The second vodka we picked up at AppleJacks in Denver, Colorado, was 5 Vodka. 5 was the fallback. It was a cheaper vodka that was on sale, but the frosted bottle was eye-catching with its roman numeral 5 surrounding the Hindu-Arabic numeral 5. While the bottle made the sell, there is nothing about the bottle that made it more special than any other generic vodka.

We left the bottle out in the below freezing weather for several nights until we were ready to crack it open. We finally got around to it.

The Shot

The shot immediately burns and floods the mouth with a taste that leads to eye-squenching and mouth puckering. I felt the hangover coming on as the shot scratched down my throat and the chills ran up my back. This isn’t a shooting vodka.

The Mixed Drink

We had picked up Zero Carb Rockstar, since we’d never seen it before. It’s the pink version of Sugar Free Rockstar. It’s a good mixer, and 5 Vodka blends with it well. The vodka doesn’t overpower the mixer, though the tart tinge of less-than-perfectly distilled vodka is detectable. Overall, the mix is easy to swallow and pretty nice to drink.

Opinions

My mom had a couple screw drivers and a Dew driver with 5 Vodka. She liked both and commented that she’d buy it again. Erin used Zero Carb Rockstar as a mixer. She said the vodka was easily masked with the mixer, and is good for people who don’t generally like the taste of vodka.

I think it’s a decent mixer, but I’d avoid it if you plan on shooting it.