An isolate is a protein purified until it makes up most of the powder: whey isolate runs over 90% protein by dry weight, and pea protein isolate is the plant equivalent.[1][2] If you want a plant isolate and you want to enjoy the shake, ours is NØRSE CØDE, a pea, barley and rice protein blend that mixes into a glass with a fork. Shop in this order: how the shake sits an hour later, whether it mixes without a blender, whether you like drinking it, and only then the ingredient line, which is where the word isolate lives.
Nuzest and NOW print "pea protein isolate" on the label. Ours prints pea, barley and rice protein, and we do not call it an isolate.
Whey isolate is whey processed to remove fat and lactose, which is how it reaches over 90% protein by dry weight.[1] Pea protein isolate comes from wet fractionation: the peas are milled, the protein is extracted in water at an alkaline pH, and the result carries a higher protein concentration than the concentrate a dry process produces.[2]
So "isolate" is a statement about purification. It says nothing about the grams in your scoop, because scoop sizes differ from brand to brand, and it says nothing about taste or mouthfeel. Of the six competitors below, four name an isolate on the page. Momentous and Naked Pea do not use the word, and ours does not either.
Figures come from each brand's own product page, linked in each entry. Momentous is compared in full on NØRSE CØDE vs Momentous. Nuzest, Ora, Transparent Labs and Momentous were read on 24 August. Naked Pea was read on 22 August. NOW Foods blocks automated readers, so its row stands on a 21 August read.
| Powder | Protein | Protein form on the page | Sweetener | Gums |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NØRSE CØDE | 20g | Pea, barley and rice protein blend | Allulose, monk fruit | None |
| Nuzest Clean Lean Protein | 18-21g by flavour | Pea protein isolate | Thaumatin | None stated on the page |
| NOW Sports Pea Protein | 24g | Pea protein isolate | None, unflavored | None on the ingredient line |
| Ora Organic So Lean & So Clean | 23g | Organic pea protein (80% isolate) and organic rice protein | Monk fruit extract | None stated on the page |
| Transparent Labs Organic Vegan Protein | 24g | Rice protein concentrate, then pea protein isolate | Not named on the page | None named on the page |
| Momentous 100% Plant Protein | 20g | PURIS pea protein and brown rice protein | Cane sugar, stevia, monk fruit | None stated on the page |
| Naked Pea | 27g | Pea protein from yellow split peas | None, one ingredient | None on the ingredient line |
The table cannot tell you what any of these taste like. We have not drunk the other six for a month each, so any texture remark below is an inference from the ingredient line.
We put the effort where a daily shake gets decided. A powder that comes out most mornings has to keep sitting well, keep mixing easily and keep tasting like something you want, and losing any one of those empties the cupboard.
Mixing got more of our two years than anything else. A scoop dissolves into a glass of whatever you are already drinking, coffee included, and a fork does the work. No slurry step, no frother. We use no xanthan and no guar, which closed the ordinary route to a smooth mouthfeel, and 5g of fiber per serving, including prebiotic acacia fiber, helps the shake feel like food instead of powder.
It took over a thousand iterations, over two years, and texture ended most of them.
The label holds only 9 natural ingredients. The proteins are pea, barley and rice, allulose and monk fruit sweeten, and both flavors land at 0g total sugar and 0g added sugar with no sugar alcohol. No gums, no fillers. It contains coconut from the MCT oil, and the barley means it is not gluten-free, so anyone with celiac disease should pick another powder.
We make it in our own facility in Petaluma, California, so a problem gets worked on the week we hear about it. We third-party test every input for heavy metals.
One customer, in their own words:
"This is the first plant protein powder I've tried that doesn't make me gassy or bloated. The chocolate tastes great and I drink it almost every day and still love it."
In a blind taste test, more people chose NØRSE CØDE than Orgain and Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey Protein Powder combined.
A bag is 14 servings. On the eight-bag subscription a serving is $2.54, and a single bag bought once works out at $3.57.
Pea protein isolate, natural flavors, thaumatin: that is the whole ingredient list. Thaumatin is a sweet-tasting protein from the katemfe fruit, and the page says no gums, thickeners or emulsifiers sit behind it. The protein figure moves with the flavour, 18g to 21g, and the serving is two scoops mixed into 10 to 12 ounces. A reader who wants an isolate named on the label and nothing else on it will find that here.
Unflavored pea protein isolate with nothing added, 24g a serving. Whatever it tastes like, you settle it yourself every morning.
Ora is the entry where "isolate" gets a percentage. The page says its organic pea protein is 80% isolate, which makes it the only label on this list to quantify the word, and it pairs that with organic rice protein to reach 23g. Around the protein it adds eighteen organic superfood sources, from acerola and acai to broccoli and kale, and a five-enzyme digestive blend. Monk fruit sweetens, and the page states no gums, fillers, stevia or erythritol. What the page does not show is a serving weight or how much liquid to use, so a glass-size question has no answer here until the tub is open.
Try It Yourself
The first protein named is organic rice protein concentrate, ahead of the pea protein isolate, so this one is a blend with an isolate in second place. That order tends to make a drier finish, an inference from the list and not something we measured. One scoop goes into 8 to 12 ounces of room-temperature water, and the sweetener is not named on the page. It holds Informed Choice and Informed Protein certification.
Built for athletes whose supplements face drug testing. PURIS pea protein and organic brown rice protein carry the 20g, the page describes NSF Certified for Sport status, and the chocolate declares 2g of added sugar from organic cane sugar alongside stevia and monk fruit. Twelve to fourteen ounces per scoop is the biggest glass on this page.
One ingredient: pea protein from yellow split peas grown on US and Canadian farms, 27g a serving and 2g of naturally occurring sugar. The page we read does not say whether it is an isolate, so we have not filed it as one. A 5lb tub of 76 servings is a long commitment to a flavor you have not met yet.
Over 90% protein on a whey label, 80% isolate on Ora's, and the grams per scoop in the table all describe the powder in the tub. None of them describes the glass. Two scoops of different powders with identical grams can sit completely differently an hour later, and whether you pour the second glass tomorrow is a separate matter again.
That second matter is where our reviews concentrate. A customer who picked up a flier at a Spartan Race and kept it for a year wrote this on finally trying the powder:
"I have been holding on to this flier for all this time and finally decided I needed to give it a try, and I am so glad I did. It's smooth, clean, and tastes great."
If you want the word isolate on the label and a short ingredient line, Nuzest is the closest fit, and NOW is the same idea with no flavor at all, which suits a smoothie that already has its own taste. Ora fits a reader who likes the isolate percentage stated and the superfood extras. Transparent Labs and Momentous fit readers who weight third-party certifications. Naked Pea fits someone who wants a single ingredient and a very large tub.
NØRSE CØDE fits the reader whose last tub went unfinished, and the way to find out is a few weeks of mornings with it in the glass.
Ready to try it?
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