SLAP Nutrition Protein Review: Bad Taste but Great Formula

Posted on February 26th, 2016 By Allie Lewis in Protein Powder Reviews Read Time: 12 mins.

Recently updated on September 26th, 2022 at 09:50 pm

Tonight I’m going to do my second Slap Nutrition Review. The product under the slappy spotlight will be, (drumroll please!), the Slap Nutrition Whey Isolate Protein Powder! If you’ve never heard of Slap Nutrition, you are not along. Slap is one of those budding young companies that is just finding it’s way still. In this review I want to do a couple things that will make you laugh. Wait what? You heard me. You’re probably going to do some laughing in this protein powder review. Because like Slap, I’m a fairly unorthodox type. That’s why my reviews are so popular, and also why Slap is going to be a popular brand! I want this review to be light-hearted, fun, and informative. It’s not going to be a long one though. For two reasons: First, Slap Nutrition is just a super simple protein powder. There’s not a whole lot going on under the hood so to speak. In fact there are only FOUR ingredients. FOUR? That’s almost unheard of. But it’s the truth. So after I polish off this intro, we’re actually going to start with the ingredients analysis and formula grade. After that, we’ll talk about the flavor, and also the packaging. I really enjoy ONE of those criteria as it relates to Slap protein. The other, not so much. Ok, enough teasing. Let’s get down and dirty in another Slap Nutrition Review!

I have been a fan of SLAP Nutrition ever since I tried their Slapuccino pre workout. I didn’t find the performance to be all THAT great, but I totally appreciated the lengths that they went to to make a product that stood apart from all the others. I think Slap has done a phenomenal job of creating a brand that people just ‘like to like’. I know I get a big smile on my face when I sift through the Slap website or Instagram. Sure, they’re a little off-color. But it seems like that’s what has made them so irresistible. So when I was looking for a new protein powder to review, Slap came to mind. I grabbed a tub of my own, and eagerly awaited it’s arrival. When that beautiful package came to rest on my doorstep, I was so pumped to get it open and start the analysis!

Slap Nutrition Whey Isolate Protein Formula Grade: 9.5

It’s pretty tough to beat Slap on formulation. Only a few products can compete with the ‘natural’ level that the Slap protein is on. I mean. Not even Vega Sport is this clean I don’t think. It’s incredible. There are, get ready for it, FOUR ingredients in this entire product. I don’t know how they resisted the urge to add all sorts of different flavoring and texture ingredients to build up the products flavor profile. Here are the four ingredients in Slap Nutrition Whey Protein Isolate Powder: 

  1. Whey Protein Isolate: Surprise surprise. The main ingredient is whey. How did you guess? Lol. Slap has put there money where their mouth is and used cold processed, micro-filtered 100% whey protein isolate. I like that they stayed away from plant-based proteins like pea or brown rice- which I’m sure were tempting for a company like Slap. 
  2. Natural Flavors: This is a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that you can sleep well at night knowing that you won’t wake up with a third arm because of the science project sweeteners and flavors that you put in your body with conventional flavors. Ok, so that’s a little dramatic. But seriously I love natural flavors way more than artificial.
  3. Xanthan Gum: This is the only ‘non-essential’ ingredient that Slap used and so I’m not going to say a bad thing about it. I believe it’s a thickening agent that gives the shakes a little more texture than you would usually get. 
  4. Stevia: Along the lines of the natural flavor explanation above….it’s great to have the peace of mind of natural sweeteners versus the ones created in a lab. I don’t always love how these products taste though when they use stevia. 

Speaking of taste- I suppose we should move along into the flavor section. To conclude the Slap Nutrition Whey Protein formula section- I do like the formula and wish more products were as ‘clean’ and simple as this one. But. As with all things that are ‘healthier’ than the staus quo, there’s a price to pay. 

Slap Nutrition Whey Isolate Protein Flavor Grade: 8.0

And there you have it. While an 8 out of 10 is not a cause for alarm, you just won’t buy this protein regularly because the taste isn’t that enjoyable. I love my proteins to have a flavor so good that whenever I get ready to have a shake, my mouth starts watering and my eyes light up. That legit does not happen with Slap Whey Protein Isolate. You aren’t dreading these shakes, don’t get me wrong. But do you know what I mean? You should be looking forward to your protein shake, and with Slap, you just don’t. 

The flavor I tried was the Cinnamon Swirl. You would think of all the five flavors, that this one had the best chance of blowing me away on taste. I mean. Cinnamon Swirl? Come on. It sounds amazing. And some of the other protein powders that I’ve reviewed have set the bar so high for protein taste that I’m super hard to impress. So when I took my first sip of Slap Nutrition Whey Protein, I was honestly pretty disappointed. I used whole milk, ice, and protein powder, and the texture was way thinner and soupier than some others that I’ve tried. The flavor also seemed, well, just thin. There’s some cinnamon flavor for sure, but it just seems to die out right after your taste buds start to recognize the flavor. It really just morphs into a sort of bitter, slightly sweet taste. Juts like drinking a cup of milk with some stevia in it. The taste is just so fleeting that I had a hard time enjoying it. It was not unpleasant, but Slap Nutrition certainly could use some work on flavoring their protein powder. But let’s give them SOME credit, shall we? The packaging is downright cool. 

SLAP! Nutrition Whey Isolate Protein Packaging Grade: 9.0

I rarely give grades this high on packaging, because as an enthusiast I have a sound and technical knowledge of good design. Just kidding. That’s a total lie. But I feel like I DO have a good eye for design. Design is important in these sports supplements, and I think the untrained eye can sometimes miss some cool things in this space. Slap Nutrition uses a sort of ‘cartoony’ theme that is totally endearing. It matches their sort of quirky, unorthodox brand voice and culture too, which makes the visual design that much more effective in my opinion. It’s like that commercial (IBM maybe?) that starts with the monologue ‘can a business have a soul…’. That’s what I think of every time I see Slap’s branding. It’s like a living thing! I love Slap’s color palette of light blue and yellow. Their use of ‘comic book’ fonts is pure gold, and the ‘lo-fi’ graphic hand thing is really cool too. I think I actually follow their designer on Instagram. She’s just a normal chick that does their packaging- not even a professional designer! I love that. In addition to the things I called out, the name SLAP Nutrition is also really cool. I forget what the significance of it is, but I like it. Lol. So keep up the good work, Slap! Just work on that flavoring though. 

Slap Nutrition Whey Isolate Protein Review Summary

  • Slap Nutrition Whey Isolate Protein Formula Grade: 9.5
  • Slap Nutrition Whey Isolate Protein Flavor Grade: 8.0
  • Slap Nutrition Whey Isolate Protein Packaging Grade: 9.0
  • Slap Nutrition Whey Isolate Protein Value Grade: 8.5

As a small business, Slap prices aren’t terribly low. But you know what? I think they’re fair. I appreciate this product, even IF it doesn’t taste all that great. I bet they’ll work on it and make something that tastes even better in the next version of Slap Nutrition Whey Protein.*

 

Slap Nutrition Whey Isolate Protein Final Review Score: 8.4

Allie Lewis

By Allie Lewis

Hi, my name is Allie and reviewing products is my hobby. I am passionate about being fit and active, so making a blog about my experience with different products that help me stay healthy made sense to me. Please contact me at any time if you would like to guest post or advertise on-site.