Rising on the heels of PINK, there is a fantastic spirits company who has created an entire line of caffeinated drinks. The first of them I tried is their flagship V2 Vodka, a “super-premium” Dutch vodka, which like PINK is distilled five times, and is infused with taurine and caffeine. The difference is that while PINK is flavorless, this vodka definitely has its own taste. The brand owner, came up with the idea for V2 back in his early bartending days. “People want to stay out late and most alcoholic beverages tend to make people sleepy.” After energy drinks came on the scene they quickly became popular vodka mixers. He came up with V2 as an alternative. “The name is as simple and powerful as the concept.”

Overall, I was not that impressed with the vodka in and of itself. While you could tell that this is a premium blend, I did not care for the taste straight at all. It is the flavor of the taurine and caffeine that I was not expecting, and did not really enjoy all in a cold shot. It does, however, make a fantastic mixing drink, as the bitterness of the caffeine is easily hidden behind the flavor of cranberry juice, a little tonic water, or even just a couple green olives.If you are a vodka aficionado I would pass it up, but id you are looking for a great mixer or conversation piece to a party, this would be ideal. The bottle looks absolutely mesmerizing, the caffeine is pretty powerful and the bottle has “young cool hipster” all over it.

nutrition: 8
While it could be more powerful, I love the taurine added to the drink. I make my martinis quite strong, so a good sized one kept me bouncing around for a good couple hours. 1 oz of this has about 50mg of caffeine. While they don’t mention this specifically, they state that an ounce is half a cup of coffee, which is 50mg in energy-drink-speak. If you find a generous bartender, most shots are around 2 ounces – so your normal 2 shot mixed drink gives you about 200mg, or 2 cups of coffee ( or 2.5 Red Bulls). The taurine is a nice addition to the ingredients, giving a substantially bigger boost than PINK.

Packaging: 9
Awesome job here. A big thumbs up creating something very unique, yet perfectly befitting their demographic. While they could have done a bit more putting the amount of caffeine or taurine used, the embossed frosted dragon across the lettering is very simple and stunning. The only thing there is for a company list is a point to teir website – which actually can give you all you really would want to know about the drink. While not revolutionary, it is still a job very well done.

Taste:7
As a mixer, I would rate this as a 9, as the bite from this is tempered with other flavors. Like any vodka, and really any energy drink as we’l, this drink is best served freezing cold. I tried this is about half a dozen mixers, from bloody marys to chocolate martinis and they all tasted superb. Warm, V2 takes like paint stripper, so very large un-iced drinks should be avoided.

website:9 v2vodka.com
this is a gorgeous website, utilizing the best of flash. There is a huge section on mixers for their vodka, info on the company and a FAQ if you wanted to find out about the amount of caffeine and where and how V2 is made. The sound is used sparingly, and the loading splash screen is quick run through or can be skipped entirely. The design is really top notch, and features their great commercial by animator Daniel Oeffinger – which makes this a site worth visiting. The code holding the flash is done expertly, and everything loads very quickly. The site is really a great finishing touch on a great marketing job done by Wingard Spirits. They have also not distilled the branding with all their other flavors, creating small sub-sites for all their different flavors (R2Rum.com, T2Tequila.com and everglo.com