it's what's inside that matters

Yes. But it’s worth knowing what "clean" does and doesn’t mean, because the FDA doesn’t define it and every brand uses it differently. For some it just means the powder was screened for contaminants, which tells you nothing about its heavy-metal levels. It doesn’t promise premium ingredients. And it doesn’t promise the ingredients are gentle: plenty of "clean" powders still lean on cheap gums that are linked to gut issues.

We call RISE311 clean because we can prove it. We buy the best quality ingredients we can source. We test every batch for heavy metals in a third-party lab, and we show you the results (see the heavy-metals question just below). We screen for a range of other contaminants too, and Informed Sport certification is on its way. We even blend in a bin blender rather than the industry-standard ribbon blender, so there’s no chance of cross-contamination between flavors. Clean should be something a brand can show you, not just say.

Yes. We test all of our raw ingredients, and then every single batch is tested again by an independent third-party lab. You can see the results here.

It’s the risk we take most seriously, and it’s why we use US-grown pea and barley. They come in far lower in heavy metals than the usual alternatives. People tend to worry about pesticides, but because the protein is processed they don’t really carry through into the finished powder. Heavy metals do. They concentrate, and that’s the bigger risk worth managing. So we manage it, at the source and in every batch.

Because for protein, organic and clean don’t pull in the same direction. Organic certifies how a crop is farmed, and only relative to the local laws where it’s grown. It doesn’t dictate the quality of the crop or keep out other contaminants like the heavy metals that end up in the finished powder.

Most organic protein on the market is organic pea protein from China, where the raw material tends to run very high in cadmium and lead because of the soil and the manufacturing practices. Pesticides are the thing people picture, but because the protein is processed they don’t really make it into the final product. Heavy metals do. So we’d rather use a US-grown protein we know is far lower in heavy metals than take on the downside risk of a supply chain we know has problems.

Organic has come to be used as shorthand for quality. That holds for a whole food, but for a processed food it’s completely dependent on the supply chain. Where organic genuinely helps, our flavor ingredients, we use it: our vanilla bean and cocoa are organic. There the crop comes straight through with nothing to undo it, so there’s no downside and organic is simply better.

Some are worth avoiding, and we agree. Guar and xanthan gum are approved as safe, but they ferment in your gut, which is where the bloating comes from. They’re also cheap, so they turn up in a huge range of foods, and that cumulative load can leave a gut that never quite settles.

Acacia’s different. It’s a prebiotic fiber sold as a supplement in its own right. We use it for the smooth mouthfeel it gives the protein, and while that’s not a full supplement dose, it’s one of the gentlest prebiotic fibers there is. It feeds the bacteria your gut depends on slowly enough that you don’t feel it.

We think about this the way a chef does. We went through 311 recipes to get RISE311 right, and every ingredient that made the final cut earned its place.

If a long ingredient list is padded with poor ingredients, we’re with you: cut it back. But put five premium ingredients next to three cheap ones sourced from industrial regions known for heavy metals, and we know which we’d drink. Fewer is only better if what’s left is better.

So we use the minimum it takes to do the job properly: a complete amino acid profile that helps you build and hold muscle alongside your training, in a shake you actually look forward to, from the first sip to the last, without the heavy sweetness so many others finish on.

Absolutely, completely. RISE311 is derived from plants, so there’s no whey, casein or lactose in any flavor. (Casein is a protein from cow’s milk, which not everyone in the US realizes.) No dairy or lactose has ever been in RISE311, and that’s one reason it digests so easily.

We’re pedantic about it, too. We use a special bin blender rather than the industry-standard ribbon blender, because the chance of cross-contamination, though low, still exists with a ribbon blender. It’s why we’ll only ever use bin blenders for RISE311.

Not sugar, and not sugar alcohols. Most brands reach for standard stevia (Reb-A) or monk fruit. Around 3% of people taste a bitter, licorice-like aftertaste from Reb-A, and with monk fruit it’s higher still. We use Reb-M instead, one of the purest and most expensive extracts on the market: zero calories, a sweetness close to sugar and no aftertaste. Just enough to round out the tasting notes.