Tito's Handmade Vodka is a

vodka Vodka ( pl, wódka , russian: водка , sv, vodka ) is a clear distilled alcoholic beverage. Different varieties originated in Poland, Russia, and Sweden. Vodka is composed mainly of water and ethanol but sometimes with traces of impuriti ...

brand made by Fifth Generation, founded by Tito Beveridge in 1997 in Austin, Texas – specializing in vodka made from

yellow corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

, rather than potatoes or wheat. It is distilled 6 times and unaged. Marketing its brand as ''Tito's Handmade Vodka'', the company originally craft-distilled its products in copper pot stills at Texas' first legal distillery. By 2001, the brand was no longer a micro-distillery, having surpassed the industry standard of 40,000 cases for a craft distillery as defined by the

Distilled Spirits Council of the United States The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) is a national trade association representing producers and marketers of distilled spirits sold in the United States. DISCUS was formed in 1973 by the merger of three organizations (the B ...

(DISCUS). Now made in a facility with ten-floor-to-ceiling stills and equipment bottling 500 cases an hour, the brand recorded a sales volume of approximately 3.8 million 9-liter cases in the United States as of 2016 and a market share of 7.1% of the United States Vodka market as of 2017.

Founder

Bert Butler "Tito" Beveridge II is a native of

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

, Texas. He received the diminutive nickname "Bertito", shortened to "Tito", from his

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

caregivers in childhood. Beveridge attended the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

where he became a member of the

Kappa Sigma Fraternity Kappa Sigma (), commonly known as Kappa Sig, is an American collegiate social fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1869. Kappa Sigma is one of the five largest international fraternities with currently 318 active chapters and colo ...

History

Beveridge first produced his spirits as a hobby after making infusions of inexpensive vodka as gifts and using a pot still. Commercial production began in 1997 when Beveridge formed Fifth Generation, Inc. and established the Mockingbird Distillery, producing 1,000 cases that year. In 2007, the brand sold over 160,000 cases. Production remains at the heavily expanded southeast Austin distillery. Sales and distribution of ''Tito's Handmade Vodka'' expanded in 2001 after Tito's Handmade Vodka won the Double Gold Medal for vodka at the

San Francisco World Spirits Competition The San Francisco World Spirits Competition was founded in 2001 by Anthony Dias Blue as an off-shoot of the San Francisco International Wine Competition. It assesses hundreds of entrants annually (1,407 in 2013 from 63 countries) with tastings inv ...

. Also that year, it received a four-star ranking from '' Spirit Journal'' and won four stars again in the 2007 edition. Beginning in 2013,

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

began serving only ''Tito's'' for its inflight vodka beverages. Tito's is distributed throughout the United States and Canada. The distillery transitioned to making industry approved hand sanitizer during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Tito's also made a grant of $1 million towards the development of COVID-19 vaccine Corbevax.

Handmade controversy

In 2014, two false advertising lawsuits were filed against Tito's in California and Florida. The California lawsuit alleged that Tito's vodka cannot be described as "handmade" because it is distilled in a large industrial complex with modern, technologically advanced stills; and is produced and bottled in extremely large quantities. Since the

Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, statutorily named the Tax and Trade Bureau and frequently shortened to TTB, is a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury, which regulates and collects taxes on trade and imports of alcoho ...

, which regulates labeling of liquor in the US, does not actually define "handmade," both lawsuits rely on the dictionary definition of the word. By 2016, the lawsuits had either been settled out of court or dismissed.

Tito's Prize

Tito's Vodka funds the annual Tito's Prizean annual $15,000 award for one Austin-based artist, facilitated by the nonprofit gallery Big Medium. The award also includes a solo exhibition at the Big Medium Gallery at Canopy. It is the largest award devoted to Austin-based artists. Previous Tito's Prize winners are Ariel René Jackson and Michael J. Love (2021), Betelhem Makonnen (2019), Steve Parker (2018), and Zack Ingram (2017).

References

External links

Official website
{{Vodkas Companies based in Austin, Texas American vodkas 1997 establishments in Texas American companies established in 1997