The Best Greens Powder (2024)

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The Best Greens Powder (2024) | Bon Appétit

By Ali Francis, Aliza Abarbanel, and Kate Kassin

All products featured on Bon Appétit are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Is the best greens powder the one that packs the most certified organic ingredients and antioxidants into one daily dose? The one that promises glowing skin, a boost of energy, and a fortified immune system? We’d argue that the best greens powder is the one you’re actually going to drink. (The dusty bottles of multivitamins and dietary supplements in the back of your “wellness drawer” would agree.)

While they can’t replace a healthy diet, the benefits of greens powders have undeniable appeal. We’re team kale salads for life, but why wouldn’t you want to gas up your morning smoothie with all the vitamins and minerals and nutrients that leafy greens provide?

It seems like you can’t swing a crystal without hitting a new green superfood supplement brand on the market, so whether you’re interested in elevating your overall health or you just want something that tastes good, we’re here to help you find a high-quality option you’ll enjoy. The packaging and ingredient lists will tell you plenty, but the real question—Is this something I’m going to be willing to consume every day?—can only be answered by a good old-fashioned taste test. See our top picks below.

The one you’ve seen on Instagram: AG1

The minimalist: Your Super Super Green Superfood Mix

The subtle taste: The Beauty Chef Cleanse Inner Beauty Powder

The one for sweet tea lovers: Amazing Grass Green Superfood

The best for smoothies and açaí bowls: Sakara Organic Protein + Greens Super Powder

The one for people who hate spinach: Primal Harvest Primal Greens Powder

The efficient one: Broc Shot

For the juice bar obsessive: Garden of Life

BA staffers completed an exhaustive taste test of the most popular vegan-friendly greens powders on the market. While several products use sweeteners to mellow out the grassy taste, our favorites were the ones that didn’t shy away from earthy flavors or hide behind artificial flavoring. We preferred the ones that tasted as advertised—like powdered greens and proud of it. We found that our faves also avoided mysterious fillers in favor of veggies, adaptogens, and all those good phytonutrients.

Why We Love It: “This product is powerful and nutritionally dense,” Shapiro says, agreeing with the brand’s marketing claims. She likes how easy it is to prepare (just add water), which makes it easier to commit to each day. “Basically, taking this supplement in the morning will set you up for a strong immune system, healthy digestion, and loads of energy as long as you take it consistently and in conjunction with a solid diet,” says Shapiro. Davis does caution that, with “the sheer number of different ingredients” in the AG1 blend, you might not be getting all of them at a level that’s “actually beneficial.” And the product doesn’t come cheap, at $99 for 30 servings.

Taste + Texture: AG1 has a fairly balanced flavor profile; it’s a little bit sweet (thanks to stevia) and a little bit earthy and grassy (thanks to the heavy dose of greens). When dissolved in water, it was plenty flavorful, but reviewers appreciated that it wasn’t too intense to stir into juice or a smoothie. And while the stevia is noticeable, it’s nowhere near as sweet as some of the other options we tested, like Primal Harvest. Athletic Greens did lose minor marks for the texture, which was a little bit grainy.

Ingredients: Athletic Greens says its AG1 blend contains 75 vitamins, minerals, and food-derived nutrients per serving, all sourced from ingredients like alfalfa, artichoke, and spirulina. It also includes probiotics and a long list of adaptogens, like ashwagandha, licorice, and shiitake mushroom.

Claimed Benefits: According to the website, Athletic Greens will increase your nutrient intake while promoting better gut health, supporting immunity, boosting energy, and helping with recovery. They are also NSF certified, which means they use third-party testing to ensure their products include exactly what’s on the label and that they’re free of heavy metals and other contaminants.

Your Super Organic Super Green Smoothie Mix

Why We Love It: “As soon as I added this green superfood mix into my morning routine, I immediately felt a boost of energy and felt like I was starting my day off on the right foot,” says BA staffer Kate Kassin. Her favorite thing about the Your Super blend was how simple the ingredient list was, without any additives like stevia. “I loved that I could add it to water or smoothies without having to worry about a weird aftertaste nor a weird response from my gut from artificial sweeteners or added fibers like inulin,” Kassin remarks.

Taste + Texture: Your Super’s Green Superfood Mix boasts a clean taste from its six ingredients with no added flavorings or sweeteners. Despite the lack of additives, it’s not at all bitter and doesn’t taste too grassy, even with a hint of natural sweetness. It dissolves well into water and adds a nice boost of greens to smoothies.

Ingredients: Wheatgrass, Barley Grass, Moringa, Baobab, Spirulina, Chlorella (All Organic)

Claimed Benefits: Your Super is on a mission to improve people’s health with the power of super plants. The Super Green Mix claims to contain “Your daily dose of immunity, energy, and radiance—made exclusively from 6 powerful greens sourced from the most nutrient-dense places on earth.”

