Bought with my own money. This review is not sponsored. I am a Transparent Labs affiliate, so FitFrek may earn a commission if you purchase through some links.
Transparent Labs Protein Coffee makes a lot more sense once you stop judging it like normal whey.
You are getting 20 grams of protein and 170 mg of caffeine in one serving. The question is whether it actually tastes enough like coffee to replace both your morning coffee and a small protein shake.
I tested all three flavors, and two of them get surprisingly close. One really doesn't.
Protein Coffee is basically trying to combine two things I would normally have separately: coffee and a protein shake.
Each serving provides 20 grams of whey protein isolate and 170 mg of caffeine from Arabica coffee, with 15 servings per tub. Transparent Labs currently sells Sweet Cream Cold Brew, Iced Latte and Mocha.
That makes the value proposition different from regular whey. I would not buy this because it is the cheapest way to get 20 grams of protein. It isn't.
It makes more sense if one scoop legitimately replaces a coffee and a small protein shake.
Coffee and chocolate should have been easy. That combination is basically cheating.
But the balance is backwards.
Chocolate leads while the coffee stays behind, so it comes across more like chocolate protein powder with coffee added than an actual mocha.
Sweetness was around a 6–7/10 for me, with a sweet finish that stayed around slightly longer than I wanted.
I also noticed powder initially sticking to the glass. Letting it sit for around two minutes helped the mixability, but it did not do much for the actual flavor.
Chocolate-first drinkers may like this much more than I did. But if the reason you are buying Protein Coffee is because you actually want something coffee-forward, this is the easiest flavor to put last.
Mocha isn't undrinkable. It's just the only flavor that makes the word "coffee" feel optional.
This is where the lineup gets good.
My first sip was creamy and actually resembled a latte. It was slightly sweet with a light sweet finish, and it was already enjoyable before I changed anything.
Adding ice made it better.
It became lighter and more balanced, and the coffee came through much more clearly than it did in Mocha.
This is easy to imagine drinking regularly, and I would buy it again.
The only reason it doesn't win is that it still feels slightly more like flavored protein coffee.
Sweet Cream feels more like coffee that happens to contain protein.
This one gets the order right: coffee first, sweet cream second, protein last.
It tastes much closer to protein added to iced coffee than instant coffee dumped into vanilla whey.
The texture is lighter and avoids that heavy protein-shake thickness. Sweetness stays controlled, although there is a light stevia finish that people who are sensitive to stevia will probably notice.
Side by side, Iced Latte was creamier and sweeter.
Sweet Cream gives the actual coffee more room.
That's why this is the tub I would rather finish every morning. It works especially well when I want caffeine and some protein without turning it into a full meal.
Of all three flavors, this is the most convincing coffee replacement.
8.5/10 — and the winner.
For convenience, yes. For cheap protein, no.
If you only care about getting protein as inexpensively as possible, regular whey makes more sense.
Protein Coffee becomes more convincing when you treat it as two products in one. If one serving replaces both the coffee you were already going to drink and a small protein shake, the price becomes easier to justify.
At the time I filmed the review, Transparent Labs listed the tub at about $40 for 15 servings, or roughly $2.67 per serving before discounts. Current pricing is shown below.
Do not drink Protein Coffee and then treat your pre-workout as though the coffee didn't count.
Add the caffeine from Protein Coffee to whatever else you're using that day before deciding whether another caffeinated product makes sense.
Transparent Labs recommends mixing one scoop with 6–10 oz of cold water or milk and suggests a frother for the smoothest consistency. Ice can be added afterward.
From my testing:
Iced Latte: definitely improved after adding ice.
Mocha: letting it sit for about two minutes improved the mixing, although it didn't fix the chocolate-heavy flavor.
Sweet Cream: worked best as a light cold coffee-style drink rather than trying to make it thick like a shake.
Do not use boiling water. Transparent Labs specifically recommends cold preparation because whey can clump when exposed directly to boiling water.
