Vicious Vodka first to provide great buzz and great taste

It looks like there is more caffeine infused alcohol products every day, in spite of inflammatory public interest groups suing major manufacturers - from yerba mate infused beer to coffee flavored liqueurs with extra shots of caffeine tossed in. According to Vicious Vodka, they were the first to combine a great vodka with a good dose of caffeine, and I can personally attest to their amazing flavor and buzz. If you are looking for a great martini that will keep you awake and partying all night, or a Bloody Mary to wake you up after a hard night - look no further.

I have really enjoyed getting all these samples of hard alcohol to try out - as they have all had something unique and interesting to offer. Pink Vodka is the easiest to mix as it has absolutely no flavor and can blend itself easily into many many drinks. Pink has a great bottle, but not nearly as cool as the V2 line of alcohol, which trumps Pink's cool pink infused frosted bottle with a glow in the dark liqueur, wrapped in a frosted bottle covered in dragon-y tattoo designs. V2 added taurine to their mix, so the vodka was hard to drink straight. Vicious Vodka has the distinction of the best tasting straight-on vodka without question. Vicious also sets itself apart by costing low-mid tier liquor prices, rather than cost placing it in the premium alcohol category.

Taste:10
If you like your drinks straight or on the rocks, this Vodka is better than all other mid-priced vodkas like skyy or Absolut - and can easily stand with the top tier vodkas in taste and quality. The caffeine is unnoticeable in flavor or aftertaste, and the overall taste of this vodka is strong and absolutely delicious. Even if it were not for the caffeine , this would be a fantastic drink, but the fact that the caffeine is in here without being bitter or sour is very impressive. If you are in one of the few states which carry Vicious in your liquor store, consider yourself very very lucky.

Nutrition/Buzz: 10
According to Alison Ebbert Slater, one of the founders of Vicious Ventures, this drink has the maximum caffeine allowed in vodka by the US government. They do not disclose anything else about the ingredients or the process, stating that because of the business they need to keep their cards close. I can definitely attest to the caffeine buzz it will give you - not so much that you will be bouncing with your eyes glued open, but enough that you won't feel tired or sleepy from drinking at all. The FDA is a very wily beast, but it looks like the maximum caffeine allowed is around 45mg per 12 ounces, but this drink feels much more caffeinated than that. 2 martinis is all it took to get me moving - and a 3 shot bloody mary was enough caffeine to forgo the morning coffee.

Packaging: 6  UPDATED PACKAGING INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND HERE
This is the one area is which vicious is bested. Vodkas have always had some of the more unique bottles, from the artistic see though bottles of grey goose and Van Gogh, to bottles shaped like guns and Bongs. That was why I found this bottle the most disappointing. Not special, not exciting, and in fact a bit boring. The reason for the clear bottle was because, since Vicious was the first, first thing their customers asked was, “Can you see the caffeine?” They would pick the bottle up and swish it around to see if it had any color etc. It was a huge factor in why they chose the clear bottle for our first few production runs. Now, consumers and customers more savvy about the caffeine vodka market, which is why they are switching to a frosted bottle. Still, other than using a wine cork to stop the bottle, not much is very exciting about this package, with fonts looking vampiric and the bottle without much character. Even frosted, with a product this unique and delicious the bottle could be so much more exciting.

Website:9 viciousvodka.com
For the first drink that mixed caffeine and vodka, their website sure kept up with the times... This site is quite beautiful and coded very well. With all the categories they did a nice job with UI and layout, keeping the images clean, design gorgeous and the Code very clean and pretty. While this is not a pivotal moment in the history of web design, this is very pro and could stand with all the corporate designed liquors out there. Kuiver.com created a lush and decadent site that should be a portfolio piece.

 Update: I stand corrected.  I guess Zygo is the first cafeinated vodka.  Vicious responded that they are actually the first 80 proof vodka on the market while zygo is only 70.