Muscle Milk Non-Dairy Protein Shake, Chocolate: Nutrition & Labelgrade B (79/100)

The short answer

Muscle Milk Non-Dairy Protein Shake (Chocolate) delivers 20g of protein for 158 calories per carton (USDA FDC 2628921). It earns a B (79/100) — held up by low sugar, low sodium, and almost no saturated fat, and held back by middling protein density and an engineered ingredient list. The headline to know before anything else: despite the “Non Dairy” name, this shake is built on milk, so it is neither vegan nor safe for a milk allergy.

Why the B

The grade is honest about what this is: a clean-ish, convenient, low-sugar recovery shake that simply doesn’t pack much protein per ounce. The A+ on sugar is worth a footnote — it reflects the small gram count (10g), not a sugar-free formula. Organic cane sugar is the third ingredient, so some of that sugar is added, not just lactose carried over from the milk.

The “Non-Dairy” label is doing a lot of work

This is the single most important thing to understand about the product. The carton says Non Dairy, but the second ingredient — right after water — is organic milk protein concentrate. That’s a milk protein. What “non-dairy” actually signals here is that the lactose has been largely stripped out, so the shake is friendlier to lactose-intolerant drinkers than a glass of milk. It is not dairy-free in the allergen sense: a person with a milk allergy or anyone eating strictly plant-based should skip it. If you came looking for a vegan shake, this isn’t one — the plant alternatives (soy, pea, oat-based) are a different aisle.

What’s actually in it

Strip away the marketing and this is an engineered shake, not a poured-from-the-jug one. The protein is a single source — organic milk protein concentrate — and the rest of the list is sweetener (organic cane sugar + organic stevia extract), cocoa, two seed oils (canola and sunflower) for mouthfeel, and a stack of functional additives: potassium citrate, sodium phosphate, potassium chloride, and carrageenan. None of those are red flags. Sodium phosphate and potassium citrate are buffers/emulsifiers that keep the protein from separating; carrageenan is a thickener that gives the shake its body. They’re the reason ingredient quality sits at B rather than A — this is a formulated product, and it reads like one. The “organic” prefix on most lines is real and genuinely uncommon at this price point, which is the formula’s nicest surprise.

How it stacks up against the alternatives

The interesting comparison is against the two cleaner directions you could go.

Against a real-milk shake like Core Power Vanilla: Core Power is just filtered lowfat milk plus sweetener, and it hits 26g of protein — but it also carries 26g of sugar (cane sugar and honey) per bottle, which is among the highest in our database. Muscle Milk gives up protein (20g) to keep sugar way down (10g), trading real-milk simplicity for a longer additive list.

Against a plant-leaning shake like Orgain Organic Grass-Fed 26g: Orgain lands a B+ (80) with 26g of protein and zero added sugar (it sweetens with erythritol). It out-proteins Muscle Milk at nearly identical calories. Where Muscle Milk wins is sodium — 129mg vs Orgain’s 248mg — and on a shorter, slightly less gum-heavy additive list.

The honest read: Muscle Milk Non-Dairy is the low-sugar, low-sodium, moderate-protein pick in this group. If raw protein-per-calorie is the goal, Orgain or Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard (24g, 140 cal) edge it out. If you specifically want minimal sugar without going artificial-everything, this carton earns its keep.

Who it’s for

A solid grab-and-go recovery shake for someone who’s lactose-sensitive, watching sugar and sodium, and not trying to squeeze maximum protein out of every ounce. Treat the 20g as a respectable top-up between meals, not a meal’s worth of protein. Anyone vegan, milk-allergic, or chasing the highest possible protein density should look elsewhere — the name promises something the ingredient list doesn’t deliver.

Ingredients

Water, organic milk protein concentrate, organic cane sugar, organic alkalized cocoa powder, organic canola oil, organic sunflower oil, organic natural flavors, potassium citrate, sodium phosphate, natural flavors, potassium chloride, carrageenan, organic stevia extract, sea salt. (Verbatim from USDA Branded Foods, FDC 2628921.)

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Scope: This page applies specifically to Muscle Milk, Non Dairy Protein Shake, Chocolate (44 fl oz/1.32 L) · UPC 876063007641. Other sizes, flavors, or formulations may differ.