Ka'chava Review

Is Kachava Any Good? 

Let's see if the west coast based shake is as good as their photos.

One of the biggest issues that anyone following a long-term plant-based diet has is eating enough nutrient-dense food at each meal to fuel their workouts and give them what they need to rebuild the muscle tissue broken down during exercise.

The company behind the plant-based Kachava meal replacement shake is called Ka’Chava. The company was formed in 2014 by Simon Malone after he struggled to find a food supplement that would help to support him as he travelled across Thailand. Simon formulated his own meal replacement shake after being unable to find anything suitable available on the market in Thailand. But he also wanted to create an ethical product that could give back to the planet to make up for what it takes to produce.

According to the product website, the company has saved over 25,126 acres of rainforest with The Rainforest Trust since 2017 through its environmental conservation efforts. So if you are looking for a plant-based diet support supplement with a conscience, then Kaachava may be the one you want!

And Ka'chava does look amazing in photo's they've clearly got some great photographers on board, so what did we think about the shakes, when we got our hands on them.

The main downside to Ka'chava however is it does come with a pretty hefty price tag, and the question ultimateley becomes, is it worth the cost?

What is Kachava?

Created to appeal to those following a plant-based diet, Kachava uses more than 70 ingredients and is aimed at covering a broad spectrum of nutritional needs for those who lead a busy and active life. Kachava can be a handy meal replacement when time is short, and you need to grab something quick while on the go. It comes in powder form in a resealable pouch, and you can buy it easily online. Currently available in a range of flavours, including chocolate, vanilla, coconut acai and chai, Kachava is a mixture of plant-based protein ingredients, vitamins and minerals and other extracts to provide a balance of carbohydrate, fat and protein. Based on the plant-based ingredients in the recipe, Ka'Chava claims that it is vegan-friendly, but the product doesn't carry any vegan certification

Pros

  • Vegan
  • Complete Meal
  • Great Taste
  • Unique Flavor Options

Cons

  • Not Certified Vegan
  • Expensive
  • Only Available In The USA
Check Our Best Meal Shakes List

Kachava Review: Unique Ingredients

While a few plant-based meal replacement shakes are now appearing on the market, Kachava has 24g of protein and 9g of dietary fibre per serving. This can contribute to higher satiety levels for consumers, so it may help users keep their hunger pangs at bay until their next meal.     

The shake formulation includes many extracts from fruits and greens that carry a laundry list of individual health claims, such as adaptogens drawn from certain roots and fungus. However, with the makers claiming they use over 70 plant extracts to cover all basic nutrient needs, you do wonder if this is overkill.     

At a time when people are trying to cut down on their environmental impact and are adopting the 'less is more approach in their lives, does drinking a meal replacement shake with more than 70 ingredients really fit the bill? It may not tick all the right boxes for those wanting to consume a more simple diet and avoid highly processed food-like products. However, the company does offset some of these concerns with its ongoing work with the Rainforest Trust.  

Kachava Meal Replacement Shake FAQs

We Look At The Most Common Questions That Came Up In Our Kachava Meal Replacement Shakes Review Research

Are Ka'chava Shakes Vegan? 

Yes, well at least they claim to be, they don't have any official certification, but they do claim to be fully plant based.

Do I Get Everything I Need In Kachava?

Yes, Kachava is a complete meal shake meaning, it has all the vitamins, minerals, amino acids and essential nutrients you need against the percentage of the daily calorie percentage you're consuming.

Is Ka'chava For Weight Loss? 

It's OK, if you're using a meal replacer to cut out a higher calorie meal, but there are other complete meal replacers that are going to keep you fuller. With a lot of people saying they're hungry again in a few hours.

What Flavors Of Ka'Chava Are Available?

Kachava comes in Vanilla, Chocolate, Coconut Acai & our favorite Chai

Ka'chava ingredients

The protein base comes from a blend of brown rice protein, yellow pea protein, amaranth seed, sacha inchi seed, and quinoa seed. It is refreshing to find a plant-based meal replacement containing no gluten, soy, preservatives, and artificial sweeteners. It also means with this particular blend you'll get all the essential amino acids that you need.

Other notable points about the ingredients in the blend include:  
Kachava contains a range of dried and powdered herbs and vegetables, including coconut milk, cinnamon, vanilla extract, chlorella, carrot, broccoli, spinach, beet, kale, tomato, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, cucumber, green pepper, green onion, celery, cauliflower, garlic, asparagus, parsley leaf and soluble vegetable fibre.
     
Kachava contains sources of plant fibre to help keep you feeling fuller for longer. Their fibre blend includes acacia gum, whole grain oats, flaxseeds, and chia seed to help suppress your appetite.
     
