Vintage Brawn

LONG AND EXHAUSTIVE REVIEW: Over the last couple of years Old School Labs has quickly grown into a well known and successful supplement company, and with very good reason. They consistently produce high quality products that taste excellent, have top shelf ingredients, are fairly priced, and they do all this with some of the best customer service I've ever experienced. Ingredients - One thing I want to point out about this protein is that it is NOT WHEY ISOLATE. Whey Isolate is everywhere, do you know why? It's cheap and it mixes easily. As the label points out, whey is a byproduct of the cheese-making process. Now there's nothing wrong with whey concentrate/isolate, I use some myself but it's important to note this is not what OSL is going for here. Whey isolate has two big knocks against it; it's rapidly digested and highly insulinogenic, and it often contains less optimal levels of various amino acids made worse by some companies unscrupulously adding in cheap fillers, a process known as nitrogen spiking. Think of protein like Legos. We might refer to them all as Legos but there's lots of different types and some are rarer than others. Some are better at building certain things than others. Similarly, we collectively refer to all amino acids as proteins, but some are basically filler (non-essential) and some are very effective but rare (essential). Cheapskate brands might say their product has 30g of protein per serving but they're hiding the fact that most of the amino acids are common and non-essential aminos like glutamic acid and glycine. Now, let's look at what OSL has created here; there's egg white protein, which has an excellent amino acid profile that's high in leucine (I'll let you google how important leucine is for muscle growth on your own time) as well as sulfur compounds excellent for the human metabolism, and is absorbed extremely efficiently to boot. There's Milk Protein Isolate, which contains casein and whey in milks natural 80/20 ratio. Casein is a slow digesting protein perfect for combating catabolism; whey is quickly digested and spikes insulin, making it perfect post workout. And finally beef protein isolate, which again has an excellent amino acid profile similar to eating a steak but unlike whey has been shown to prolong protein synthesis over a longer time span (up to 3 hours). Further studies have suggested that with regards to muscle growth the most effective method is to prolong protein synthesis over a long period of time as opposed to concentrating protein intake over a fewer number of meals. So to sum up, what you have here is a protein that covers all your bases; it has fast and slow digesting proteins that are absorbed well and contain quality amino acids to promote muscle growth. I'll throw in too that I appreciate the use of stevia as a sweetener. When it comes to things I consume on a regular basis I try to avoid artificial sweeteners, flavors and food dyes and OSL is a company that provides those type of products. Taste/Texture - With any protein supplement, taste is critical. If you don't enjoy drinking the product you're not going to use it regularly and benefit. I wrote the ingredient section first because I wouldn't want someone who's only every drank whey isolate to not know that about this product going in. Again, whey is everywhere because it's a cheap byproduct and happens to mix very easily. I've had just about every type of protein powder from micellar casein, to hemp, to beef isolate and egg and whey isolate tends to be the easiest to mix. That being said, for sticking to their guns and making an innovative product that will likely be more efficacious for consumers OSL has also done a great job in the taste and texture department. OSL mentions that salt is an ingredient here because it helps bring out the chocolate flavor and I think that was a smart move. Egg white protein and beef protein typically have a slight saltiness to them and playing off that rather than try to hide it is the way to go. If you enjoy sea salt caramel you'll understand what I'm talking about here. To be real specific I'm actually reminded of the sea salt chocolate flavored RX bars if anybody has had those. Texture and consistency wise this shake is a winner; it's thick and luscious without that slimy feel that some shakes thickened with xanthan gum can get (Brawn used guar gum). I've prepared this product in both a blender and a shaker bottle and I do recommend the blender for the best possible mouth-feel. Customer Service - I've always received excellent customer service from OSL. I've received many personal emails in response to questions, they constantly run great deals and specials, and their loyalty program saves me a ton of money. It's hard to get this kind of service from people you interact with face to face and here OSL is just killing it from across the country. So to sum up, OSL has created an innovative product with high quality ingredients and avoided taking the easy route of flooding the market with another whey isolate. They've managed to make said product tasty with an excellent consistency, and they're priced it to be competitive with the standard junk on the market (not to mention they give automatic rebates when you enroll in the loyalty program) And you can rest assured that you'll always get the absolute best in customer service. I plan on being an OSL customer for a long time to come, and I hope you'll consider becoming one too.

So let me start of by saying I used to play college lacrosse and was in amazing shape in college, but then life happened. I got married, had 2 kids, a full time job, and everything else that comes with getting older and being a parent. I finally got fed up with what I looked and felt like and wanted to get back to more what I was like in college. To say that was a large undertaking would be an understatement. I have used all kinds of brands and types of workout products over my younger years and the past few years trying to get back to what I wanted to look and feel like. Old School Labs has not only helped me with that transformation but has excelled at it. Vintage Brawn is not the first product from them I tried in fact I have used multiple others prior to brawn and have nothing but raving recommendations for all of them. Frist the company, they customer service is second to none. I have never dealt with a company this responsive and supportive. I had a real person actually reach out to me about the products, how I was enjoying them, and if I had any questions. Everytime I emailed back I got a response incredibly quickly. Once even on a weekend which surprised me. OSL (Old School Labs) makes me feel like they are going through this with me and are always there with encouragement and advice. The main reason I have continued to use their products is because they stand behind them and it shows. No smoke and mirrors here and that says a lot to me as a consumer and customer in today's day and age. Ryan and Steve are great and if you ever have the pleasure of dealing with them you'll be more than pleased with their service. Brawn - understand this is a real protein and if you're like me expecting some sweet tasting artificial filler garbage. This is not that. OSL doesn't want to use fillers or artificial flavors to make their products taste a certain way what they do is use natural flavors that taste like they should. In fact this has turned out to be my favorite tasting protein shake I've had. It's real chocolate and I know it's not going to filled with junk to just take up more room on a label and confuse me. It mixes well and is easily digestable. I have never had an issue with it after finishing a whole tub of it. What Brawn does and is become the benchmark for what other protein powders should want and need to become. The name of the company really speaks for the products they keep it Old School. High quality ingredients that work. Can you find a cheaper protein sure but I believe that you get what you pay for here. If you want the best you want Vintage Brawn and you want OSL products, Thank you OSL you have given me hope in getting back from my dadbod back to my lacrosse bod. I couldn't have done it without you and we still have some more to go. So Ryan and Steve you'll be hearing again from me soon Don't regret not trying this. It truly is a game changer and you'll be glad you tried it like I am. This is the protein powder others want to be and all try to imitate and fail.

Tastes quite good and doesn't have artificial sweeteners. Twice the price of competitiors for 1kg - that is not economical.