Naked Pea is a vegan protein powder from Naked Nutrition.
It’s big differentiator is that everything about it is “naked,” or minimalistic. The packaging, the marketing, and the ingredient lists are all simple, but well presented.
It’s one I really wanted to try because of all this, so I bought a container. As usual, I’ve divided the review into 4 main parts, each with its own score at 25.
At the end I’ll wrap things up and compare it to the other 20 or so vegan protein powders I’ve tested so far. Or, you can skip ahead and see my guide to the best vegan protein powder.
Table of Contents
Protein Content and Nutrition of Naked Protein Powder
Considering that the main reason to drink a protein shake is to get protein, I always start with the “nutrition score.”
The nutrition score is calculated from the formula below, which is based on what percentage of a powder’s calories come from protein.
Scores are capped on both sides at 0 and 25, because occasionally products score below or higher than those limits.
We can get the protein content for Naked Pea from the nutritional label. Note that “Naked Pea” and “Less Naked Pea” are 2 products from the same company. They are very similar, but have significantly different nutritional profiles.
With 27 grams of protein and 120 calories, Naked Pea gets a perfect nutrition score of 25.
This is by far the biggest strength of this product.
Ingredients
Its ingredients list is very simple, here’s the chocolate version:
- Yellow Pea Protein, Organic Coconut Sugar, Organic Cacao Powder
Although there is sugar, it only works out to a few grams per serving, so it doesn’t have that big of an effect on the overall macros.
How Affordable is Naked Pea?
The price score, also out of 25, indicates how cheap a protein powder is per 100 grams (to make it fair).
Naked Pea comes in 2 sizes, but only if you’re in the U.S.:
- 1 lb / 454 g (U.S. Only)
- 5 lb / 2.27 kg
If you’re a Canadian, you’re stuck with the giant tub if you want to buy this protein powder.
To calculate a fair and consistent score, I take the price (per 100 grams) of the size closest to 1 kg / 2.2 lbs, and plug that into this formula:
In this case that’s the 1 lb size.
We get a price score of 17.5 at the time of this review. Obviously this can fluctuate a bit over time.
In practical terms, that means that this protein powder is a bit cheaper than average, although there are still some that are cheaper if price is the most important aspect to you.
How Well Does Naked Pea Mix?
Having chunks floating around in your protein shake can ruin it instantly.
But it depends on a lot of factors (how you mix it, what you mix it with, etc.), so I always measure mixability separate from taste.
Here’s how I do it:
- Add 450 mL of almond milk and then 35 grams of powder to a shaker bottle.
- Shake for 45 seconds.
- Strain out the clumps (“remnants”).
- Weight the remnants.
Then I plug that weight into this formula, which again gives us a score out of 25, where a score of 25 indicates perfect mixing:
Naked Pea does not mix perfectly, there were 2 grams of remnants, which equates to a mixability score of 18.75.
This means that it mixes a bit above average, although you’re going to have some clumps in most cases.
Does Naked Pea Taste Good?
Flavors: Vanilla, Chocolate, Unflavored
Last up is the only subjective part of the scoring – taste.
To be consistent, I score taste according to this table:
| Taste Score | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 25 | Amazing, would drink for enjoyment alone. |
| 20 | Very good. |
| 15 | Drinkable, not really good or bad. |
| 10 | A bit of a struggle to get down |
| 5 | Quite bad |
There were some big issues with the taste of this product:
- The texture is very chalky
- There’s a significant unpleasant aftertaste
- There’s basically no chocolate flavor at all (I ordered the chocolate).
I eventually finished it, but it was quite a struggle, and this is with the clumps filtered out already.
That’s why I gave it a taste score of 10.
The taste is the glaring weakness of this product. It tastes worse than most (not all) of the others that I’ve tried and tested so far.
Summary and Overall Review Impressions
Overall, I’m a bit disappointed.
You can get the overall score of 71 by adding up all the individual scores. That’s right about average for all the plant based protein powders I’ve tested so far.
The protein content is perfect, and the price and mixability are both a little bit above average.
What really kills this protein powder is the taste, and there’s no way around it.
Who should buy it? If you’re good at just chugging down protein shakes, and the minimal ingredient list is really important to you, I think Naked Pea is a good option for you.
If you want protein shakes that you can enjoy, there are many other vegan protein powders that not only taste better, but taste good.
Better Alternatives to Naked Pea Protein Powder
Here are a few other “minimalistic” vegan protein powders that taste much better:
- Future Kind – This is my overall #1 pick for vegan protein powders. It tastes great, has a minimal ingredient list with pea protein sourced from the U.S., and is affordable. See my Future Kind plant protein review for more details.
- Nuzest pea protein – Nuzest sources their pea protein from Europe and sweetens it with thaumatin. It tastes great, but is expensive. If budget is not a big issue, I recommend trying it. Here’s my full Nuzest Clean Lean vegan protein review if you’d like to see more about it.
If you remember, do you think the aftertaste was from the added flavoring, or from the pea protein itself?
Definitely the pea protein, there was barely any flavor at all.