I love now products so I'll remain a loyal customer but this particular product was heavy, grainy &chalky. It does mix well with protein shakes I've been using small portions in my hot cereal

Wow. The other reviewers were not kidding when they said this stuff tasted straight-up "foul." It really is some of the nastiest-tasting protein powder I have ever had. I tried mixing it with something sweet, and it has this tangy/bitter during-and-aftertaste that refuses to fade. It's absolutely horrendous. I think maybe it might work well under grapefruit juice... maybe? It would still be chalky, so that would still be totally gross. Like a chalky, grainy glass of bitter grapefruit juice with a hint of old cheese and aloe. I would want to return it, but I have already opened it. I'm glad it wasn't so expensive, but it was more than I would ever volunteer to pay for it given the circumstances. I was mixing this with the pea protein powder of the same brand (which is not so bad as this one) to get a complete protein source. It tasted so bad, and I had to figure out which one of them was ruining my drinks/meals. Definitely this one. For the love of Pete, get a different rice protein powder. The low carbs do not make up for anything.

UPDATE (08/12/2016):
Based on my previous review, I was able to concoct a somewhat acceptable sauce/soup using this protein powder. I made it into what tastes like a Creamy Citrus Parmesan Soup, using lemon flavoring along with some spices and coconut milk. It made sense out of all those flavors that I couldn't quite enjoy. Holy crap, I'm glad I can cook. Since I have figured out a somewhat decent way to utilize it, I will up my rating to at least 3 stars.

UPDATE (08/13/2016):
Just tried making a "Citrus-Vanilla Shake," but the bitterness is overwhelming. It's just palatable enough that I can get it down. It really does taste like aloe. Yuck. The "cheesy" flavor is only highlighted when it is mixed in with something savory. I guess, I was just determined to see if I could make it taste good, but I've failed. It cannot taste "good"... only "tolerable." I, at least, was able to get the "Citrus-Vanilla Shake" down faster than the soup. I'll use the rest of it because I don't want to be wasteful, but I'm so not purchasing this powder again.

UPDATE (08/22/2016):
Okay, so I figured out the fastest way to consume this stuff if you HAVE TO do it for the nutritional value... DON'T TRY TO MAKE IT TASTE GOOD. Just mix it with a good amount of water, and chug. Then you can enjoy whatever you were going to mix it into without it, and you get closer to your water requirement for the day. Problem solved. I appreciate the price and the nutritional profile, so maybe I'll give it one more star. The taste is downright appalling, but it serves its purpose, and keeps me satisfied for hours.

This tastes like someone threw a few pieces of cardboard, chalk, and some horse radish into a blender together.

I wouldn't bother trying to make it taste good, honestly. But you can roughly cut your misery in half by mixing it with half Pea Protein powder or half Beef Bone Broth powder. Just mix it with water and then chug it and down it as fast as you can is my recommendation. Otherwise, no matter what you mix with it it will still taste terrible and you'll just waste whatever else you were trying to use to make it taste better (frozen fruits, etc). Pea Protein works well because it already tastes bad too, just not nearly as terrible as Brown Rice Protein"“"“but it will effectively make the Brown Rice Protein taste less bad overall, since you are mixing it with something that tastes less terrible than it does. So neither is ruined. Whereas if you tried mixing it with something that tastes good, it still ends up tasting bad anyways and you wasted that good ingredient.

Hopefully this made sense to someone...

I really wanted to give this 5-stars, but I just couldn't. The taste is just too awful, I can't help but think that NOW could've done SOMETHING to make it taste less horrendous"“"“but they didn't even bother to try. But I still recommend it and use it regularly myself because of the great health benefits and the protein synthesis effects it bestows on my body.

Reviews about a "strong flavor" had me worried, but this stuff has no real taste, it tastes of dust. The flavor of whey protein makes me sick to my stomach, and gives me heartburn when I work out. This stuff has no flavor, which is perfect. It's flower. It tastes like flower. When you mix it with water you get a simple flower suspension. If it weren't so good for you, you could use it for paper mache. Combine with flavorless pea protein for a super shake.

I don't know why people are complaining about this so much. It's brown rice protein powder, you don't drink it because it tastes good. Regardless of its manufacturer it's always going to be one of the starchiest, hardest to blend, least palatable protein powders available. You take it because when you combine it with pea protein powder it forms a complete protein. That's it.

Personally I didn't find this brand of brown rice protein powder any worse than Naked Brown Rice protein powder (a more popular, more expensive brand). It has more of a "bran-y" flavor to it, but nothing objectionable. Brown Rice protein powder is always difficult to mix, so I recommend using a blender.

The one thing I don't like about this powder is its label. Nobody takes a protein supplement for 4g of protein at a time. That's a useless dosage. Listing such a minuscule amount as a serving size is an intentionally deceptive move by NOW.

The FDA only requires that the info on nutritional labels be correct to the nearest gram (rounded up or down), and allows gram amounts to be marked as zero if they're below 0.5. By making the serving size tiny NOW is effectively disguising the amount of carbohydrates and fat in this powder.