The Tasting Panel magazine

May 2017

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92  /  the tasting panel  /  may 2017 CATEGORY REPORT The American dream means something a little different to everyone; there's no right way to achieve it. Some buy a house with a white picket fence, while others pull themselves up by the boot- straps to lead a prosperous life. For Tito Beveridge, founder and owner of Tito's Handmade Vodka, the road to success in the spirits industry was a winding one. His entrepreneurial flame was lit when he created a landscaping busi- ness in school. After graduating from the University of Texas, Austin, with a degree in geology and geophysics, he went into the oil and gas business; then he moved into ground water geology before finding his way into the mort- gage business. It was at this point in his life when he began to make vodka. And like many of the most prosperous companies, it didn't start out as a job or even as a way to make money. He infused flavored vodka as Christmas presents, and they were such a hit that strangers at parties were coming up to him and calling him the Vodka Guy. He knew he was onto something, but success for Tito didn't happen overnight. He started wanting to make flavored vodka, but a retailer in Austin talked him out of it by showing him the rows of flavored vodka on the shelves collecting dust. So he shifted his focus to making a vodka so smooth you could drink it straight. He kept tinkering with the process in order to perfect it, using his friends as his taste testers. When the banks denied his loan requests—since no one had ever encountered, much less financed, a legal distillery in Texas since Prohibition—Tito dug in to his savings to build his distillery. His tenacity paid off in a big way. Tito's Handmade Vodka has found a home in bars and retailers across the country and has made its way around the world. Tito attributes much of the vodka's success and sales to word-of-mouth and staying true to the fans, even through the explosive growth the brand has achieved. "There's certainly a bit of magic to it," Nicole Portwood, VP of Brand Marketing notes, "but we do think there is something very appealing about a high quality product for a good price, coupled with the fact that it's American-made and gluten-free. I also think people identify with Tito and his American Dream ApplePie as ApplePie as ApplePie As American e American eam with Tito's Handmade Vodka ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie ApplePie AMERICAN-MADE SPIRITS That Will Have Your Customers Feeling Especially Patriotic

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