In the world of supplements and gym culture, there are constant new releases of different kinds of supplement combinations and even more companies, many of which claimed to be raw or vegan, but often are double-checked by the customer.
If you take part in the gym culture, you have probably heard the nightmare tales and scare stories of people using creatine or protein powders that are full of all sorts of gunk that you didn’t sign up to take.
This can be a rather serious endeavor for an athlete who is subject to drug tests.
Whether you are an athlete or home gym lover, you still don’t want to waste your money on a product that seems well marketed but without the right research could be trash.
We are here to save you time and money, where necessary, and review these products so you don’t have to do the dirty work and you can get back to pumping iron.
Here’s our review of a Creatine hydrochloride powder by Beyond Raw, what seems like a fairly new product that many are raving about. Here’s our verdict.
What Is Creatine HCL?
You may have heard of creatine monohydrate but many have not heard of creatine HCL. HCL stands for hydrochloride, the added component to monohydrate that makes it chemically different.
What is the difference between the two, and why may one be better than the other?
Creatine hydrochloride is a fairly new product to the supplement market. In terms of chemistry, this is simply your normal creatine structure with an added hydrochloride molecule.
Tests have found that creatine hydrochloride can be 38 times water soluble than creatine monohydrate. The hydrochloride element enhances water solubility and absorption by a great amount.
Tests also suggest that creatine hydrochloride is more stable than creatine monohydrate meaning that you can potentially skip the loading phase that creatine monohydrate often requires.
Moreover, if creatine hydrochloride will absorb faster this means much less water retention which is a common problem faced by creatine monohydrate users.
So, in theory and on paper creatine hydrochloride has the potential to be a much more efficient form of supplementation than creatine monohydrate.
One thing worth noting is that there is little research on the safety of creatine hydrochloride, while creatine monohydrate is very highly researched, little has been done for creatine HCL.
What Does The Product Offer?
Beyond Raw Chemistry Labs Creatine HCl Powder
One thing we love about Beyond Raw creatine powder, is that their name speaks for itself, the only ingredient present in this at all is creatine hydrochloride, so you can be sure that label matches the exact contents inside, no tricks of the trade here.
The Beyond Raw creatine HCL powder is sold in either a 30 serving tub or a 120 serving tub. A ‘serving’ is considered to be 2 grams, meaning there is either 420 grams for a 120 serving tub, or 120 gram in a 30 serving tub.
This is pretty much it for the product and what they offer, but the simplicity is a big selling point behind the product.
The idea is you simply throw the dosed serving (2 grams) into your protein shake or water and you are good to go.
Creatine hydrochloride dissolves well in water, part of its selling point, which means that this should dissolve easily.
Many gym goers and supplement purists will appreciate not only the simplicity of the product but that transparency that this entails, as well as the clarity and simplicity of the packaging.
Where Does The Product Come From?
This Beyond Raw Chemical Labs Creatine Hydrochloride is made by GNC.
GNC is an American company based in the US who have been making vitamins, supplements and health products for a very long time. They are the largest global specialty retailer of nutritional products.
On the one hand, many may trust this US company, as they have been around for a long time and are one of the top sellers. But with their position at number one comes a lot of scrutiny.
Back in only 2015 GNC were sent cease and desist letters from the New York State Attorney General at the time, alongside other major sellers of nutritional products, as they claimed GNC and other companies did not have an accurate display of ingredients. A similar case occurred in 2017.
The outcome was that GNC removed quite a few products from the shelves and subjected them to some more robust testing. Moreover, in September 2016 GNC agreed to test their products more highly in order to have more accurate labels.
What this shows is that GNC, while a very mature company, can still make some major mistakes. While the product does say straight creatine hydrochloride is the only ingredient some skepticism should remain in order to keep due diligence when reviewing things.
Yet, potentially the outcome of this case was that GNC are potentially much better at their testing these days then they were before. The packaging certainly suggests they want to come across the same way a raw vegan brand might, honest and reliable.
How Does It Taste?
One major thing that people point out, with Creatine hydrochloride, is that it can taste extremely sour, and when added to anything can make it taste quite strongly of this acidic, sour flavor.
Some people don’t find this that bad, or enjoy the sour taste, some even report that, even when they dislike it, it helps them psych themselves up for the gym in order to be able to drink it.
The other side of this is that some people simply find the taste so bad that they prefer drinking creatine monohydrochloride.
Effect On The Stomach
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons that people chose not to use creatine monohydrate is that it can often have a big effect on their stomachs.
Using no more words than needed, it gives them the runs, and we aren’t talking cardio.
The other side of this is that many customers report that Creatine hydrochloride can be way better on your bowels and stomach as it dissolves and absorbs a lot quicker and more efficiently than monohydrate.
Moreover, as mentioned, this makes the molecule more steady which means you don’t need to constantly dose yourself as you might when using monohydrate, meaning less toll on your stomach and bowels thanks to the chemical mechanism.
Value For Money
A 30 gram tub of this Creatine powder will last you around one month if you use it once every day.
For only a quarter of the price more, you can get the 120 serving tub, easily lasting around 3 – 4 months, so buying in bulk like this could certainly help your own bulk, considering that creatine needs persistent dosing to work.
Moreover, Amazon’s subscription options do offer some great savings on a product, which if you like you may order quite often, saving you a lot of money on bulk buying, as well as not having to waste time constantly buying the product.
Yet it stands to reason that Creatine monohydrate is a fair amount cheaper than Creatine hydrochloride, but the effects can stand against the price if they work for you.
Ultimately, it is your choice, but always expect to pay more for Creatine HCL than for Creatine monohydrate.
Many find that the extra price to pay for Creatine HCL just isn’t worth it in comparison to normal Creatine monohydrate.
At the end of the day it depends on how much benefit you feel you get from Creatine HCL in comparison, some don’t find it worth the money.
Our Verdict
We think that the Beyond Raw Chemistry Labs Creatine HCL powder is great. Many people find that using Creatine HCL can provide some serious results and can theoretically be a more effective supplement than Creatine monohydrate can.
While many find that the product can have a very sour and potentially unpleasant taste, many find that the benefits of Creatine hydrochloride means monohydrate can barely stand up to what is a chemically superior supplement.
While you can technically get Creatine HCL anywhere, the product that they offer at Beyond Raw Chemical Labs, powered by GNC, is a potentially totally pure product that only has one ingredient: Creatine HCL.
GNC have certainly had troubles in the past, as many supplement brands have, with having accurate labels resulting in at least two cases where they may have released potentially misleading labels, many plaintiffs suggest this happened due to negligence rather than misinformation.
Overall, this is a great product which, if the product is in fact what it says on the label and the benefits of Creatine HCL are proven to be advantageous, is potentially a product that is highly superior to your common creatine product.
While this product will indeed be more expensive than the latter, many find that the benefits of the chemical make the extra expense worthwhile.
Order the product and try it out today, you can find it either on Amazon, or on GNC’s direct website.
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