Early this month, I gave Martini Boy a fifth of my then-favorite clear grain spirit, the outstanding Square One, which is an “organic” rye vodka made in Idaho. Right up until this weekend, I was convinced (and I think Steve agreed) that it’s one of the smoothest, if not the smoothest vodka I’ve ever tried. It’s also one of the pricier brands (short of the really esoteric stuff), weighing in at around $40 a fifth in your average package store.
That was then. This is now.
Tito’s Handmade is distilled from corn, and produced in a little shack outside of Austin by a guy whose real name is Tito Beverage–all of which led me to believe that it would resemble lighter fluid more than a top-shelf brand. The only reason I picked it up on Friday is, I used to live in Austin and got a kick out of the idea of having a bottle of vodka made there.
How wrong I was.
Not only can it go toe-to-toe with Square One in flavor and smoothness, Tito’s gets a big tough-economy thumbs-up for costing less than half as much. Check it out, and if you’re in a state with no sales on Sundays and can’t get to the store today, click here in the meantime for a really great article about the origins of Tito’s from a few years back in the Austin Chronicle.
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