If you’ve ever mixed protein powder directly into a hot liquid. Then, you are already familiar with the nasty, clumpy mess it usually creates.
When you mix protein powder directly into very hot water, the protein powder has difficulty mixing and will form a clumpy mess in your drink. It’s best to mix your protein powder with a room-temperature liquid first, then add it to your drink.
Below, you’ll learn more about ways to incorporate protein powder into your favorite hot drinks.
Also, some people think heating up whey protein will end up ruining the protein benefits of the protein powder, but this is not the case. We’ll talk more about this down below as well.
What Happens When You Mix Whey Protein With Hot Water
When you mix protein powder with very hot liquids, the powder does not mix very well and tends to start forming a chunky and clumpy disaster.
The high heat tends to affect how the protein powder mixes with liquids. Some argue that high temperatures denature the protein powder. And this worries some that the nutritional value of the protein powder becomes useless.
But this is not the case. And we’ll talk more about this down below.
More on that later. Now, let’s talk about whey protein and how to mix your protein powders with hot water.
Mixing Protein Powder With Hot Water
There are plenty of reasons why you might want to mix your whey protein with hot water. Maybe you want a protein shake made with coffee, or you want to mix whey protein with your favorite tea.
Whatever the case may be. Below are two strategies you can use to add whey protein into a hot drink and enjoy unique-tasting protein shakes (don’t worry, I won’t judge you)
Strategy One
This strategy involves creating a whey protein powder slurry. You’ll want containers.
One for your hot drink of choice, and another container where you will be mixing cold or room temperature water with your protein powder to create a slurry.
Once you created your slurry. You can slowly add the hot beverage into your slurry while stirring.
Strategy Two
Another strategy you can use to add whey protein to your favorite drinks is to wait until your hot water has cooled down to room temperature.
Then, add your whey protein to the room-temperature liquid. Once you do this, you can slowly reheat your drink.
Or I would suggest instead of heating your drink back up. You can chill it instead and enjoy an iced version of your favorite drink. This works great with coffee or tea.
Just make sure you are using a flavor of whey protein that will pair well with whatever drink you are making.
Main Take Away
Just be careful when making your protein shake with any very hot liquids directly. This is where I see most people having issues when adding powder directly into a very hot liquid.
Try out one of the two strategies I’ve listed above, and honestly, play around with what works best for you and your type of protein powders.
Mixing Protein Powder With Coffee
I know many people love to mix protein powder with their coffee.
Here’s a blog post if you want to learn more about mixing protein powder with coffee
What’s great about adding whey protein to your coffee is the fact that you get the nutritional benefit from the protein powder and the energy and focus from the caffeine of the coffee.
And there are mocha, coffee, and other flavors of whey protein that would go well with his drink.
Does Hot Water Destroy Protein Powder
Another common question I see getting asked is, does hot water or heat destroy whey protein?
As a general rule, heating whey protein can cause the amino acids to denature when using extreme heat. Denatured protein powder is when the structure of the proteins starts to break down and change, but all nutritional value is still there.
Yes, heat can denature your protein powder. And heat denatures protein found in food all the time.
For example, when you are cooking raw eggs, you usually see this process firsthand when the color of your clear egg turns solid white.
The proteins are broken down and denatured during the cooking process. But your body can still use all the nutritional value from the egg.
This is the same case regarding whey protein powder as well.
Can You Use Protein Powder In Tea
Another drink people love to mix whey protein into is tea. You can learn all about adding protein powder to tea in that post I’ve linked to.
Making a protein shake-infused tea has been becoming more and more popular. Even brands and companies are creating tea-flavored protein powder made from real tea leaves and grass-fed whey protein isolate.
You can learn more about it in that post if you are interested in it.
But adding protein to tea is a great way to enjoy the benefits of a protein shake with tea’s antioxidant power.
Conclusion To Mixing Guide: How To Mix Protein Powder With Hot Water
Making protein shakes with very hot water is a very hard thing to do. And by now, you should understand why that is.
Very hot water and protein powder don’t get along together. If you really want to add the two together, then I recommend making your protein shake with one of the strategies I’ve listed above.
Those are the best ways to prevent your favorite amino acids from breaking down and turning into a huge, clumpy mess.
I hope this post was able to help you out with your issues about mixing protein powder with hot water.
If I was able to help, all I ask is if you would share something from my blog that you think will help someone else in their fitness journey. That would mean the world to me!
Thank you again for checking out my blog, and I hope I’ll see you in the next post.
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