Tito's Handmade Vodka is a

vodka Vodka ( ; is a clear distilled beverage, distilled alcoholic beverage. Its varieties originated in Poland and Russia. Vodka is composed mainly of water and ethanol but sometimes with traces of impurities and flavourings. Traditionally, it is ...

brand made by Fifth Generation, founded by Tito Beveridge in 1997 in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

– specializing in vodka made from yellow corn, rather than potatoes or wheat. It is distilled six 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 Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

. 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.

History

Beveridge first produced his spirits as a hobby after making infusions of inexpensive vodka as gifts and using a

pot still A pot still is a type of distillation apparatus or still used to distill liquors such as whisky or brandy. In modern (post-1850s) practice, they are not used to produce rectified spirit, because they do not separate congeners from ethanol as ...

. 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 i ...

. Also that year, it received a four-star ranking from ''

Spirit Journal ''The Spirit Journal: The Independent Guide to Distilled Spirits, Beer, and Fortified Wines'', established in 1984, was a quarterly newsletter published in the United States that presents information about alcoholic beverages. It began to be publ ...

'' and won four stars again in the 2007 edition. Beginning in 2013,

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois that operates an extensive domestic and international route network across the United States and six ...

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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Tito's also made a grant of $1 million towards the development of

COVID-19 vaccine A COVID19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID19). Knowledge about the structure and fun ...

Corbevax.

Handmade controversy

In 2014, two

false advertising False advertising is the act of publishing, transmitting, distributing or otherwise publicly circulating an advertisement containing a false claim, or statement, made intentionally, or recklessly, to promote the sale of property, goods or servi ...

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 alc ...

, 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