Whey Protein Shake: How to Make It, and 6 Recipes

Contents 7 sections

• Making your whey shake in 5 steps
• Shaker or blender: what kit do you need
• 6 whey shake recipes
• What about ready-to-drink shakes
• When should you drink your whey shake
• Our verdict on the whey shake
• Frequently asked questions

Interactive quizWhich whey is right for you?3 questions, 30 seconds, and we point you to the right guide.

Question 1 of 333%

What is your main goal?

💪 Build muscle (bulking)🔥 Lose fat while keeping my muscle🏃 Recover better, top up my diet🌱 I am a beginner, I just want to choose well

A shake is the simplest way to get your whey down: the powder is made to be mixed into a liquid and drunk. But a badly made shake, pasty, full of lumps or just bland, is the number one reason a tub ends up abandoned at the back of the cupboard.

This guide shows you how to get your whey shake right every time, then 6 recipes to keep things varied, with their calories and protein worked out. If you are wondering how many shakes to drink a day, the short answer is usually just one: the full calculation is in how much whey protein per day.

🥤 Making your whey shake in 5 steps

1. Pour the liquid in first: about 250 ml of cold water or milk, which is the order and the quantity Nutrimuscle gives.
2. Add 30 g of powder: 1 or 2 scoops depending on the brand, so check the label or weigh it out the first time.
3. Shake for 20 to 30 seconds, changing direction, up and down then back and forth.
4. Let the foam settle for a minute if it bothers you, especially with some isolates and with clear wheys.
5. Drink it, then rinse straight away: a shaker rinsed within the minute never holds a smell.

The amount of liquid sets the texture, not the protein: 180 ml for a thick shake, 300 ml for a light drink. The ratios brand by brand and the anti-lump tricks are set out in our guide to the whey to water ratio.

🧰 Shaker or blender: what kit do you need?

For a plain shake a shaker is enough; as soon as you add whole fruit or oats, move to a blender. A 500 ml shaker handles one serving, go for 700 ml or more if you make big batches. A few common models:

• Gorilla Sports shaker (500 ml, with a powder compartment, sold by Decathlon in France)
• MyProtein shaker
• Prozis Shaker X

Capacity, screw cap or flip cap, ball or mesh, and how easy it is to clean: every criterion is covered in our protein shaker guide.

🍓 6 whey shake recipes

Every one of these recipes starts from a 30 g serving of whey; in the shaker for the first three, in the blender for the ones with fruit or oats. The totals are rounded.

Recipe	Ingredients (with 30 g of whey)	Kcal	Protein	Who for
The basic	250 ml of cold water	about 115	22 g	Cutting, after a session
Iced mocha	Chocolate whey, 150 ml of cold black coffee, 100 ml of semi-skimmed milk, ice cubes	about 160	25 g	Mornings, at the office
Chocolate milk	250 ml of semi-skimmed milk, 1 teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa (5 g)	about 250	32 g	Afternoon snack, maintenance
Red berry	Vanilla whey, 150 g of raspberries (frozen), 200 ml of unsweetened almond drink	about 260	26 g	A cool snack, dairy-free
Thick, spoonable	150 g of 0% fat fromage blanc, 50 ml of semi-skimmed milk	about 210	36 g	Dessert, evening hunger
Full breakfast	250 ml of semi-skimmed milk, 1 banana (120 g), 40 g of oats	about 490	37 g	Bulking, a rushed morning

The iced mocha is our pick for the morning: it replaces your usual coffee and stays light. Black coffee brings virtually no calories, so we have not counted it. For the red berry one, blend for 20 seconds; frozen raspberries give you a thick, cold drink without needing any ice.

The breakfast shake is a genuine liquid meal, handy when you struggle to eat enough to put weight on. If that is your goal, compare it with our homemade mass gainer shake and read whey vs mass gainer before you buy a gainer.

Fancy eating your whey rather than drinking it? Head over to our whey protein recipes (pancakes, crepes, bars). And for choosing the base liquid (water, milk, plant drinks, juice), see what to mix whey protein with.

🏪 What about ready-to-drink shakes?

Bottled shakes will get you out of a fix, but they cost far more than a homemade one. The Whey Protein Shake from Inshape Nutrition, for instance, brings 30 g of protein for 174 to 181 kcal in a 330 ml bottle, with no added sugar, from €2.99 a unit (product page, checked in October 2026). That is handy in a gym bag or when travelling; day to day, powder is still cheaper. To compare powders, see our ranking of the best whey protein.

🕒 When should you drink your whey shake?

Drink it whenever suits you: the day’s protein total counts for more than the hour. A meta-analysis (Schoenfeld et al., 2013) found no significant effect of timing on strength or muscle size once the total amount was taken into account. After a session, at breakfast or as a snack, all of it works. The breakdown slot by slot is in when to take whey protein, and the question of non-training days in whey on rest days.

✅ Our verdict on the whey shake

For us, the best shake is the one you will actually want to drink every day: the basic with water when cutting, a milk or coffee version for pleasure, the breakfast version for bulking. Vary the recipes rather than buying ten different flavours.

The loaded recipes are not for you if you are on a strict diet: the breakfast version weighs as much as a meal and should be counted as one. And if your meals already cover your protein needs, a shake adds nothing to your results: see how to take whey protein to work out whether you really need it. With a milk protein allergy, whey is off the table; if you are pregnant, have kidney disease or are a teenager, ask a doctor first.