The Beauty Chef Cleanse Inner Beauty Powder

Why We Love It: “I like that this product contains lots of greens, probiotics, and prebiotics, which is the best environment for these components to thrive in,” Shapiro says. However, she dislikes the use of three different sweeteners (honey, molasses, and stevia) in a single product. Davis also praises the mix of greens, but notes that “part of the reason that all of these greens are so highly touted for their health benefits is that when they are eaten as whole foods, they are super filling and essentially can take the place of other less healthy foods.” In other words, eating these greens raw is the most effective method.

Taste + Texture: Many of the powders we tasted had assertive flavors, but the Beauty Chef’s organic greens powder had a more subtle taste that won a couple devoted fans. They noted hints of kale, apple, broccoli, and sesame, describing a mellow flavor profile that prompted one noted green powder hater to write “I actually like this! I would drink this!”

Ingredients: Banana Starch, Choline, Certified Organic Greens, Prebiotics, Probiotics, Postbiotics, Lactobacillus Rhamnosus Gut5Y, Other Ingredients

Claimed Benefits: The Beauty Chef is an organic skin care company created by Carla Oates, the Australian author of the book Feeding Your Skin. The Cleanse Inner Beauty Powder claims to “help detox and purify your body on the inside, promoting smoother, clearer skin on the outside” through a blend of bio-fermented greens.

Why We Love It: “I am a fan of this product. There are many different greens here, and I love that the probiotics are paired with fiber. When probiotics have a prebiotic to feed off of, they have a higher likelihood of surviving transport through your gut,” Shapiro tells us. She was very impressed by the high dose of vitamin K (one serving has a whopping 85% of the recommended daily dose), and lack of added sugars. This greens powder supplement also contains vitamin A and vitamin C. There’s no shortage of micronutrients here.

Taste + Texture: In our taste test, this powder proved to be among the sweetest of the bunch, but it still featured “earthy and honest” grassy notes that we enjoyed. Tasters noted hints of matcha and “a raspberry iced tea vibe that would be stellar in a smoothie.” They’re not the only ones with that idea—this is the same green powder Elske chef Anna Posey blends into her morning smoothie.

Ingredients: AMAZING GRASS® Green Food Blend (Organic Wheat Grass, Organic Barley Grass), AMAZING GRASS® Antioxidant Blend (Organic Rose Hips, Organic Pineapple), EFA Fiber Blend (Organic Flax Seed, Apple Pectin), Digestive Enzyme & Active Culture Pre/Probiotic Blend, Peppermint Leaf, Silica

Claimed Benefits: Amazing Grass makes its products using organic, non-GMO fruits and vegetables sourced from a national network of small farmers. Its original Green Superfood powder blends vegetables, fruits, and greens with digestive enzymes and probiotics like wheatgrass, barley, alfalfa, açaí, and spirulina to increase energy levels, promote detoxification, and boost the immune system.

Sakara Organic Protein + Greens Super Powder

Why We Love It: “I like this product because it is organic and plant-based, providing 12 grams of protein per serving with only 1 gram of sugar,” says Shapiro. She’s also impressed by the greens blend, which she says includes diverse ingredients like algae and barley grass, which are both “nutrient dense” and not foods most people eat on a regular basis. “The whole point of supplementing in my mind,” she says, “is to fill the holes in your diet.” That being said, she says promoting this product as a “protein supplement” is potentially misleading. “Compared to other common vegan protein powders, it has half the amount of protein per serving,” says Shapiro. Still, many of the other options on this list contain almost no protein at all, so Sakara’s powder is a decent option if you’re looking for “something more satiating,” says Davis.

Taste + Texture: Though the packaging recommends combining this greens powder with recipes that use whole fruits and nut butters, like smoothies or açaí bowls, we tried it with water first. Despite a small amount of coconut sugar and stevia in the mix, this was probably the most bitter of the bunch. It’s overwhelmingly earthy and coconutty, and tasters didn’t love that barely any of the grassy greens flavors came through. Still, this isn’t advertised as a “just add water” situation, and Sakara held up great in a fruit-packed smoothie. The tasters felt fuller for longer compared with other brands, making this an ideal option for people who need a little more heft at breakfast.

Ingredients: Plant Protein Blend (Organic Pea Protein, Organic Hemp Protein, Organic Pumpkin Protein), Super Greens Blend (Organic Spirulina, Organic Wheatgrass, Organic Barley Grass, Organic Chlorella), Organic Coconut Milk Powder, Organic Vanilla Powder, Organic Coconut Sugar, Organic Stevia Leaf Extract

Claimed Benefits: Sakara aims to combine plant protein and greens in one scoop. It derives its protein from USDA organic pea, hemp, and sesame seeds, and combines it with a blend of greens like chlorella, spirulina, and wheatgrass. The brand promises the concoction will help “detoxify your body, support healthy tissues, and keep you satisfied and energized.”

