remedybroken down foods like shakes are the best protein after a workout since your body absorbs more of it and faster
Not true nor concurred by any professional nutritionist worth their salt. Your brofessor seems a bit misled.
hawlerI'm not into only-protein powders, instead, I'm into all-in-one powders, my favourite is the Herbalife one, what it does is that replaces a meal of the day and skips the sugar and fat. It also helps me to have a lot more energy during the mornings. I complement this with a no sugar and low fat food schedule.
Meal replacement =/= protein shake, but a "protein drink" that's 110 calories a serving that ends up being 36% fat and 48% protein it's barely worth writing home about.
Anyway to OP, first thing to do is make sure your diet is in check and relate it to what your goals are, this is the dependent on how you train, how hard you train and how often you train. Remember the purpose of supplements is in the name, the meat and veg of your diet should be meat and veg (and some clean carbs like brown rice, oats or pasta too).
Second, do some research to find what will suit your requirements first. This isn't very daunting as the categories are pretty different from each other, not hard to research and most of them within each category are able to do the job you set out to accomplish.
Last, have a look at everything else. Taste, price, availability etc. For what it's worth you could find buying some unflavoured whey and flavouring the shakes yourself to be a better option for you.
Or just buy some chocolate ON and be done with it.