Summary
- Verdict: Overall, Vega Proteins and Greens is a bit about average when compared to other vegan protein powders when it comes to taste, price, and protein content. It’s a good option when you’re looking for nutrients on top of protein, but if you’re looking to maximize your protein intake, go with Vega Sport instead.
- Pros: Decent iron and vitamin A content. Mixes well. Has a good blend of different plant-based protein sources.
- Cons: Price, protein content, and taste are just okay. There are other vegan protein powders that may be a better fit.
I’m on a quest to find the best vegan protein powder, which is why I’ve bought and tested over 30 vegan protein powders in the past year.
I test each product in the same way by scoring them in 4 important aspects of protein powders. Each gets a score out of 25 for a total combined score out of 100. In this case, Vega’s Protein and Greens scored a 77/100, which is a bit above average.
I’ll walk you through how I came up with that score in this review.
Vega Protein Powders
Vega Protein and Greens is one of a few different plant based protein powders that Vega sells.
They’re all vegan, so there’s no worry of accidentally grabbing one with whey protein in it.
Each product also comes in a variety of flavors. For Protein and Greens, there are 5 flavors to choose from:
- Chocolate, Vanilla, Berry, Coconut Almond, Unflavored, Salted Caramel
I’ve tested both the chocolate and vanilla, but I can’t comment on the taste of the others.
Is Vega a Good Company?
Vega is arguably the most well-known plant-based supplement manufacturer in the world. It was founded back in 2004 to create products that are “vegan certified, Non-GMO Project Verified, gluten-free, and free of artificial flavors and preservatives”.
While Vega hasn’t been involved in any big scandals and generally has a good reputation, there was an instance back in 2013 where a recall was ordered for their nutritional shakes (a different product).
Overall I don’t have any real concerns about the quality of Vega’s products, and it’s nice to know that they’ll always be vegan-friendly.
How Much Protein is in Vega Protein and Greens?
The nutrition score that you might have seen above measures what percentage of calories in a serving come from protein.
It tells you if the powder has a relatively high or low protein content compared to other protein powders (e.g. 0 is bad, 12.5 is average, 25 is the best you’ll find).
We can get the protein content and total calories from the nutrition label:
Technically, Vega Protein and Greens is sold as a “nutritional protein powder”, kind of a mix between a nutritional shake and protein shake.
That being said, it still scores quite decent here, and better than many protein powders. With 20 grams of protein (80 calories), and 120 total calories, it gets a respectable nutrition score of 19.
This is slightly above average for protein shakes.
Ingredients in Vega Protein and Greens
Here’s the full ingredients list, note there are a lot of ingredients that are just meant to provide vitamins for the most part:
Pea Protein, Natural Flavors, Organic Alfalfa Grass Powder, Pea Starch, Brown Rice Protein, Hemp Protein, Sacha Inchi Protein, Spinach Powder, Broccoli Powder, Stevia Leaf Extract, Papain Powder, Organic Kale Powder, Xanthan Gum.
While ingredients like spinach powder and broccoli powder don’t add much in the way of protein, they do contribute a bit to the extra nutrients in this shake. In a single serving, there’s:
- 15% of the DV for iron
- 10% of the DV for vitamin A
- 6% of the DV for vitamin C
Considering that many vegans struggle to get enough iron, it’s a nice benefit of vegan protein powder.
How Much Does It Cost Compared to Others?
For all protein powders that I test, I try to find the lowest price (without discounts) and factor in shipping.
Then I compare the cost per 100 grams of protein in the product and translate that to a score out of 25 (higher is cheaper).
Plugging in the price per 100 grams, this protein powder receives a pricing score of 16.7, which is a bit cheaper than average.
How Well Does Vega Protein and Greens Mix?
The mixability score gives you a way to compare how well a protein powder mixes compared to other vegan protein powders.
A perfect score of 25 means that it fully mixes, while a score of 0 means that it mixes terribly.
To test this, I follow a few simple steps:
- Put 450 mL of almond milk in a shaker bottle.
- Add 35 grams of protein powder.
- Shake for 45 seconds.
- Pour the shake through a strainer and weight the “remnants”.
The weight of the clumps (remnants) gets translated into a score out of 25 again. In this case, there was 1 gram of remnants, shown below in the strainer:
This is still very good, and you don’t taste it much when you drink the shake, which is why it gets a mixability score of 21.88.
Unless you absolutely hate the taste of clumps, it’s not going to be a big deal.
How Does Vega Protein and Greens Taste?
Finally, we have the one subjective part of the review.
Obviously my taste preferences come into this, but I try to assign scores based on the descriptions in the table below, and to be as consistent as possible.
| 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 |
Keep in mind that there are many flavors available. I started with chocolate (vanilla scored the same), as that’s usually my favorite.
I thought this protein powder tasted very good overall, and reminded me almost of a milkshake taste.
However, it wasn’t perfect:
- It was a bit chalky, which is a common issue with vegan protein powders.
- There was also a bit of an almost dark chocolate aftertaste (not terrible, but definitely there).
According to the table descriptions, I feel like it ranked somewhere between 15 and 20, but much closer to 20 than 15. Therefore, I gave it a taste score of 20.
Summary and Overall Review Impressions
Overall, Vega Protein and Greens gets a solid score of 77, with very consistent scores in each category.
It’s above average in nutrition, price, mixability, and taste. However, it doesn’t do amazing in any single category, which makes it difficult to find specific situations where it’s the absolute best vegan protein powder to choose.
To conclude this review, I’d say that Vega Protein and Greens is a good choice when all 4 factors matter to you about evenly.
My Top Alternatives to Vega Protein and Greens
Here are some other plant-based protein powders I’ve reviewed that you might also be interested in:
- Future Kind – If you’re most concerned about taste, there is one protein powder that I tried that is clearly the best tasting: Future Kind. It’s above average in every other category as well. Take a look at my Future Kind organic vegan protein powder review for more details.
- Vega Sport – While the overall ranking of Vega Sport is very similar to Vega Protein and Greens, they are best for different people. Vega Sport has a higher protein content, but it costs a fraction more and doesn’t mix quite as well. Here’s my Vega Sport review if you’d like to see how I calculated its scores.
- Purely Inspired Organic Protein – If you like Protein and Greens because of the extra nutritional benefits, Purely Inspired is a good option as well. It has a fruit and veggie blend, as well as a probiotic blend and digestive enzyme blend. I’ve gone over the specifics in my Purely Inspired review.
