My husband has Atkins Advantage shakes for breakfast every day and has had them for years. His favorite is their Cafe Mocha, which he says he'd rate as five stars. He has tried other brands before but has always been disappointed in them. (All the flavors, including mocha.) Ensure's Max Protein gets four stars from him - it's the first brand other than Atkins that he'd rate above three stars.

His criticism is that Ensure Max isn't as rich and thick as the Atkins shake. The chocolate aspect of the mocha isn't terrific, but according to him, no chocolate in protein drinks is ever perfect - it always has a slightly off flavor. The coffee flavor in Ensure is good.

With 30 grams of protein and a nice big morning boost of caffeine - Atkins doesn't have that - he likes it a lot. The caffeine shot almost makes up for the thin body.

The drink has only one gram of sugar. It also contains corn maltodextrin and sucralose (Splenda). That's the reason I don't touch shakes. Like many people, if I even look at Splenda, it upsets my plumbing. But for folks who can handle it, this is a good choice. It's more expensive than Atkins Advantage so he'll only buy it if he can't get Atkins, but it's definitely a keeper.

Abbot Laboratories has significantly reduced the sugar content of this Ensure Max by substituting Sucralose as the sweetener. The ingredients in each 11 ounce container of Ensure Max Protein contain 20 fewer calories and twice the protein that would be in a 12 ounce glass of 2% milk. The combination of other ingredients in each 11 ounce "shake" includes an assortment of vitamins, some dietary fiber making it feel more filling with the Colombian coffee extract offering an energy boost.

Users are advised to serve these cafe mocha nutrition shakes cold which, in my opinion, dramatically improves the taste. I have not tried the milk chocolate flavor for comparison but it might be worth a try if the cafe mocha taste doesn't ring your bell. The bottles are a convenient size to be stored in a refrigerator or cooler. A screw-off top requires no tools to open and can be easily resealed. I've been on a weight-loss diet for months and can substitute one of these bottles of Ensure for a meal and be reasonably satisfied.

As an alternative these low-calorie shakes can be a beverage accompaniment to a modest diet meal to help make the meal more satisfying. At the Amazon price of about $2.50 per bottle, the price seems reasonable. I will be ordering more.

The color is unexpectedly light, like a gray-brown. It tastes like it should be darker brown, but the mocha is a good tasting mocha. It's slightly more coffee than chocolate but it is a good combination. It's hard to believe that there only 150 calories per container, with 30 grams of protein and a lot of vitamins and minerals. It's sweet, but it's sweetened with sucralose and it doesn't taste like an artificial sweetener to me.
The consistency is a bit thinner than a lot of premixed, bottled chocolate milk brands. It's not too thin but it's not thick like a shake, even when cold. I find it a pleasant, perfect thickness to drink.
My son, who lifts weights, is trying to claim these as a workout drink for the high protein content, and my husband, who often skips breakfast for a nutritional drink, has put up a counterclaim. The entire family likes them.
I like the portable containers. Mine came boxed with the tops slightly protected in the manufacturer's boxed packaging, then in Amazon's, and I didn't have any leaks. The tops just twist off.

I am a regular user of Ensure products and have used Ensure Regular, Plus, High Protein, and Enlive. I'm not a nutritionist, but they all seem to have a similar amount of vitamins and minerals. The biggest difference seems to be in the amount of protein they contain. Up until they came out with this "Max Protein" product, Ensure Enlive had the highest amount with 20 grams of protein. Max Protein has 30 grams.

I almost never eat breakfast, but I do drink 1 bottle of Ensure each morning. I look at it like a combination breakfast replacement - multi-vitamin. Although I've tried some of their other flavors, I really like the chocolate and actually enjoy drinking it because I think it tastes good.

I expected Max Protein chocolate to taste the same as the other Ensure products but it was very different. I just could not get passed the flavor. It tasted artificial and medicinal with a kind of weird after-taste. To me, it didn't taste anything like chocolate. I was surprised because I like the chocolate flavor of the other Ensure products. I found the taste of Max Protein chocolate flavor to be very unpleasant - made me not want to drink it. I won't be getting it again. I'll stick with the other Ensure products.

I have to admit I wasn't really excited about this shake. These things all kind of taste the same with a little flavoring added to make them tolerable. It's the protein and vitamins you're after, so you kind of learn to drink it, ignore the flavor and go on.

This one really surprised me with the coffee taste. You wouldn't know that you're drinking a protein shake unless you were told. The flavor is really good. If you like a sweeter coffee, drop packet of Splenda or something in there. I've been supplementing my diet with these things to try to curb my hunger from a thyroid condition, and I never thought they could be this good.

Of course, all magic comes at a price. I have to knock off a star because there are 100mg of caffeine in each bottle. If you are watching your caffeine intake, this is definitely going to be an issue. You would need to avoid these in the evening or get another flavor altogether. I'm also not crazy about the 230mg of sodium in these things. I just don't think it's necessary.

Overall, these are so good that I will probably buy more to have for breakfast. You just have to keep on top of the sodium and caffeine content if those are issues for you. I highly recommend them otherwise.