You might know C-Tates from his twerkingest film roles. He’s played an undercover police officer pretending to be a high school student, a half man/half dog alien, and a male exotic dancer. Well, now he’s decided to play a new role: vodka brand owner. And he’s not just acting like he enjoys vodka. He really does.
The vodka, called Born and Bred Vodka, is a collaboration between the Book of Life actor and the Grand Teton Distillery in Driggs, Idaho. The 80-proof vodka is made from glacial water from the Grand Teton Mountains and Idaho potatoes (obviously). It’s distilled twenty-five times — a true a passion project for chisel-jawed actor.
Tatum doesn’t just enjoy sipping on vodka from time to time. He loves the spirit itself. He loves it so much that he and a friend tasted over twenty-five vodkas in hopes of finding a great American vodka. “We had no intention of jumping into the business at all, we just drank vodka, that was it,” he recently told Bon Appetit. Of the twenty-five sampled, they only liked three. The obvious winner was Grand Teton. “It just tasted better, different than any vodka that was on the top shelf.”
Part of why he wanted his own vodka brand was because he was tired of the buttoned up “formal” way that some vodkas address consumers. “I probably wear a tuxedo more than most 36-year-olds, but that’s not my life,” he said. “I can do that, but I wanted something that could live in both worlds.” The idea being that you can wear fancy attire, but you don’t need to do it all the time. “So the vodka would wear whatever opposite of everyone else. So if it’s a backyard party, he probably shows up in a tux. If it’s a tux thing, he probably shows up in cutoff jeans shorts and a tank top, with some cowboy boots.” Like Tatum himself, his goal is to have a vodka that doesn’t solely fit into one category.
Although we’re sure Tatum wouldn’t want teenagers drinking his vodka, his love of the clear stuff began when he was a teen in Florida. “I was probably 13, probably 8th grade, he said. He and his friends raided a classmate’s parents’ liquor cabinet. This was his first taste of alcohol. “Shenanigans happened.” he added, “13-year-olds in Florida don’t know how to drink.” Things are just different in the Twilight Zone that is Florida.
Tatum may have started his career in entertainment as a stripper, but he’s gone on the become a fairly well-respected actor. In his young career, he’s already tackled both serious and comedic roles with relative ease. “Now, I’m a stripper that became an actor that I guess is working in vodka,” he said.
He’s the kind of guy that, when you were a kid, climbed across the monkey bars on his first try without falling. He probably always got the girl. You know you shouldn’t like him, but for some reason you really do. Plus, he’s got vodka. So there’s that.
