Hate ( the taste) of protein shakes

They're not meant to taste good.

Yes they are too sweet.

let the man gripe, mighty internet man.

Buy egg whites in a carton and mix with a can of tuna and greens like cilantro and hot peppers for non-sweet taste and no isolate. Overall, I prefer eating dry curd cottage cheese and/or tuna to shakes. Both are convenient, have huge protein counts and pair easily with whatever amount of carbs you need to add if any & way easier on digestion.

If you want it just slightly sweet, mix with stuff like banana, grapes, frozen berries and lemon/lime.

Or you can mix in egg-whites with less isolate and water, it will bump protein through the roof without the crappy flavour.

You can also use kefir rather than skim milk or water to mix powder with, it will easily cut sweetness down b/c kefir is so sour, but it may throw off your macros. But adds probiotics.

Same idea applies to mixing it with cranberries and lemon/limes.

You’d want something like a magic bullet for all that.

I have never seen any beneficial impact from creatine not on DOMS, not on bulk, so I gave it up altogether.

Open mouth, tilt head back, guzzle it straight down. There are some that taste good and the ones I don't like, I follow my advice.

You want to go easy on fruits in shakes, lots of fruits like in smoothies are unhealthy because they'll give you an ENORMOUS sugar spike.

Protein shakes do not to replace meals, shakes are used ALONGSIDE a proper diet, thats why they're supplements. The problem is, at a certain level in weight lifting you run into troubles getting enough protein from natural sources and you'll stall. Its not a problem for people who have a good diet and just work out to stay healthy, but if you work on a 550 deadlift or a 310lbs log press you'll have to use protein shakes eventually.

Why? Look at the protein you need at a high level, in order to cover that with a natural diet you'd have to eat tons of fish, eat a million eggs and tons of meat on a daily basis, which is doable but thats not a healthy, varied diet. Certainly unhealthier (and way more expensive) than having a healthy diet aided with a reasonable amount of quality protein powder. Especially with fish involved, nowadays most fish is full of heavy metals.

Of course, if you are a beginner or an athlete who simply works out to stay healthy and you are chugging tons of protein powder you should consider working on your diet, but for a dedicated weight lifter protein powder is a useful tool to get stronger. 

Oh steroids will screw you up big time, not just because overdosing your body with hormones creates a cascade of dramatic problems and chaos in your body, its also all the medications you need to take to stop the side effects, and to stop your body from producing estrogen to compensate for the testosterone. Thats what I have been told by people who take it, which totally convinced me to never touch it. Besides, roids is cheating. 

Protein is damn safe though, its just whey, its a diet supplement. Unless you have troubles digesting it, there is really no problem. There are many long term studies showing that there is no health issues from prolonged protein ingestion, in form of whey.
Also I think there is a misconception going on here, if you are a natural lifter and you stall, you cannot increase your strength, and then you improve your diet with protein, you'll only improve by a marginal amount. Like if you stuck on bench press with 330lbs you will eventually be able to go up to 352 in a couple of months and eventually stall at 365 after a year. And thats it, its just a diet improvement. Protein shakes are not magic and not even remotely comparable to steroids, which make you take off like a rocket. 

Now goal orientated lifting on the very limits of your physical capabilities is certainly unhealthier than just working out to be fit and healthy, nobody deadlifts 550 to be healthy. Though without steroids the body cannot go beyond its design limits, steroids allow you to do that and it will cause damage in your joints and tendons. People taking performance enhancing drugs can deadlift up to a 1000lbs+ and you don't need to be a genius to realize that this isn't going to be a good thing for their spine.  But just lifting naturally will not have any ill effects on your body unless your form is terrible or your workout plan is crazy. 

You can also just not use protein shakes and get your protein from more tasteful sources.

As Beetle stated, protein shakes are only really needed when you are working out at a really high level. If you just want to get stronger and grow more muscle you don't really have to use it.

This is turning into an opinion thread...

No response from the OP yet on the ideas here.
Should we really continue?