Trailhead Modern Source Protein Review: Awesomely Natural

Posted on January 25th, 2016 By Allie Lewis in Protein Powder Reviews Read Time: 12 mins.

Recently updated on September 26th, 2022 at 09:51 pm

My Modern Source Protein Review is here and it’s going to be a great one. This is the latest protein to get the FULL Allison Lewis BPW review treatment, and what a fantastic treatment it is. As with all of my hundreds of reviews, I’m going to go IN DEPTH and under the hood on this nutritional supplement and let you know if it gets the BPW stamp of approval, or if you should take a pass. Either way, we’re going to have some fun with it. I keep my reviews light-hearted and readable so that you not only get a good sense of the Modern Source Protein Shakes, but you also leave the review feeling refreshed and happy. I guess in that sense, my reviews are like a massage. Yes, I just compared my reviews to a massage. Lol. Here is how our review-massage will be structured. First, I’ll tell you all about Modern Source Protein flavor. I’m pretty poetic with the flavor grades, as you will see. I will continue on to do an analysis of the formula after that, and then finally at the end, I’ll do a packaging analysis before ending with the final Modern Source Protein Review Summary. It’s Monday morning, and I’m jazzed up and ready for a great review. So let’s hit it!

Modern Source is the newest ‘all-natural’ protein available on the market, and by on the market I mean at Nutrishop, which is where I get most of my supplements from. I’m like, practically on a first-name basis with the clerk at my favorite Nutrishop. I bet not many of your friends can say that. Yes, we’re friends now. But anyways, I walked in the other day, and was like ‘hey Justin, what’s new today?’, and he was like ‘nothing since yesterday when you were here’. Lol. I wish I was kidding. But then something caught my eye which I didn’t recognize. Lo and behold the Modern Source Protein, by Trailhead Nutrition. Having never heard of the marque or the product, I scooped up (awesome pun, Allie) some of the Vanilla flavor and went on my merry way- knowing an awesome review was in the making. 

Trailhead Modern Source Protein Flavor Grade: 8.0

The thing about the natural proteins is that they are very hard to flavor. When you are limited to only natural flavors and sweeteners, you put yourself in a box and basically are making the admission that the product just is not going to taste good. There are exceptions, certainly, but basically unless you use a bunch of actual sugar, it’s impossible to make something taste good without using some crazy lab chemicals- see my Syntha-6 review from yesterday.

So I was a little skeptical as I hand-mixed my initial serving of Modern Source Vanilla Protein (my blender is still broke)(insert sad emoji). In terms of mixability, this protein was not great. But again, when you are hand-mixing, it’s hard to get things nice and even. So I ended up with something that was altogether pretty clumpy and uneven. 

I was also impatient so I cut my mixing efforts a little short so that I could get this stuff in my belly! The first sip was ok. I knew I was in for a bit of a long journey since usually I enjoy the first sip best. But the first sip was just ok. I got the initial bits of vanilla but the overwhelming taste was of earthy, vegan protein powders. I’m so familiar with that taste from drinking Orgain Protein for the past few weeks. I wanted this one to be more of a pure flavor. Did it have some vanilla flavors? Sure. But the taste is mostly just of slightly sweetened, earthy muck. But in a weird way it’s still drinkable, which is why I’m going to give it a ‘B’ on the taste. 

I’m curious whether the other flavors of Modern Source protein are as equally earthy tasting, or if they all get overpowered by vegan protein taste. If someone sends me some of the chocolate flavor that would be great. I don’t know if that will happen but who knows. Lol. Let’s move along to the formula analysis now. 

