Quick Summary
Product: Animal Pak Powder
Flavor: Orange
Category: Multi vitamin
Mixability: 5/5 – mixes easily in water
Flavor: 2.5 – tastes like orange juice, aftertaste is like licking a skunk
Effectiveness: 5/5 – has ridiculous amount of vitamin goodness
Value: 4/5 – $30 for 44 servings
TOTAL: 16.5/20
Detailed Review
For the purposes of this review we are going to ignore the debate about whether a multivitamin is necessary (it probably isn’t) or if it really makes any difference (it might?) – and just assume that you want to take one for whatever reason.
Let me start out by saying that I’m a big fan of Animal… I like their advertising, they’ve got a great logo, and I own far too many of their hats since I buy one at the Olympia Expo every year ;).
I’ve used the Original Animal Pak vitamin packs for years – although I never really liked having to down huge a handful of pills for each “serving”. When I saw that they had released a powder version I was really excited to give it a try. It still has the same outrageously huge dosing of vitamins, but in a single scoop of powder! I ordered this online from bodybuilding.com and I’ve been using it daily for a little over a week.
Keep in mind if you go to look this up – the massive dose numbers are for TWO SCOOPS of the powder, just like the pill version info is for 2 packs of pills. Anyway – lets get on with the review!
Mixability
I’ve been using this for a week or so – and I haven’t run into any issues getting it to mix in a standard shaker cup. Turns out a bit foamy, but the foam settles down quickly. Didn’t find any clumps or chunks.
Flavor
The one I tried was Orange flavor, it also comes in “Cherry Berry”. Initially the Orange flavor is really good, tastes almost like you’re just drinking a glass of orange juice. Within about 20 seconds of finishing the drink you get an interesting aftertaste… imagine that as you were drinking form the shaker bottle a skunk snuck into the room, backed up to your mouth, and let loose a full blast of skunk spray. Yummy. The horrible skunk taste lasts a really long time… and the best part is it gives you some really nasty breath to go along with the awful aftertaste. I’m not sure how to fully explain how awful it is – but maybe you can find a skunk to lick and you’ll get the idea.
I did also try mixing it into my chocolate protein shake – makes for an interesting chocolate/orange flavor that is pretty good… until the damn skunk sneaks in and sprays you in the mouth again!
Effectiveness
Effectiveness is tough to gauge with a multivitamin – but I can say that this one has some seriously high levels of pretty much everything. If you’re taking only one scoop, you’re still getting well over the RDA on just about everything. You can easily tell that you’re getting plenty of B vitamins from this product because it turns your pee a really cool neon yellow color that lasts for hours.
Value
Currently on Amazon it is around $30 for 44 servings, and on bodybuilding.com it is $28 for 44 servings. Not a bad value.
Final Conclusion
As an Animal Fanboy of epic proportions I REALLY wanted to love this… and I almost do. If it wasn’t for the completely awful aftertaste this would be an awesome update to the original Animal Pak. I’m thinking that I will probably order this in the other flavor… maybe it will be better. I like that it is an easier way to get in vitamins than taking a handful of pills – we won’t get into the debate about whether it is necessary to even take a multivitamin… that’s a different article altogether.
