Garden of LifeMeal Replacement Vanilla Chai Powder, 28 Servings, Organic Raw Plant Based Protein Powder, Vegan, Gluten-Free

I don't know how to describe the taste but, it's almost impossible to ingest due to taste and smell.

If u know then you know

This stuff is amazing. I read through a couple of the reviews stating that this contains high amounts of heavy metals, and I would just like to say they are outdated with their claims.The Garden of Life brand was tested by an independent lab in 2014, and they found their products contained elevated amounts of heavy metals, most likely due to the brown rice protein they use. Garden of Life responded and CHANGED THEIR METHODS. They have a self-imposed regulation of heavy metals for their products now (the USDA does not have any limit or regulation on heavy metals in food) and these are their limits :Lead limit: 250 ppbTungsten limit: 50 ppbCadmium limit: 1000 ppbMercury limit: 50 ppbEverything has some sort of heavy metal in it. Everything. These limits are phenomenal, and you can go to their website and see their recent heavy metal tests on their products.So people, stop fear mongering. This is a great product, and an excellent company.

I was on my 3rd container of this product when I learned about the consumer report on dangerous levels of heavy metals. I am deeply concerned because I was consuming this product at least once a day, believing that I was using something safe and nutritious. I found that this product, along with many others, are falsely promoted as clean and I can only imagine the damage being done to our bodies when ingesting it on a daily basis. I realize that this is partly due to this being a plant based protein powder and some amounts are naturally occurring and others are due to environmental pollution. However, I do not believe that should be an excuse to mislead or entirely ignore when marketing, selling, and manufacturing a product that has alarmingly high amounts of these substances. I believe that when people seek out and buy "RAW" or "Organic" products it is to avoid things like this to their best ability, I certainly know this is the case for me. By no means am I here to bash this product but I would like more responsibility and care to be taken on the manufactures part to fix this issue, or at least have to clearly label and inform consumers. Not only do I use this brand of protein powder, but I use their vitamins as well, my entire household does. So, I take this extremely personal! I admit I could have researched this more when looking to purchase supplements, I guess I fall into the category of naive and wanted to believe that brands that portray themselves as CLEAN really are, and I take my part of responsibility in that. I am not an expert in have no background in this type of thing but I do my best to make sure I am giving my family the best that I can, heck I even pay the price for it. At the end of the day, this is a much larger issue and more there need to be stricter requirements for labeling, regulating, etc. My only intention of this review is to bring awareness to other costumers, like myself, so that they may have the chance to be more informed before making the conscious decision to purchase this product.

First I do not usually write reviews although I'm taking the time to maybe try to help someone else decide if they would want to spend the money and try this. Do it... what would it hurt? In January, after turning 41, I decided it was time get healthier as it seemed each year I have been gaining about 10lbs per year and lacked energy. I have a sore foot so running or walking was not an option. So I decided if I can't exercise I would try to start eating healthier. After watching fruits and veggies go bad in the fridge, I starting looking at easier ways to get that stuff in my body. Fast forward 10 months ahead, which is today, I have taken this in substitute of my breakfast every day. I am 34 lbs lighter and a lot more energy. I really believe my body was lacking all the nutrients it needed to perform everyday life. All the good stuff I'm putting in my body with just 1 glass far exceeds what I could cook in the kitchen. The night before I mix 1 scoop of the vanilla blend w water in a mason jar. In the morning I pull it out of fridge, shake up good, and drink on my way to work. I was not looking to lose weight by drinking this, I was looking at putting nutrition back in my life, but how can a woman in her 40s comp,ham about weight loss!!

So I was looking which other flavor to buy because the last couple times I have been buying the chocolate flavor but the stevia is way too strong for me and I have to put lots of frozen fruit to kill the sweetness. So I was reading the comments and someone already noticed that they use pea protein as their number 1 ingredient now. So I am not sure what that really means besides that is cheaper for them to make it and gain higher profits. But I decided to compare the new label with the old one. AND THERE ARE A LOT OF DIFFERENCES. A LOT OF THE VITAMINS ARE LOWER PERCENTAGE THAN BEFORE.Attached is a picture of the old formula where pea protein is not among the substances.Here some of the differences to make it easier for you. Just to be clear I am comparing the one scoop servings! OLD: NEW:VITAMIN A: 20% 10%IRON: 15% 10%CALCIUM: 5% 4%BIOTIN: 15% 10%MAGNESIUM: 20% 6%ZINC: 35% 15%SELENIUM: 50% 30%MANGANESE: 80% 15%CHROMIUM: 70% 60%MOLYBDENUM: 80% 50%As you can see everything is down and some with big margins. I purposely gave one star to their product now so I can attract attention to this and hopefully Garden of Life will give logical explanation why they decided to change the formula.The other thing that bothers me (but it is not only them but probably the low allows it) is that you see all those fancy ingredients but you don't know what percentage of the total are they. So the pea protein could be 90% of the whole powder and the expensive ingredients 0.05% for instance. I think the customer should have the right to know that information so he can make informed choices. Anyway for now I am not buying a new box until I hear from Garden of Life.

I used to buy this when it wasn’t stupidly priced and loved it. It’s been a while and I’ve been searching around for a replacement without much luck so decided to swallow the price hike and order it again. I am hugely disappointed. It seems that along with a price increase has also driven substandard ingredients to further drive profit margins because this is no way the same product I was buying before! It is totally disgusting and not even remotely the same.Do not purchase this!!It is overpriced, revolting and a rip off.