Modern Source Protein Formula Grade: 9.0

There’s a definite shift in the marketplace towards these Vegan, ‘raw’ protein powders. It all seemed to start with Vega Sport and the Vega One protein powder, and since then it seems like there are a trillion new Vegan protein powders every day. Someday I’ll do a pure comparison article of all of them, including the Garden of Life Raw Review that I did just a few weeks ago. Wait where was I going with that…o. Right. So. The formula of this one is actually pretty neat. You have your standard brown rice protein, and also the pea protein isolate, but then also two additional protein sources that you probably haven’t seen before. Check it out: 

Trailhead Nutrition Modern Source Protein Sources: 

Organic Rice Protein Isolate

Pea Protein Isolate

Potato Protein 

Cranberry Protein

Natural Flavor

Sunflower Oil Creamer

Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar

Guar Gum

Gum Arabic

Salt

Stevia Extract

Rebaudioside A 99%

As you would expect from these ‘clean’ proteins, what you see in the ingredients is totally favorable to the eye. Not as much to the taste buds and stomach though. I would say if there is a ‘side effect’ of this Modern Source Protein (and pretty much any of these vegan proteins that use pea isolate), is that your stomach might get a little bit fired up by the vegan protein sources. I’ve never been too fond of pea protein just because my stomach doesn’t always agree with how to digest it. But you never know. These products can be a toss up sometimes in terms of digestion. The trade off is worth it for some folks since it is, after all, an unbelievable ‘clean’ formula. 

Oh- and getting back to the cool part of this Modern Source Protein in particular. The fun thing about this protein is that it uses two never before seen protein sources. Those sources are the Potato Protein and the Cranberry Protein. I’ve only seen Cranberry Protein in ONE other product in my entire life, and that was the Arbonne Protein Shake– which I did like, but not for the million dollar price tag (I exaggerate. But not by much.) Lol. But the potato protein is something I have NEVER seen in any of the hundreds of protein powder reviews that I’ve done. I don’t know too much about the amino acid profiles of either of these two Vegan Protein Sources, but if I had to guess, I would say they are most likely complimentary of the amino profiles of the pea and brown rice. So that’s my take on the Trailhead Protein formula- it’s super pure and uses some creative sources. Let’s get into those looks!

Modern Source Protein Packaging Score: 9.2

I’ve gone back and forth a couple of times on how this protein makes me feel emotionally. I know. That sounds really strange to talk about a protein powder package in terms of emotions and feelings, but then again I’m just different like that. I’m very in touch with my emotions, and supplements make me feel things. Lol. Yeah I’m crazy. But. I’m good at what I do. So let’s talk about this design. On first glance, what you see is an orange and green gradient, with the word PROTEIN plastered right across the front- dominating the space. But then when you look a little bit closer, you can tell that there are actually some skeumorphic graphical elements in the background, and not just a simple dual tone gradient. The reality is that there is actually a photo-realistic image of grass taking up the bottom half of the label. I usually don’t like when products use actual photorealism on a label, but in this label, for this product, it all seems to match. I don’t know how else to explain it but everything does seem to just work on this label. The colors. The graphics. The words. It’s a unified, living, breathing, thing. I wish I could explain what I like about it better than that, but for some reason I just connect with it. It’s nice. I think they could’ve done an even better job calling out the flavor of this product, but all in all it works. Good job to Trailhead Nutrition designers for creating this one. 

Trailhead Nutrition Modern Source Protein Review Summary

  • Trailhead Modern Source Protein Flavor Grade: 8.0
  • Modern Source Protein Formula Grade: 9.0
  • Modern Source Protein Packaging Score: 9.2
  • Trailhead Nutrition Modern Source Protein Value Grade: 8.7

It’s rare for me to award an ‘A’ to a product that scored this low on taste. But sometimes products earn their stripes for things other than just taste. This is a protein that is unbelievably healthy, is drinkable, and looks wonderful. In my opinion this is the best protein currently available at Nutrishop. Give Modern Source a shot next time you are there. And tell Justin I say hi.*

 

Trailhead Nutrition Modern Source Protein Final Review Score: 9.0

Allie Lewis

By Allie Lewis

Hi, my name is Allie and reviewing products is my hobby. I am passionate about being fit and active, so making a blog about my experience with different products that help me stay healthy made sense to me. Please contact me at any time if you would like to guest post or advertise on-site.