When I started researching about Jimmy Joy and other similar products, everybody seemed to say the same thing: the shakes have almost no sweet taste at all because, if it were two sweet, you would soon get tired of it. Also because it needs to be healthy, of course. But, in my case, if you’re not going to give me something really sweet and delicious (or salty and delicious), don’t give me anything.
Don’t get me wrong, I kinda like Jimmy Joy’s products, especially the chocolate Plenny Drinks. But if you guys made a super deliciously sweet shake, I’d be happier. I’ve been eating super sweet deserts, a specific kind of desert, all my life since I was a child and I never get tired of it.
Think about it: if you had to drink a delicious and sweet vanilla milkshake every day, would you get tired of it? If you drink coke every day, do you get tired of it? I don’t. Please make a Plenny Sweet.
Vanilla milkshakes and coke are full of sugar which is why you can keep drinking them every day and still crave them. No one ever gets tired of consuming sugar (I wish I did)! Jimmy Joy doesn’t use sugar so it wouldn’t be the same. Sweetener can make things taste nice but it can leave a weird aftertaste if there’s too much, and they’ve managed to avoid that. I think the shakes taste really good and have just the right amount of sweetness/flavour!
OK, I think I’m started to realize I might’ve misremembered what “people said”. They probably meant that Jimmy Joy products have a mild flavor so that you don’t get tired of them over time. Still, my opinion stands: I need strong sweet flavors.
I am by no means an expert in this field and i don’t especially like very sweet food - so just as biased an opinion as anyones:
After seeing some woo woo comments about so called ‘artificial sweeteners’ in this forum i looked into the science a bit and i don’t think it’s simply a question of subjectively perceived palatability.
I don’t think the ‘dangers’ of these products are cancer or something like that, it really looks more like they are safe regarding that.
But there are some studies suggesting that a so called ‘nutritive mismatch’ is more likely to cause problems.
Dana Small found in experiments that if you give humans equally sweet water with different amounts of calories (using sucralose and maltodextrine) you get the highest dopamine response if there is no mismatch between sweet taste and calories (which means as sweet as it would be when the calories came from sugar).
And the metabolic response was different if there where more or less calories so it looks like you don’t metabolize the calories correctly if it does not match with the taste.
There are also studies which found correlation between sweetener and diabetes maybe because it can trigger cravings for the missing calories and the uncertainty around sweet taste vs. calories you get from it(like with these gambling machines where people get hooked because the outcome is uncertain).
Just what i found by searching a bit for science around negative effects of ‘artificial sweeteners’ some time ago.
And i think if you advertise all these health benefits, like jj does, you should consider such things.
And maybe it’s just me being biased because i like the subtle tastes.
Thanks for sharing your findings! We’ve also written an article about our sweeteners a while ago, if you find it interesting you can read it here: Guide to Sweeteners – Jimmy Joy
hey Valerian! super interesting what you are sharing, if you have the links to the research papers, please share them so we can have a look at them
When it comes to sweeteners, diabetes, and triggering cravings, this makes sense if someone is eating a low carbohydrate diet and not getting enough calories from “diet products,” “zero-calorie drinks,” “low-calorie snacks,” or a variety of other “sugar-free” products. Then the body will crave high carbs foods which if ingested in bigger quantities, can provoke some metabolic issues that might lead to diabetes (more complex than it seems). Because our products contain all of the macronutrients, the body will absorb the carbohydrates and there should be no cravings.
Definitely, have a look at the article that Otto shared to have another perspective about the artificial sweeteners
(all references at the end of the article, in case you would like to go deeper in the topic)
Likely interesting regarding my hypothesis and interpretation (but i have not looked into this deep enough yet to have a stronger opinion - i will look into these two in a few weeks):
And if i was not clear enough on this - i am in the same boat regarding JJ products as they are at the moment - but i think if you changed the taste to be a lot sweeter you should consider these findings in order to not designe a product which promotes risk of diabetes and obesity by accident.
If you are interested i am happy to share my interpretation of these other studies after looking into them - but, repeating myself, i am not an expert in nutrition or something and would of course love to hear your take on these papers and the whole topic.
Thank you for taking the time to send us the links! We’ll take a look at them and use the insights in our product research and development!
And you were quite clear about your stance We value our customers’ feedback, therefore their preferences are incorporated into the creative process.
Tip:
If you want it sweeter, make it sweeter yourself! Buy a box of stevia and mix a spoonful into your powder, and you can make it to your own taste. If you want it salty: Put in some salt. Problem solved.
I spice my chocolate shake with cocoa powder and sometimes my coffee shake with cardamom.
Think about the people who like their shakes not sweet. You can easily add sweetness, but if a shake is too sweet for someone, that’s not a problem they can solve.
I totally agree with this. I think the sweetness of the shakes is just right, and I’d be pretty bummed if that would change.
It’s so easy to add a little more sweetener to it yourself if you want it sweeter, it’s kind of a no-brainer.
I add oat milk which is sweet to some of my plenny shakes, not as a full substitute for the water, but just a bit extra. Since I also like it a bit sweeter.
Do the same as the previous poster with the chocolate plenny shake → adding extra chocolate powder to make it nice nice nice.
Just to back this «fix it like you like it» ^ _ ^
Sometimes I don’t add extras so the flexibility is nice (also I find some things like the Plenny Drink Vanilla too sweet as it is created).
or chocolate 
flavor to my shake.