I put out a call for people nearby to come taste test Keto Chow 2.1 – SnowMason on Reddit asked what the results were so I thought I put together an update. There were a few things that needed fixing but most turned out fantastic.
- Eggnog – nailed it.
- Rootbeer float – nailed it.
- Pumpkin Spice Caramel – Nailed it though one person thought it had too much pumpkin spice and not enough pumpkin.
- Orange Cream – nailed it.
- Salted Caramel – they used the rootbeer flavor by accident. It was pretty funny. I got another tester and that one was great.
- Savory Chicken Soup – the riboflavin being used to color it yellow added a weird flavor. It’s now gone. Unfortunately, this means that drinking the savory chicken soup will no longer give you neon yellow urine =)
- Snickerdoodle – nailed it.
- Strawberry – tastes great but needs to be more pink, we’re adding more beet juice extract but the color fades after refrigerating overnight. We could add artificial color to keep it red but with the whole “Natural Strawberry” version using monk fruit that’s a no-go.
- Raspberry Cheesecake – tasted good, there was a disagreement over whether the raspberry was overpowering the cheesecake or the other way, seems people have different tastes. Also uses the same coloring as the strawberry so it starts looking raspberry-ish but fades to a purple-gray. Still working on that.
- Banana – tastes fantastic, more like a banana cream pie and actual bananas and less like banana laffy taffy
- Cookies and cream – has more of a chocolate flavor, the 2.0 C&C (to me) tasted more like vanilla wafers.
- Vanilla – has a more distinct vanilla, which is weird since it’s the same flavoring.
- Chocolate Toffee – this was REALLY good, probably my favorite of the batch.
- Chocolate Mint – needs more mint. We’ll see what we can get done before it’s time to roll into production.
- Chocolate – needed a little more chocolate flavor to match 2.0, I should be driving down to grab another test batch either today or tomorrow morning to verify that it’s dialed in.
- Chocolate Peanut Butter – see above.
- Mocha – they actually forgot to send a sample of this one for the testing, I’m suspecting it’ll need to have the chocolate component tweaked as well. I think coffee smells like burnt popcorn so I wouldn’t have tasted it anyway. I also think cucumbers and cantaloupe smell like ammonia.
I took them down to our manufacturing place when I got the salted caramel that wasn’t root beer and the other tweaked ones so they could try them too. For most, it was their first time trying the actual finished product. It’s always funny for me to see people try Keto Chow for the first time – “wow, that’s actually REALLY good!” is pretty much the universal response. It’s like they think I’m going to give them stuff that tastes bad =)
There was a little (like 1/8 a meal) of Rootbeer, Snickerdoodle, Orange, Eggnog, and Pumpkin left over so that’s what I just had for lunch today =)
So, there you have it. The protein for the Chocolate and Choc PB batch is enroute right now. The packaging should be done any day. The big order of chocolate flavoring is supposed to be arriving in about a week. Things are looking pretty good for Chocolate and Chocolate Peanut Butter 2.1.0 arriving before April.
how is the saltiness in 2.1?
It has the same amount of salt as 2.0 – people who haven’t ever done Keto before will often think 2.0 is too salty (you can fix that by adding more water), people who have been on Keto for a long time think it’s too sweet (you can fix that by adding more salt or more water)
I’m not sure if nutrition facts were posted for separate flavors but as someone who has a sensitivity to caffeine, none of these will have caffeine will they? Some brands put caffeine in their chocolate mint and “coffee / mocha” flavors. Will you be offering chocolate mint and mocha without caffeine?
Mocha has cocoa powder, instant coffee, and 95 mg of caffeine per serving. Chocolat and Chocolate PB both have cocoa powder.
None of the other flavors have cocoa powder or caffeine. Nutrition is on https://old.ketochow.xyz/keto-chow-changelog/keto-chow-2-1-information-nexus/ for now.
Okay, that’s comforting about the Chocolate Mint. Will you ever consider doing a decaf mocha/coffee flavor? Maybe I could start a reddit poll. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d be wary of the cortisol response from caffeine while our bodies are starving.
Probably not, you could add decaffeinated coffee to the chocolate or you could use the base powder with your choice of protein powder and flavoring to accomplish that though.
For the Natural Strawberry try adding some acid to make it pinker. Beet juice gets its color from anthocyanin which is a natural pH indicator – more acidic = redder – more alkaline = yellow/green
Hey Chris,
I sometimes feel like some of the drinks are a bit on the sweeter side.
Do any of the above flavors have less of a sweet taste? I’m actually really curious about the savory chicken soup flavor.
Thanks
That’s typical if you’ve been doing keto for a while. All of the flavors of Keto Chow that aren’t savory chicken or natural strawberry have the same amount of sweetener, but we’re reducing the sweetener by 20% for Keto Chow 2.1. Until then (and after) you can easily add salt and/or more water to any of the current flavors.
This is just too good of a news for me.
Always thanking you for having a great product, thoroughly supporting and constantly improving it.
Cheers
you are most welcome