Trial and Purition.

A couple of weeks ago a Facebook marketing pop up got the better of me and I clicked on a random ad for Purition- a wholefood based protein supplement that various sinister AI cookies decided I might like.
I was maybe hungry, I was maybe vulnerable to suggestion and I was definitely sick of the grim aftertang from my current vegan banana cinnamon protein drink of choice. See the thing is, I don’t get enough protein and I can’t afford and don’t want to eat masses of meat every day. Excessive dairy triggers my asthma (and makes me fat) and whey based skinny shakes tend to upset my stomach. Hence the vegan banana cinnamon powder things.
So twelve quid for a Purition trial, with it’s Wholefood Natural Ingredients and alleged stomach filling abilities seemed like an experimental price worth paying. I will never again take a risk on a 1kg parcel of anything, except maybe from Hotel Chocolat, so the  6x 40g tester sachets of their standard flavours seemed safe. Apart from the coconut one, which can obviously burn in hell.

Purition shakes are made mostly of severely ground nuts and seeds in different quantities depending on the variety but include chia, flax, almonds and coconut in most mixes as well as some whey. I will say now that I mildly object to them being marketed as ‘wholefood’ products because whey is a processed by product of milk but I’ll get over it. The rest of it seems to be legit.

Reccomended consumption is to whizz up 40g of purition with your nut milk of choice, or alternatively chuck it on your ceral or in your yoghurt. I took mine for breakfast with 300ml of almond milk and low to middling expectations. Here’s how I got on.

 Almond: It’s Monday morning, it’s 0620 and a wholefood seed shake is not high on my list of wants. The mix is pretty easy to prepare, a ten second blast the blender is all it needs and I’m pleasingly surprised with the resulting shake.
It’s really nice.
Creamy and blessedly savoury with none of the fake cherry bakewell type flavour I was expecting although there is a very faint bitter aftertaste (from the minimal stevia content I expect) which disappears with a coffee. I was peckish again at around nine which was conquered with a mug of green tea and didn’t feel a need to eat again until 11. Which is really good going for me. I felt good all day, didn’t get hangry after a low carb lunch and went for a short run after work. I also didn’t suffer any of the windy upset that whey usually causes to my innards, I assume because there isn’t that much of it in there.

 Strawberry: The bright colour made me expect some kind of awful sweet fruit tang on this one but it was again very mildly flavoured and inoffensive. Could have done with a few icecubes in the mix perhaps to make up for opening an almond milk carton that hadn’t been in the fridge! Mildy gritty from the seeds which wasn’t a killer but I’m not sure I would chose it again.
I didn’t feel like eating again until gone 10am, though did pig out the evening when I got home.

Chocolate: ‘Cocoa’ really is the operative term here, as like the others this was a distinctly savoury option that put me in mind of unpleasant carob stuff that healthfood shops used to palm off as ‘just like’ chocolate. Meh. Didn’t hate it, bet it’s good in porridge though (with some sugar too) and reliable sources say that adding a frozen banana makes a brilliant smoothie.
Didn’t feel like eating until around 11.

Pistachio: I was looking forwards to this one as I’m a big fan of pistachio nuts. It came to pass that there is a definite base flavour to all of these shakes which is both creamy and nutty and this one in particular was very savoury to the point that I wondered if there was a pinch of sea salt in there. Very enjoyable, if you don’t love a sugar hit first thing in the day.

Macadamia & Vanilla: Much lighter than expected, somehow fluffy and put me in mind of a sorbet, much sweeter than the others. Filling too, and again I didn’t think about snacking until 11 when I succumbed to a tub of pomelo.

Coconut: hahaha, oh shut up as if I’m going to have the fully coconut flavoured one. bleurgh. The Mr had it in his porridge and said ‘it’s fine’.

In summary, I’m impressed, mainly that they don’t taste like crap with a worse after tang like so many flavoured protein supplements and also don’t make you guff like the east wind all day. They really do live up to the tummy filling promise too, which is impressive given that when mixed with almond milk they come in at around 250 calories. On the surface the macros don’t look great, with a very high fat content by percentage however these are all plant based and arguably ‘good’ fats. And, comparatively speaking, they aren’t cheap at £22 for a 500g pouch where your standard flavoured protein shakes tend to be less than that for a kilo. But those are grim, with the afore mentioned guffing, so I’m going to take the plunge and order myself a full sized almond bag and look forwards to a couple of weeks of low fuss breakfast and maybe some experimental pancakes and cereal mixes.

This post probably sounds sponsored, but it isn’t!