There’s a juicy rumor going around involving divorce, vengeance, and a whole lot of vodka. Should you still be buying Tito’s Vodka? This TikToker says no.
The Tito’s vodka story
Tito’s Handmade Vodka is a popular vodka brand known for its reasonable price point, quality, and “all-American” origins.
The brand was founded by Bert “Bertito” Beveridge, a sixth-generation Texan who started his career working various geology and geophysics jobs in the oil business. He founded two companies that went under.
Untethered to his career, he took up infusing cheap store-bought vodka with different flavors as a hobby. He didn’t make any money off of this hobby; instead gifting the flavored beverages to friends, Mashed reported.
That’s when he got the idea to start his own vodka business. It took fighting Texas and federal law, $90,000 of credit card debt spread across 19 cards, and figuring out the vodka distilling process from prohibition-era photos (since back then you couldn’t just Google it) to get the business up and running, Forbes reported.
Once it was up, the Austin-grown vodka slowly dominated the market. It was winning awards and was priced cheaper at $20 a bottle compared to $30 Grey Goose. In 2020 it overtook Grey Goose as the best selling vodka brand in the United States, according to Vine Pair.
The company has been sued multiple times due to its claims that the spirit is “handmade,” but there’s no universal definition of what a “craft” spirit production is.
But now the brand is seemingly in a different kind of legal trouble, allegedly bringing new competition.
New competition from a familiar face
In a viral video with more than 1 million views, TikToker Jordan (@huohmo) gave people a reason to no longer buy Tito’s.
He alleges that the company wasn’t started by “Tito” alone, but with his wife. They allegedly split up and he kept the Tito’s name while she launched her own vodka business, which Jordan claims is the Townes vodka brand.
“Women. I support women,” he yells in the clip.
@huohmo WOMENNNN
♬ original sound – Jordan
And where did he get all this juicy gossip? The cashier at the liquor store told him when they saw him with Tito’s in his hand.
“Her vodka is better actually!! I buy that now! Tito’s gives me the worst headache,” one commenter said.
“It’s cheaper and tastes the same,” another added.
Rumor debunked
The Daily Dot did confirm that Beveridge has a wife named Lori, but the Lori Beveridge we found online seems to live in California, not Texas.
And the only “divorce and start a new vodka company” info available online was a Reddit thread from two years ago. Here’s the rest of the rumor “details” summed up by a commenter:
“Rumor is the owner of Titos got divorced and his X-wife launched a sister company called Steal 43. She used all of his resources, from distilling, to packaging. She put her bottles on the shelf for cheaper than Titos in efforts to hurt his sales because you know, regardless how much a man will give a woman in a divorce it’s never enough.”
The other vodka names thrown around as being the ex-wifes are Steal43, Tower Vodka, and Deep Eddy. None seem to be associated with Tito’s ex-wife.
And for the record, there’s no online evidence that the two are divorced.
“90% the story is fake & just a way to make people buy something new,” Jordan added in the comments section.
In a DM, Tito’s told Jordan that the husband and wife have been “happily married for over 20 years,” since the early days of the company, and confirmed that she didn’t leave to start a rival company.
The Daily Dot reached out to Jordan for comment via Instagram and TikTok direct message and to Tito’s and Townes for comment via email.
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