As a college student living in Federal Hill years ago, Billy Fanshawe was looking for a way to keep partying without breaking his wallet — or his body.

“I was so damn sick of hangovers,” the now 33-year-old said.

Fanshawe found a combination he believes helped: cheap vodka mixed with Gatorade or Pedialyte, drinks designed to aid in rehydration thanks to electrolytes.

The idea stuck with the Severna Park native, eventually leading him to create Lytos vodka, the first patented spirit made with electrolytes. While Fanshawe can’t legally claim Lytos mitigates hangovers — it’s still an 80-proof bottle of liquor, after all — he said the addition of the electrolytes salt, potassium and phosphorus result in a vodka that tastes smoother than its $24.99 price tag suggests.

“I knew I invented something and I just kept going,” Fanshawe said of Lytos, which hit shelves in November 2020. “I didn’t have the most funds to do it, but I figured it out.”

Lytos, which is now sold in more than 500 bars and liquor stores across Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C., has been a lesson in perseverance: It took 3 1/2 years of submissions for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office before the patent was finally approved last month.

One key player in the application process was Fanshawe’s alma mater, Towson University. The college’s chemistry department helped quantify the amount of electrolytes in the corn-based vodka. It’s the only alcoholic beverage the department has ever analyzed, Chemistry Assistant Chairperson Shannon E. Stitzel said in an email.

“They didn’t charge me a dime,” Fanshawe said. “It was awesome, and we got the patent shortly after, so as far as I know, it made a difference.”

The old rule of thumb is vodka should be flavorless. Lytos, which is produced in Columbia, bucks that thinking, as the electrolytes give a slightly salty finish. During a recent sampling, a few friends and I agreed that the spirit tastes better and more interesting than that sounds. It paired well, too, when I chased it with some pepperoncini brine — a suggestion from Fanshawe.

“Our business stayed in business the first two years because there was a bar doing pickle shots with it,” he said. Fruit juices and their natural citric acid neutralize the salt taste, Fanshawe added, making Lytos an attractive option for screwdrivers.

“Anything fruit-based, you can’t even taste the vodka,” he said.

It doesn’t take much for Fanshawe to go into sales-pitch mode — a reflection of how he spent many weekends during the pandemic, trying to explain Lytos’ novelty to liquor store patrons at a time when he couldn’t offer tastings due to COVID-19 restrictions.

”It was hard. On Friday nights, literally just standing in the vodka aisles since I couldn’t do samplings at most places and just [saying], ‘Hey, buy this $20-plus bottle of vodka. It has electrolytes. It’s worth a try,’” he said with a chuckle.

The vodka industry is crowded and competitive, with U.S. vodka sales generating $7.2 billion in revenue for distillers in 2023, per the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. Fanshawe, who’s now based in Elkridge, has quickly learned the ups and downs of being a local “little guy” having to fight for shelf space against familiar brands backed by conglomerates.

Yet he’s encouraged by the strides Lytos has made, selling between 6,000 and 7,000 bottles annually, he said.

Richard Harris, general manager of Lighthouse Canton, said Lytos “definitely moves for us,” with the liquor store selling about a half a case per week. He said the inclusion of the Maryland flag on the bottle catches customers’ eyes.

“Baltimore really loves things that show they’re a part of the team,” said Harris, who described Lytos as “surprisingly smooth” with “good weight on the mouthfeel.”

Still, new challenges continue to pop up. While Fanshawe isn’t worried over rising prices of corn (which he sources from the Midwest), he’s concerned by a recent price hike in the bottle’s cap, from 20 cents per cap when Lytos started to now 27 cents. He has yet to increase the vodka’s price since it launched.

Sometime down the line, Fanshawe envisions selling Lytos to a larger company enticed by the electrolytes patent. As the father of a nearly 2-year-old son and a full-time employee in Coca-Cola’s foodservice division, he doesn’t want to spend all of his free time at bars and liquor stores anymore.

“I want to make sure I’m a good husband. I want to make sure I’m a good father and I have obligations outside of a business,” he said. “I think in the long run, that’s going to be more important for me.”