Synectar

We continue tasting and testing. This time, whey protein with chocolate based flavours

As we were fooling around the Bulk Powders, we found out they have incredible variety of whey protein flavours. As we certainly are some gourmands, we immediately wanted to try all of them. But to order half a kilo of each (the smallest package) would be an overkill, more so when we already picked our flavours of choice – I, as a naturalist, chose the unflavoured, and Juraj a.k.a sweet tooth picked the vanilla.

Suddenly we discovered the possibility to receive 25g samples of the flavours – 15 flavours together, to be precise. And as we weren’t able to decide which of the flavours are must-try, which are just maybe and which are no-no, we ordered them all (and we received white chocolate and lemon meringue twice).

Mix them up ad-hoc with our Synectars seemed too unsystematic so we agreed to do it like real gourmands for a change, in big style. Thus we met one day, unwrapped our mobile sensoric lab, blew our noses (outwards) and began the test.

We dared not trying all 15 flavours at once (and we were right) so we split the batch to 2 more or less thematic parts – the “chocolate” and “fruit-and-stuff”. Most of the chocolate flavours were in the “must-try” category anyway, therefore we started with chocolate.

The chosen flavours were:

• Chocolate
• Chocolate Cookies
• Chocolate Mint
• Chocolate Orange
• Chocolate Peanut
• White Chocolate

Once a gourmand, always a gourmand. For the lack of clear ideas about the desired system of testing I whipped out my deepest knowledge of degustating (I was on a coffee cupping once) and decided to split the test into 4 phases:

• Visual assessment
• Dry aroma
• Wet aroma
• Wet taste

Juraj didn’t look very convinced so we talked about the test being “blind” – we’ll have to guess which sample is of which flavour.

Here Juraj narrowed his eyes professionally, jammed his lips together and agree resolutely. Let’s do this!

Phase 0. – marking and preparing the samples

We covered the names on the sample packs, shuffled the samples and numbered them. Also, we numbered the cups for the individual samples.

We weighted 3.0 grams of every sample into its corresponding cup.

Phase 1. – visual assessment

We weren’t much wiser after this phase – 5 samples with a colour of chocolate and one sample with a colour of white chocolate. We did no guesses here, it was quite useless.

Phase 2. – dry aroma

This phase was somewhat problematic as all of the samples were pretty similar with only very slight nuances. We resolved to sniff each sample only once, write down our guess (only a guess) and not change it afterwards. Thus this round was more like an introductory one.

We were surprised to find out that naturally bold smells like orange or mint didn’t really stand out – it all smelled like chocolate. Except for the white chocolate which smelled like white chocolate (and nothing pleasant too).

Here’s our guesswork:

Juraj

1. Chocolate
2. Milk Chocolate (yes, Juraj didn’t even know that there’s no such flavour among the samples)
3. Chocolate Peanut
4. White Chocolate
5. Milk Chocolate
6. Milk Chocolate

Pavol

1. Chocolate Cookie
2. Chocolate
3. Chocolate Peanut
4. White Chocolate
5. Chocolate
6. Chocolate Cookie

Phase 3. – wet aroma

We poured some water over the samples and stired them up, which wasn’t going very smoothly due to limited maneuverability of the chopsticks in a small cup.

The waters got clear after inundation (well, they actually got bleary, but metaphorically they got clearer). Additional aromas got across and actually corresponded to what they should. Except for the unpleasant surprise in the form of Cookies flavour, which had the aroma of butter.

After this phase, our guesses looked like this:

Juraj

1. Milk Chocolate
2. Chocolate Mint
3. Chocolate Peanut
4. White Chocolate
5. Chocolate Orange
6. Chocolate

Pavol

1. Chocolate
2. Chocolate Mint
3. Chocolate Peanut
4. White Chocolate
5. Chocolate Orange
6. Chocolate Cookie

Phase 4. – wet taste

We had definite results even before this phase so we could concentrate on little nuances of taste more now. We tasted the samples twice and hailed each other for our decision not to try all the available samples at once.
Finally, we secretly chose our favorites.

Conclusion + the winners

Pavol:

Overall evaluation – I was pleasantly surprised with the first two flavours, the others failed to meet my expectations. I’m mostly opposed against that foul taste of artificial sweetener and the overall shallowness of the flavours – bland or not believable. This confirmed my choice of unflavoured protein, I can’t image eating any of those flavours every day.

Individual evaluation (in the order of preference):

1. Chocolate peanut – the only believable taste. The peanut really stands out, but the lovers of peanut butter will definitely like this flavour
2. Chocolate orange – the second place achieved mainly because it’s interesting. I’ve never witnessed such a flavour before and the citrus is quite eminent here. This would be okay, once a week.
3. Chocolate – fine, but boring. Chocolate protein like any other. Doesn’t hurt, doesn’t surprise.
4. Chocolate mint – one of the disappointments. I was expecting After Eight in full, a mint that will punch my nose. But nothing’s here. Just little farts
5. Chocolate cookie – ladies and gentlemen, no cookie here. Butter. Which is not to say that the butter is bad, but chocolate and butter in a drink, that’s not the best thing ever. Disappointment number 2
6. White chocolate – I wasn’t expecting anything and that was delivered. White chocolate, what more can I say? For the people that like to punish themselves and feel a vanilla memento at the same time

Juraj:

Overall evaluation – I must say all of the samples seemed too watery to me and would therefore taste differently in complete Synectar, but I was disappointed otherwise – they really taste artificially.

Individual evaluation (in the order of preference):

1. Chocolate Mint – reminds me of After Eight and I like that. I can imagine eating this occasionally, but that’s not a reason to order the whole pack. Maybe using cocoa powder with some fresh mint is a superior choice.
2. Chocolate – this was more or less okay, but again nothing that couldn’t be solved with cocoa powder. Even though that changes the nutritional values of Synectar a little bit.
3. Chocolate Orange – quite an interesting taste, maybe once in a while I’d gladly accept this for a change
4. Chocolate Peanut – I’m not a big fan of real peanut butter so this was a bit too overwhelming for me
5. Chocolate Cookie – not a cookie by far, just some gross form of chocolate. Stay away
6. White Chocolate – whoa, really bad vanilla

Bonus phase – mega choco all stars mashup megamix

At the end we decided to put all the choco samples together into one cup and see what happens. It didn’t look like the brightest idea at first, but it actually tasted better than expected. We were able to distinguish the individual component flavours and have a “full experience” too. The good flavours gave the best and the bad flavours nullified themselves.
We survived this, but we woudn’t drink this mix voluntarily anyway.

Finally

Various aftertastes haunted our palates after this tasting. We chose the winners, the losers and are looking forward to the second part of the tasting – “fruit-and-stuff”.

If anything caught your interest or you have any question or opinion, express it in the discussion below or on our Facebook page.