Flavors: Vanilla, Chocolate
Kaizen is a Canadian-based supplement company, mostly known for their whey protein powders.
However, they do have one vegan protein powder, which I gave a try (chocolate) in order to review.
Just like every other review on this site, I’ve broken it down into the 4 main factors I judge protein powders by. All scores have been calculated whenever possible in order to minimize any personal bias.
If you’d like alternative protein powder suggestions, take a look at my journey to finding the vegan protein powder that tastes the best.
Table of Contents
How Much Protein is in Kaizen Vegan Protein Powder?
The nutrition score is based off of one factor: protein content.
Basically, when comparing calories from protein to the total calories in the powder, the higher the ratio, the higher the score.
That’s captured in this simple formula.
Here is the Kaizen powder nutrition label that I used to calculate the nutrition score here:
If you plug everything in, you get a nutrition score of 19.
Ingredients
For convenience, let’s take a quick look at the ingredients list:
Plant protein blend (pea protein, organic pumpkin seed protein, sprouted whole grain brown rice protein, chia seed protein, organic sprouted quinoa), Inulin, Natural flavours, Dutch cocoa powder, Stevia leaf extract, Xanthan gum, Tapioca, Sunflower oil, Sunflower lecithin, Sea salt.
It’s a short list without any ingredients that would cause alarm.
Cost of Kaizen Compared to Other Protein Powders
In order to evaluate the cost of a protein powder fairly across all powders, I look at the size closest to 1 kg/2.2 lbs.
If the powder is widely sold on Amazon or a similar site where it’s easy to get free shipping (as it is in this case), no shipping cost is applied.
I simply plug in the price per 100 grams into the following formula to get a score.
That is a unique formula just for Canadian-only products.
For ease of comparison, the price score at the top of this review, along with other places on the site uses a separate formula, based in USD.
Currently, there’s only 1 size that you can buy this powder in (840 grams / 1.85 lb), which makes it easy to choose the right one to compare.
After plugging in the cost per 100 grams (in CAD) into the formula at the time of this review, Kaizen’s vegan protein powder gets a price score of 20.1.
In other words, it’s on the cheaper side of vegan protein powders on Canada, a bit below the average cost (which is a price score of around 16).
How Well Does Kaizen Mix?
A good protein powder should mix completely in most liquids.
To test this, I weigh the amount that doesn’t dissolve after being thoroughly shaken in a shaker bottle.
To get relatively consistent results, I follow these steps:
- Measure the scoop weight
- Add to 450 mL of almond milk
- Shake vigorously for 30 seconds in a standard shaker bottle
- Pour out the liquid, then scrape and weigh the remnants
The weights collected are then plugged into this formula to find a score:
Kaizen does not mix well. In 2 separate trials, there were 9 grams and 7 grams of remnants respectively.
A remnant weight of 9 grams yields a mixability score of 3.125, meaning that it’s worse than almost every other protein powder.
Taste Testing Kaizen’s Vegan Protein Powder
I leave taste for last because it is admittedly subjective.
I’m not too picky when it comes to protein powders, so if you think that you’re a little more particular than most, take a few points off my scores in all cases.
Here are my general guidelines:
| Taste Score | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 25 | Amazing, would drink for enjoyment alone. |
| 20 | Very good. |
| 15 | Drinkable, not really good or bad. |
| 10 | A struggle to get down |
| 5 | Terrible |
I gave this protein powder a 20.
It’s not something you’d drink for enjoyment all the time, but I’m more than happy to drink it to get the protein from it.
There are 2 things in the taste that really stood out for me:
- It has a strong “chalky” taste to it – This is a common trait to protein powders, but I felt it was a bit more pronounced in this case.
- It’s a bit too sweet – Not to a degree that it’s terrible, but ideally I do prefer protein powders that are a bit less sweet.
Summary and Overall Impressions of Kaizen
Kaizen’s Naturals vegan protein powder is one of the weaker protein powders I’ve tried when it comes to the overall score.
It tastes pretty good, and the nutritional profile is decent, but it mixes poorly.
In most cases, I think you’ll be able to find a better option. However, if you can get it on a good deal, or it’s your only option, it’s worth a try.
Two Canadian Kaizen Alternatives To Consider
Being Canadian, a handful of the vegan protein powders I found to test ended up being for Canadians only. 2 of them in particular were ranked better overall than Kaizen:
- Canadian Protein All Natural Premium Vegan Protein Blend – The name is a mouthful, but it’s one of the best vegan protein powder in Canada. It’s as cheap as we get up here, and you can buy in bulk to save even more.. The taste is good, and it’s above average in all the categories. Here’s my full Canadian Protein Vegan Blend review if you’d like to see the breakdown.
- LeanFit Complete Green – This is a well-rounded protein powder you can usually find at Costco. It’s slightly above average in all categories, but doesn’t stand out in any. I’ve gone through the specific test results in my LeanFit Complete Green review.