The adaptogen herbal extract blend includes maca root, ginger root, shiitake mushroom mycelia, maitake mushroom mycelia, reishi mushroom mycelia, and cordyceps mushroom mycelia.
     
Unlike many other meal replacement shakes on the market, Kachava includes a probiotic blend to aid digestion. The combination consists of inulin, Lactobacillus Acidophilus, Lactobacillus Rhamnosus, protease, amylase, lactase, cellulase, and lipase.
     
What is heavily featured is their unique antioxidant blend of plant extracts that are not often found in other meal replacement formulas. These include acai berry, Camu Camu berry, coconut flower nectar, maqui berry, strawberry, blueberry, tart cherry, blackberry, and raspberry extracts.
     
The shake is thickened using xanthan gum, guar gum and soluble vegetable fibre. Depending on which flavour you choose, the shake will contain natural flavourings and be sweetened with monk fruit.   

What We Thought About Kachava?

The short version, is it tastes great, it's not the most filling, and it's incredibly nutritious. We'd definitely recommend trying it if you're looking for a day to day shake, although we do prefer Rootana for this. As a weight loss shake, it really shouldn't be anyone's first choice. And if you're not Vegan and looking for something creamier then we'd recommend Ample instead. If you want to check out some other vegan meal replacement shakes, then check out our list of the best dairy free meal replacers. We haven't covered the kachava meal replacement bars yet but, if you want some more info on those check out latestfuels kachava review. 

What's The Best Ka'chava Flavour? 

We know this is subjective, but, our favourite was the chai flavour, although we think it's because it stands out as something a little different against other meal replacement shake brands. 

The vanilla is pretty standard and others do it better, it was still good, but nothing exceptional, this left us a bit underwhelmed. 

The chocolate is good far better than it's Huel and Soylent counter parts. The first thing you'll notice is how good it smells when you open the bag and it doesn't dissapoint.

The coconut acai flavor had us divided some of us loved it, some didn't like it, but that really comes down to how much you like coconut and it's very sweet, sweeter than the chocolate and vanilla, so it's not going to be for everyone, but much like the Chai, it's something a little different to the standard flavours everyone offers. 

Kachava Customer Reviews

Customer feedback has been mostly positive overall, with many saying that they love the flavours in the range. The best selling and the most popular flavour is chocolate. This is easy to understand as cocoa powder tends to do an excellent job of masking the earthy flavours in these plant-based shakes. The chocolate flavour shake has 4.5/5 stars from 4,200 ratings on Amazon, which as we mentioned before is far better than a lot of it's competitors, and it seems that most customers agree with our Ka'Chava Review on this point.    

While those used to drinking plant-based meal replacement products say this is one of the better tasting products on the market, others claim that they cannot get past the earthy flavour. Still, these tend to be reviews from people trying a plant-based shake for the first time and will be used to much better tasting whey-based meal replacement shakes.    

On the negative side, many users report feeling hungry again within two hours of consumption, so it may not be an effective shake to rely on between meals for those trying to curb their appetite and lose weight. That said Kachava isn't really marketed as an appetite suppressant, so even though it does contain a lot of plant-based fibre extracts and may help you feel satisfied, that isn't really the products main focus, so we feel it would be a little unfair to critisize them too much for this. That said, it does market itself as a product to use when your outdoors and during heavy activity, which is an area that it doesn't hold up to well. But, if your activity levels aren't very high and you eat frequently and often throughout the day it should function fine as a weight loss meal replacer.     

Users also rated the powder's mixability as 8 out of 10. We agree with this rating, as we didn't have any issues, Kaachave recommended that you use a blender to mix the product to avoid clumps, but we didn't have any issues with manual shaking. However, one area where it does shine is  as a versatile ingredient in baked goods and smoothies, and it can be combined with yoghurt or made into protein balls to take with you and eaten on the go, we've found that Kachava cooks particularly well, so we'd say if you're looking for a meal replacer for baking, it's a great go to. Not our preference against, Rootana (see our best list), but it definitely outperforms Huel and Soylent as a cooking ingredient.   

Kachava Review: Conclusion

If you are looking for a plant-based meal replacement shake and want one with a good flavour, then Kachava is one of the better tasting options on the market. It's creamy texture is great for people looking for a more luxurious texture from their meal replacers, although this isn't for everyone we very much liked that.     

Customer feedback is mostly positive, but if you're looking for weight loss it will work best when combined with a healthy diet and exercise programme like any other meal replacement shake. Its high mixability means it is quick and easy to prepare and a good choice when you are busy and need something to grab on the go. Overall we really liked Ka'Chava, even if it didn't quite make it into our top meal shakes.