NOW Foods Sports Nutrition, Amino-9 Essentials™ Powder, Enhanced Protein Synthesis, Amino Acids, 330-Grams

Everyone is right about the taste, it has a bite…but worth it. I mix mine in my plain plant based yogurt with my favorite fruits and favorite sweetener. After a lifting workout I, also, add a little extra plant-protein and spirulina for a post-workout protein boost. I actually, enjoy eating my pre and post workout yogurt protein bowl. Because of Kidney Disease (due to cancer treatment) I am significantly limited on the amount of protein, especially animal protein, that I can consume. That’s a bummer because lifting without the protein seems like a paradox. Now Essential Aminos has made me feel positive about my lifting sessions being more productive and my nephrologist approves. My kidney lab draws have actually improved.

Like others, I can confirm the taste of this product is god awful BUT you will not taste it in a smoothie! I drink 1 meal replacement protein shake a day and due to my dietary needs, I use all sorts of ingredients.Today I used unsweetened vanilla coconut milk, unsweetened vanilla cashew milk yogurt, a scoop of unflavored collagen, a TBSP of white chia seeds, fresh strawberries and blueberries, a scoop of vanilla plant protein and a partial serving of this amino acid powder. I used a partial because I wanted to test the waters first to be sure it didn't make the smoothie too bitter and I literally cannot taste it at all. So tomorrow will be closer to a full serving to retest the waters but I'm confident that it will only add a slightly bitter taste (if any at all).As someone dealing with gut bacteria causing hypothyroid symptoms plus celiac, I am just happy something exists in the supplement market with NO ADDITIVES. Very happy with this product.

I like this product because it has no flavoring or sweeteners. Although the bottle indicates it should be added to juices, milk or milk substitutes (like almond or rice milk) because it is somewhat bitter, I tasted the powders itself and didn't find that it had much flavor of its own and certainly nothing unpleasant. This is good, and exactly what I want, because it means I can mix it with anything and have no flavors or sweeteners in the product that I don't like or that taste bad with whatever liquid I'm mixing it in.Most other essential amino acid powders I've looked at - including the one I get from my nutritionist - have some combination of flavors like citrus and berry, some of which I totally dislike the flavors of. And as soon as they try to use fruit flavors, that requires the product to have sweeteners. In an attempt to use something natural, they all tend to use Stevia which has the most awful taste. To my taste buds, Stevia is way worse tasting than any of the artificial sweeteners. So I'm glad this product doesn't have any of that.The only reason I didn't give this product five-stars is because the powder doesn't want to mix will with water or other liquids. No matter how well I stir it, the powder lumps up and doesn't dissolve. But I found this to be true with other amino powders as well, so I presume this is the nature of amino acids themselves.

Preparing yourself for this product is really important. As many other reviewers have mentioned, the taste isn't the best but that's just how raw form aminos taste. So don't come back and leave a negative review because you didn't like the taste, it's something you already knew before you bought it.Secondly, it's really hydrophobic (it doesn't want to mix with water). I tried a couple of different things to get it to mix better, and the only thing I found works for complete absorption was mixing it and letting it sit overnight and drinking it in the morning.I know everyone is going to try to find something palatable to make the taste more bearable. Some people who have a higher tolerance for really bitter flavors will have an easier time with it. I'm somewhere in the middle tolerance-wise, so what I found worked well for me was mixing in some pre-workout with it as well as my flavored collagen supplement that I take (which is also hydrophobic and needs time to absorb, so it's a win-win). I mix all 3 together the night before. The pre-workout I take has mango flavor and my collagen supplement is pink lemonade. The flavor of the aminos is still there underneath, but it's been way easier to take it that way for me. Some people have said use juice, but juice did absolutely nothing for me, so play around with what works the best for you. Other supplements with flavors in them seem to do a decent job of at least mitigating how bitter this is.As for the benefits of the product itself, many of us aren't getting all we need for aminos in our everyday diet, and they are crucial for a ton of important bodily functions. Just flippin' take them and suck it up. You really need them.

This product messed up my mood and made me feel off mentally. I am pretty sensitive to supplements, so this is not a huge surprise. I can't use protein powder because of how high it is in 'free glutamate', so I was looking for an amino acid blend that didn't include high amounts of glutamic acid (which this doesn't). However I still had a bad experience with this. Maybe I was taking too large of an amount. It tastes awful so I added some to orange juice one morning as I was driving home from out of town and I had a very unpleasant long car ride due to not feeling right and being overstimulated. I went back to just getting my protein from whole foods/meats.