NOW Foods Sports Nutrition, Branched Chain Amino Acid Powder with Leucine, Isoleucine, and Valine, 12-Ounce

I bought this because its hard to find an all natural amino supplement and this one is just straight aminos, no other ingredient. I was hesitant at first because of all the bad reviews about the taste, and that messed me up when it arrived because my anticipation of the bad taste was so great that I almost threw up the minute I put it into my mouth. After swallowing however, i realized that it wasn't that bad, really actually quite painless. Sure, it doesn't taste good, but by all means is it acceptable and when mixed into a small glass of cranberry juice I can down it in one shot and barely taste it at all. I tried to mix it into a protein shake and that was a bad idea, it really did alter the flavor of my normally delicious shake. I decided going forward i would need to take it in small shots and just get it down and done with. I also tried blending it with cranberry juice in the blender...horrible idea. The amino acid powder does not mix....at all, it just has zero ability to mix with liquid so it foamed up in the blender and became this aerated foam blob. The juice settled at the bottom and contained zero amino powder since the powder had separated into the foam at the top. So, my suggestion is to just lightly hand mix the powder into some juice and shoot it down quick and easy. If you can handle that then I highly recommend this product, great quality and no extra B.S. ingredients - just Aminos!Update 10/29/2013 - Its been a couple months since i bought this and I still have about half the bottle left. It became harder and harder to put down, after weeks of drinking the stuff it really started to gross me out. I wont be able to finish the product and i wont be purchasing it again as I've developed a gag reflect to it. I wanted to like it and the taste really wasn't THAT bad at first...i just cant stand it anymore and its become to hard to get down. My GF cant even look at the stuff.

Excellent price, purity, and valueDoes not mix well with water and a spoon, suspends at top and clumps. Mixes well with shakers but adds a foul taste to water or protein shakes (tastes acrid).Mixes best with sour products like OJ, pre work out NO powders, and emergenCEssential for post workout recovery, pre workout to maintain muscle mass, and pre sleep in order to boost hgh levels and build lean mass.You won't find a better value in a name brand. This size and price is unbeatable in any store or any other website. I have been using this exact product for over 3 years and maintain excellent health, 6-8% body fat, and my blood panels come back immaculate every time. Resting heart rate 52-55.As with any product, exercise is essential, and supplementation is key when your calories are cut and low. When I am below 2000 call I make it a point to supplement.I will buy again, no need to shop around, and I recommend this to everyone I train. Two thumbs up for NOW on this one, they hit it out of the park.If this review helped please thumbs back.

Great product

First I must say I love this BCAA and I like the company. You can buy cheaper from other sources if you buy larger quantities, which I probably will do the next time, but they might not be as good. I wish Now sold larger quantities at competitive prices. I'm taking off one star because of this.Now I see a lot of you are complaining about the taste and that it doesn't mix well with water. I don't like the taste any more than you do, but that is what pure BCAA tastes like. What I do is add dextrose to it (Now sells a 10 lbs. bottle), but not too much. Just enough to take the edge off the taste without creating too much of an insulin spike; it helps with absorption as well. I have no problem mixing this with water. I do it by shaking it in an empty supplement container that is just the right size. Here is what I do.I put (using a kitchen scale) into the container:BCAA 6gGlutamine 5gBeta-Alanine 4gCreatine Monohydrate 5gDextrose 20gI take a tall 15 oz glass and fill it with filtered tap water (not cold or warm) 2" below the top of the glass which works out to around 12 oz and dump it into the shaker with the supplements. I shake this up for a good 2 - 3 minutes. Hell, this is actually part of my warm up before exercising. After I'm done, I put 3 ice cubes in and shake it around a little more until they are mostly melted, which usually takes an additional minute at most. Now I pour this mixture back into the glass, which is now almost completely full because of the melted ice. At first it looks cloudy because there are a bunch of tiny bubbles floating around in it from all that shaking, but if I let it sit for one minute, the bubbles disappear and the water looks crystal clear with absolutely no sediment on the bottom at all. Everything is dissolved and mixed up completely and the mixture is nice and cold as I find I cannot drink anything (besides coffee or tea) warm.The taste is okay, it doesn't have that strong horrible taste that it surely would without the dextrose. Instead, it has just a hint of that bitter taste, much less than black coffee. The dextrose I added not only significantly gets rid of the bad taste, but because it is a simple carbohydrate, it causes all those supplements to immediately be absorbed into my system. I understand that some people don't want the carbohydrates in their drink, but unless you can stomach the taste, you don't have much of a choice. I could probably cut back the dextrose to 15g and still stomach the taste, but I haven't experienced any spikes that result in a crash. I feel an adrenal rush when I'm working out (especially because of listening to heavy metal during the workout) and this rush lasts much longer than my workout; which is an hour to an hour and a half on a 5 day split. I feel like I can rip telephone books apart with this in my system! Good thing I have my own gym in my basement because people would think I'm some kind of nut because I can't stand still for a second; I keep pacing about between sets.

Yes, this is a high quality BCAA powder, no fillers, no bull.Yes, it is hydrophobic (does not mix well with water).Yes, if you try to mix it for a minute, the powder just floats to the top.Here is what you should do:1) Add the powder to you favorite liquid (I use crystal light)2) Mix with stirrer or shake in a protein shaker cup (don't worry if it doesn't mix well)3) Let it sit for about 15 minutes (this is plenty of time for a majority, if not all of the powder to dissolve into your liquid)4) Stir or shake some more to get the remnants (it should be ready for drinking without any waste)5) Drink the most nasty tasting juice you've ever had.Yes, it tastes awful, so "Man Up" or mix some sugar free Da Vinci Gourmet Raspberry syrup into the drink to help mask the flavor.Enjoy!!!