Primal Greens Ultimate Super Greens Blend

Why We Love It: The greens blend in this one isn’t as “robust” as some of the others, Shapiro says. Still, she appreciates that Primal Greens includes a variety of ingredients, like “deep purple fruits and vegetables to promote circulatory health and cognitive function.” The product also contains pre- and probiotics to promote gut health, Shapiro says. And the adaptogenic mushrooms might help boost overall immunity and reduce stress. According to the product label, this greens powder is also very high in vitamins C, E, B12, and zinc. But Davis says not to “expect miracles”; the powder doesn’t offer enough of most of these ingredients to have any sort of major impact.

Taste + Texture: If you think the best tasting greens powder is one that doesn’t taste like green vegetables at all, Primal Greens might be the drink for you. This stuff was so sweet it reminded some reviewers of diet soda. That’s because it’s made with stevia, which is at least 50 times as sweet as sugar. The greens tasted almost imperceptible in this one; a boon for drinkers with a sweet tooth and the vegetable-averse but not so much for those who like their spinach to taste like spinach. Primal Greens would also be great in a smoothie made with more acidic fruits, like plums, pineapples, or citrus.

Ingredients: Superfood, Antioxidant, and Mushroom Blend (Alfalfa Leaf, Reishi Mushroom), Nutrient Dense Natural Herbs and Extracts (Acacia Gum, Acerola Cherry Extract), Digestive Complex (Apple Fiber, Inulin), Probiotic Blend,

Claimed Benefits: Primal Harvest’s Primal Greens powder is made using an extensive blend of fruits and vegetables, like carrot, spinach, banana, beet, brussels sprouts, maitake mushroom, and wheatgrass. The brand says the product is good for “energy, immune support, and digestion.”

Why We Love It: “I’d never heard of broccoli sprouts or sulforphane until my colleague Carina Finn said I needed to try Broc Shot,” Kassin says. She opted for the Pineapple + Mint flavor, which despite the added natural flavors and sweetener, manages to taste clean and natural. She loved the reusable shaker (all the packaging is worthy of keeping out on your counter) that helps measure out the perfect serving size and liked how efficient it felt to take the Broc Shot as a quick one-gulp shot. “As someone with a lot of gut-related issues, I was shocked to see how quickly I saw an impact on my digestion and regularity within just a few days,” Kassin exclaims.

Taste + Texture: Broccoli Sprouts definitely lean to the earthier side of taste (think wheatgrass shots), but the brand also offers Pineapple + Mint and Ginger + Lime flavor varieties with natural flavors and sweetener that mask the taste. The powder, when dissolved, is a bit on the thicker side, and requires a good stir or shake in the stainless-steel reusable shaker (basically the size of a shot glass) to combine.

Ingredients: Whole Broccoli Sprout Powder (The flavored varieties also contain Natural Flavors, Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar, Citric Acid)

Claimed Benefits: Broc Shot harnesses the power of broccoli sprouts and their sulforaphane, which supports your body’s natural detoxification process. They claim that Sulforaphane addresses the three pillars of wellness—gut health, inflammation, and detoxification—and that a single shot of Broccoli Sprouts with 15 mg of Sulforaphane will improve your beauty, body and brain.

Garden of Life Raw Organic Perfect Food Green Superfood Original Powder

Why We Love It: This is the greens powder for the person who wants the benefits of having practically every food and vegetable under the sun in one glass. For those looking for added digestion perks, there’s also a raw probiotic and enzyme blend. Even the unflavored variety boasts a natural sweetness from the addition of fruits so while it has a grassy taste, it feels like a well-rounded way to start your day.

Taste + Texture: The Garden of Life Green Superfood Powder tastes the most like a green juice from a juice bar—it’s grassy, has some gritty texture (as if the vegetables were juiced on-site and not in powdered form), and has a nutty aftertaste (most likely from the added sprouts like flax and amaranth). In the unflavored variety, there is still some sweetness from added fruits like apple and from the added pineapple flavor. The brand also offers Apple and Chocolate flavors.

Ingredients: Organic U.S.A. Farmed Green Juice Blend (Organic Barley Grass Juice, Organic Alfalfa Grass Juice), Organic Fruit & Veggie Antioxidant Blend (Organic Apple, Organic Beet, Organic Broccoli), Organic Sprout Blend (Organic Flax Meal and Sprout, Organic Amaranth Sprout), Raw Probiotic & Enzyme Blend, Organic Pineapple Flavor

Claimed Benefits: Garden of Life claims its Superfood Original Powder is “packed with the energizing power of 40 nutrient-dense, raw, organically grown greens, sprouts and vegetable juices for the raw energy you need every day” and that it “provides foundational nutrition your body craves to support healthy digestion, detoxification, a healthy immune system, already healthy blood sugar levels in the normal range and metabolism.”

The Best Greens Powder (2024) | Bon Appétit