A year or so ago Tito’s vodka seemed to explode in popularity in Chicago bars, from the local dive bars up to the professional happy hour spots. Now, there’s a new Austin, TX vodka called Deep Eddy.
I’ve tried both and they seem fine, perhaps slightly better than Smirnoff and certainly better than Popov, or the equivalent well vodka swill.
However, I’ve only tried them in cape cods so far as that’s been my summer cocktail of choice this year. I’m not sure either Tito’s or Deep Eddy would make a good martini.
Anyway, your thoughts on these two vodkas? And why has Austin, TX become a vodka hotbed these days? Hipsters looking for something new?
Haven’t had the Eddy, but we buy Tito’s by the handle. It’s what goes into my Bloody Mary’s in the morning. The wife is the martini drinker, and she rates Tito’s as 7/10 used in that drink. It’s too “naked” in her words to make a good vodka martini. She prefers Ketel One. As for why Austin…why not? The hipsters probably have something to do with it, but Austin is a thriving, energetic place for all kinds of folks.
I guess they figured out buying bulk ethanol, running it through their still, and slapping a “Handmade in Austin TX” (one of the hippest/fastest growing cities in the country) label on it is pretty profitable!
There are vineyards, wineries, breweries and distilleries of all sorts sprouting like weeds all over the Central Texas/Hill Country area right now. Tito’s was on the leading edge over a very large wave.
C’mon, it’s not as if they’re using their feet* to plug the hose from the tank truck into their still pot. Well, not exclusively their feet. They have to stand on something, right? But they’re definitely using their hands to guide and direct all that industrial ethanol into their own craft still.
So handmade, sure.
*I would pay money for a bottle of “foot-crafted” vodka. I wouldn’t drink it, of course. I’d just keep it around for the extreme hipster novelty.
There can be a coattail effect in marketing. An ad doesn’t just sell a specific brand; it also sells the product in general. So a pizza ad might convince somebody to order a pizza - but they might end up ordering a Papa John’s pizza even though they saw a Domino’s ad.
Some companies tap into this effect intentionally. Other distilleries have already created a market for Austin vodka. A new distillery can move into that existing market.
And WTF is up with the stupid Gluten Free thing? Is it all just marketing to the rubes? Isn’t the whole point of distillation and filtering of ANY vodka to extract pure ethanol and water?
It’s not even just a Texas thing although they are big in the movement. Craft distilleries are growing, following in the footsteps of the craft beer industry. “Why Craft Liquor Is the Next Big Thing”
You might notice that Tito’s is one of the “craft” brands that is mentioned as not deserving the label from the industry association. That’s the perils of success; you don’t stay small.
Locally, there’s room in the market for craft Vodka made in Austin that can claim that it’s the real deal, now that Tito’s has become so large and widespread. Deep Eddy rode that niche to become a more widespread brand. There’s a few more in the wings - Dripping Springs has a good local presence but I don’t know if they’re big enough to expand yet. The last time I bought a bottle it was from a different local distillery that I can’t even remember the name of right now.
I’m not a vodka drinker, but I live in Austin, and it seems to me Deep Eddy gets a lot of attention for their flavored products - the Grapefruit one especially, but they have several others.
Drive up I-35 to the town of Lewisville and you will find Witherspoon Distillery, one of many craft distilleries that have established themselves. I mention this because the highlight of the tour I took a few weeks ago feathered a slightly ripped Quentin Witherspoon conducting the tour and talking trash about vodka. He states that when one of his whiskey batches comes out substandard, he will distill the batch into vodka and use it to clean the equipment.
Im guessing it was a “craft distillery” at one stage even if it has now become a more industrial sized venture.
As to why Austin? Im guessing Texas has introduced legislation to allow and promote the brewing & distilling business. This is true of many states but its still patchy across the US. I do know the Texas whiskey distilling industry is doing well, and im assuming this is also a recent phenomena. For purchasing whiskey Teaxs is pretty liberal, I think, and with all the distilling startups this probably means the distilling side is too.
My medium-small city has a half dozen distilleries. Austin has almost 4x the population, so how are two distilleries an epidemic? Particularly as Austin is a “hipster” town and craft anything is popular among young people with disposable incomes. Granted, these two distilleries seem to be big enough to support wide distribution (Tito’s spread huge in the last 5 years).
And most of the local distilleries make at the least vodka, gin, and “corn whiskey” (basically fancy moonshine), because those are easy to make and require minimal or no aging while dark liquors require at least some aging.
Probably pretty dumb, and celiacs (or people who have “allergies”) won’t be affected by any vodka. But theirs is corn-based, while a wheat, barley, or rye based vodka may not be able to claim gluten was never present.
And before I googled to make sure which things had gluten, I found some websites that make me want to take a bath to clean off the contact stupidity.
Wow, Ketel One is the nakedest vodka I’ve tasted (if by “naked” she means “lightly flavored”.) So ideally, if I still drank vodka, I’d use Ketel One in screwdrivers but Belvedere in martinis because Belvedere is stronger-tasting.
Pretty much everything seems to be booming in Austin right now. My older sister lived there in the 1980s and while it was already growing and known for being a hip place back then, it was hip in a Kinky Friedman way. Now it’s seemingly on the leading edge of all kinds of movement.
I guess I shouldn’t have started this thread. The price of a 750 ml bottle of Tito’s has jumped from $19.99 to $26 overnight here in Chicago. I guess it is back to Smirnoff for a mixing vodka.