied. The company is reputable for their high quality standards and they have one of the highest third party testing certifications (NSF) which make this a viable option for the most elite of athletes who undergo drug testing.

Having tested this protein powder side by side against the other natural chocolate proteins, I felt like this one was quite tasteless and had a bitter or sour note to it. 

Where a lot of products fall right into Mocha Maybe because they’re middle of the road everywhere, Thorne is kind of unique in that it falls into the middle category because it has really extreme pros and cons, and the average winds up in the middle. 

For example, Thorne is one of the most expensive whey protein powders on the market at $2.17 per scoop offering 21g of protein. Other high quality, third party tested brands like Transparent Labs, offer better value with a cost of $2 per serving and 28g of protein. 

Thorne might be out of budget for some consumers, whereas others might have the means and appreciation for a company that uses the highest quality certifications and has additional features like health tests and personalized supplement bundles. 

Thorne is not set up for distribution the way that brands like Optimum Nutrition or Transparent Labs are. As a result, this product might not be available for you. I, for instance, cannot purchase Thorne protein directly from the website to my home country.  I initially put this product into “Fudge Fumble” for that reason, but I was feeling generous in my revision and bumped it up a tier. 

Read more about the Thorne brand and their protein here

Nutricost Chocolate

Tier: Chocolate Royalty

Our Thoughts: It should come as no surprise, if you’ve read through the whole article so far, that Nutricost holds the top spot for me, hands down. 

(If you’re surprised, I was too). Looking at the Nutricost tub and website, they definitely look like a budget brand and don’t have the flashy branding that a lot of other supplement companies have. I actually did a double take when I revealed my blind taste test results to make sure I had the correct cup. 

Nutricost Chocolate had a great flavor and great mixability. It is definitely a sweeter chocolate, but I found that it had a really great flavor come through which balanced out the sweetness. It mixed well, with a nice creamy texture and no clumps or chalky residue. 

Nutricost Isolate also has 30g of protein per scoop (more than anyone else on this list) at the lowest cost per serving, which makes this a win-win-win situation. 

Nutricost does not have the more expensive third party testing certifications that our other top tier brands do, but they do guarantee that their products are independently third party tested. These results are not publicly displayed on the website, but the company will send the testing reports if you reach out to their customer service team. 

Indepth Nutricost Whey Isolate review coming soon.

Levels Pure Chocolate

Tier: Fudge Fumble

Our Thoughts: I had seen Levels a lot prior to testing through sponsored ads that frequently popped up on my web browser. I was really excited to try it for this reason, but to be honest it fell a bit flat for me. 

This protein is definitely a dark chocolate variety, which combined with the natural flavoring, makes for a more bitter tasting product when compared to other sweeter, milk chocolate varieties. 

I also found this one to have a very gritty texture, which isn’t necessarily uncommon with brands who focus on all-natural/minimalist ingredient lists. These brands will often forego ingredients like lecithins and gums which can improve the mixability and mouthfeel of the protein powders. Without these ingredients, we are sometimes left with a more grainy or gritty texture. 

If you are sensitive to texture, then this probably isn’t the protein powder for you. I know I personally found myself reaching for Transparent Labs for my naturally-flavored option in place of Levels, Thorne, and Naked Whey because of the better texture. 

If you want to avoid any added ingredients like lecithin or gums, then I recommend Levels as the next best all-natural option over Thorne and Naked Whey because of the less expensive cost and better taste, respectively. 

In-depth Levels Whey Protein review coming soon.

MuscleTech NitroTech Chocolate

Tier: Mocha Maybe*

Our Thoughts: Muscletech Nitrotech is one of the protein powders I mentioned above where everything about it falls just “meh” right in the middle. 

It had a very thick, creamy texture which isn’t necessarily good or bad. It wasn’t chalky or gritty, but it was noticeably thicker than the majority of the other isolate proteins I tested. This can be easily thinned out by just adding more water, but that would dilute the flavor. This part all comes down to personal preference. 

As for the flavor, my initial notes read “It’s not awful, it’s not fantastic”. This protein powder found itself almost smack in the middle of the blind taste test. It wasn’t as good as Nutricost or Myprotein, but it was significantly better than Optimum Nutrition, PEScience, and Isopure. Nitrotech had a good chocolate taste without being terribly sweet. 

One aspect of Nitrotech that is unique compared to the other protein powders is that it has 3g of creatine monohydrate per scoop. In short, creatine monohydrate is one of the most clinically researched sports supplements with a proven track record for increasing muscle strength and has more recently been proven to be potentially beneficial for cognitive and mental health. 

A typical daily dose for creatine falls between 3 and 5g daily (dependent on body mass), so for most healthy adults one scoop of Nitrotech will also provide a full daily dose of creatine monohydrate. 

For this reason, I put Nitrotech under the Mocha Maybe tier, but with a nice little asterisk because if we are judging this protein purely on its chocolate experience, it deserves to stay in the middle of the pack. If we are assessing the protein on secondary and tertiary qualities, however, then the additional benefits of Nitrotech from the creatine monohydrate make this protein powder deserving of being in the Cocoa Dream tier.

In-depth NitroTech Whey protein review coming soon.

References

Kreider, R.B., Kalman, D.S., Antonio, J. et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 14, 18 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-017-0173-z

Sandkühler, J.F., Kersting, X., Faust, A. et al. The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive performance—a randomised controlled study. BMC Med 21, 440 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-03146-5

Kious BM, Kondo DG, Renshaw PF. Creatine for the Treatment of Depression. Biomolecules. 2019 Aug 23;9(9):406. doi: 10.3390/biom9090406. PMID: 31450809; PMCID: PMC6769464.