 1.75L size bottle | |
| Type | Vodka |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Fifth Generation, Inc. |
| Distributor | Fifth Generation, Inc. |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Region of origin | Austin, Texas |
| Alcohol by volume | 40% |
| Proof (US) | 80 |
| Ingredients | yellow corn |
| Website | www |
Tito's Handmade Vodka is avodka brand made by Fifth Generation, founded by Tito Beveridge in 1997[1] inAustin, Texas – specializing in vodka made fromyellow corn, rather than potatoes or wheat.[2][3] It is distilled six times and unaged.[4]
Marketing its brand asTito's Handmade Vodka, the company originally craft-distilled its products in copper pot stills at Texas' first legaldistillery.[5][4][2] 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 theDistilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS).
Now made in a facility with ten floor-to-ceiling stills and equipment bottling 500 cases an hour,[6] the brand recorded a sales volume of approximately 3.8 million 9-liter cases in the United States as of 2016[7] and a market share of 7.1% of the United States Vodka market as of 2017.[8]
Beveridge first produced his spirits as a hobby after making infusions of inexpensive vodka as gifts[9] and using apot still.[2] 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.[citation needed] Production remains at the heavily expanded southeast Austin distillery.
Sales and distribution ofTito's Handmade Vodka expanded in 2001 after Tito's Handmade Vodka won the Double Gold Medal for vodka at theSan Francisco World Spirits Competition.[10] Also that year, it received a four-star ranking fromSpirit Journal[9] and won four stars again in the 2007 edition. Beginning in 2013,United Airlines began serving onlyTito's for its inflight vodka beverages.[11]
Tito's is distributed throughout the United States and Canada.[12] The distillery transitioned to making industry approved hand sanitizer during theCOVID-19 pandemic.[13] Tito's also made a grant of $1 million towards the development ofCOVID-19 vaccineCorbevax.[14][15]
In 2014, twofalse 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 theAlcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, which regulates labeling of liquor in the US, does not actually define "handmade," both lawsuits rely on the dictionary definition of the word.[16][17] By 2016, the lawsuits had either been settled out of court or dismissed.[6]
Tito's Vodka funds the annual Tito's Prize – an 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).[18]
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