Southern Comfort

[cowdery]

Southern Comfort is a perfectly good product, but Southern Comfort is to bourbon as Kenny G is to jazz.

[Gillman]

Based on my recent tastings of Southern Comfort, I'd rate it very high on the drinks scale. Of course, it is different than bourbon, a different product really.

But here is one example of why I think this: the other day at a LCBO tasting counter I paid $3.50 for one ounce of a luxury version of Grand Marnier. I forget the exact name, but it was the highest grade of the three Grand Marniers available today on the market, and was going for some $250. It is based on 15-25 year old cognacs and an orange distillate (by which I take it orange is not just added as such but instead, or in addition, a spirit distilled from an orange ferment of some kind is used).

The drink was of course very good: rich, sweet (not just sweetish), with a fine bitter orange taste and depth of complex flavor from the old brandies. Yet the first thing that came into my mind was Southern Comfort - and I hadn't been thinking of that drink at all. The fancy French drink reminded me very much of Comfort and since the latter cost 1/10th of what the Grand Marnier did, that's great value, since it is almost as good. In fact, if older bourbons were blended in, it might be equally good.

One day I'd like to serve these blind to a group and see what they think of both, I think many people would rate the Southern Comfort as in the same class or almost.

Gary

[jburlowski]

Based on my recent tastings of Southern Comfort, I'd rate it very high on the drinks scale. Of course, it is different than bourbon, a different product really.

But here is one example of why I think this: the other day at a LCBO tasting counter I paid $3.50 for one ounce of a luxury version of Grand Marnier. I forget the exact name, but it was the highest grade of the three Grand Marniers available today on the market, and was going for some $250. It is based on 15-25 year old cognacs and an orange distillate (by which I take it orange is not just added as such but instead, or in addition, a spirit distilled from an orange ferment of some kind is used).

The drink was of course very good: rich, sweet (not just sweetish), with a fine bitter orange taste and depth of complex flavor from the old brandies. Yet the first thing that came into my mind was Southern Comfort - and I hadn't been thinking of that drink at all. The fancy French drink reminded me very much of Comfort and since the latter cost 1/10th of what the Grand Marnier did, that's great value, since it is almost as good. In fact, if older bourbons were blended in, it might be equally good.

One day I'd like to serve these blind to a group and see what they think of both, I think many people would rate the Southern Comfort as in the same class or almost.

Gary

I agree. Particularly since both Southern Comfort and Grand Marnier are typically (or or at least often in the latter case) used as components in cocktails.

[TBoner]

I recently came across a 100-proof liquer called "Southern Star" which had an oddly-worded claim to the effect that it was created by the Sazerac company. I'm sorry I don't remember the wording better, but it was late in a cramped liquor store at the end of a long day of dusty-bottle hunting. At any rate, these were old (early-80s?) tax-stamped bottles, and they were sort-of inexpensive, but I wasn't devoting bourbon funds to them without knowing for sure.

A friend and I speculated it may have been a Southern Comfort knockoff, given the color, proof, name, and its proximity to bourbon on the shelf), but I thought I'd see if anyone had any other ideas or info.

Our only other idea (inspired by the Sazerac reference on the label) was that it was essentially a bottled Sazerac cocktail mix (this seems unlikely, but hey, who knows?).

Anyone have any thoughts?

[cowdery]

I'm not familiar with that particular one, but there have been literally dozens of Southern Comfort knock-offs over the years.