Just what is Southern Comfort anyway?

[justataste]

Been to their site. Apparently it has whiskey flavoring?

If anybody could help with more info I'd appreciate it.

[wadewood]

college freshman girl panty remover?

[squire]

Peachy/tangeriney/nectariney syrupy sweetly flavored cheap vodka which will get your date drunk quickly and leave a citrusy scent behind when she throws up on your sheets.

[Richnimrod]

Peach-based liqueur? That's what it's always tasted like to me.

Maybe some whiskey in there? ... And, maybe even some orange flavor as well?

[squire]

Orange probably, but no whisky since close to forever.

[GaryT]

Didn't Chuck work for them at some point?

[tanstaafl2]

I believe the official description for it is "Crap" but "college freshman girl panty remover" is not an unreasonable alternative.

Chuck did indeed have a connection to it long, long ago in a whiskey galaxy far, far away.

http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/2013/04/what-is-southern-comfort-anyway.html

Edited September 5, 2014 by tanstaafl2

[squire]

Ah, apricot, that's what I couldn't remember. I do recall though the widespread belief that it was peach flavored Bourbon.

[heydobro]

Its amazing how many liquor stores stock it on the Bourbon shelf

[DPPSmoker]

I knew I should have stayed out of this thread. Your orange citrus descriptions just brought back a lot of memories I thought I had forgot. My college dorm roommate would often split a fifth of this garbage with another guy. The other guys was 200 lbs. My roommate was 140 lbs soaking wet. The bigger guy would call my roommate all kinds of name to get him to keep up. They usually put it away in an hour. Man, my roommate would get sick on that like clockwork. Simply nasty. The worst was when he crawled up into his bed - we had a loft in our dorm - and he got sick and it splattered all over the room from the seven foot drop. Needless to say, I stayed away from our dorm that weekend.

[dcbt]

Its amazing how many liquor stores stock it on the Bourbon shelf

Probably a business decision. Would college-aged boys flock as quickly to get it from the schnapps or vodka aisle?...

Edited September 6, 2014 by dcbt

[squire]

Peach Schnapps, Apricot Brandy, Brown-Forman could put out several brands of the same stuff by just changing labels.

[gooneygoogoo]

I knew I should have stayed out of this thread. Your orange citrus descriptions just brought back a lot of memories I thought I had forgot. My college dorm roommate would often split a fifth of this garbage with another guy. The other guys was 200 lbs. My roommate was 140 lbs soaking wet. The bigger guy would call my roommate all kinds of name to get him to keep up. They usually put it away in an hour. Man, my roommate would get sick on that like clockwork. Simply nasty. The worst was when he crawled up into his bed - we had a loft in our dorm - and he got sick and it splattered all over the room from the seven foot drop. Needless to say, I stayed away from our dorm that weekend.

Ha! That is gross but funny as hell

[Harry in WashDC]

You mean it's NOT whiskey? Butbutbut it's website says clearly that a LOT of people think it tastes like whiskey, fruits, and spices. Not sure what parking lot that was, but . . .

My introduction to it was in 1969. A friend of mine on an orthopedic ward in Walter Reed Army Hospital asked me to bring him a bottle (in a plain brown wrapper, of course). I couldn't drink it no matter how hard I tried. We mixed it 50-50 with JD, thus rendering (an apt word) it palatable to me. Took me two months to get him to simply split a bottle of JD with me and skip the SC. One night he said the JD was affecting him more than usual. I'd switched from 5ths to quarts and hadn't told him we had a couple extra ounces which, apparently, was enough to put him over the edge. Of course, I wasn't on painkillers.

A better SC-style cocktail is 2 vodka, 1/2 apricot brandy (80 proof), and 1/4 Curacao.

[Str8ShooterEsq]

Something I drank in high school.

[Quantum]

Garden and Gun had an article about it a few months ago, along with a recipe for a cordial that might be similar to what Southern Comfort used to be 100 years ago. I thought about playing around with it, but then realized I really have no desire for for even the best possible sweet, fruity, bourbon based liqueur.

http://gardenandgun.com/article/southern-comfort-recipe

[squire]

Frou-frou cachet without that nasty whisky taste.

[justataste]

So, no whiskey involved? Hmmmm. I'm starting to get the idea that you guys don't like it much....... ;-) Thanks for the input. I've never tried it, and now I probably won't.

[Thig]

It's what I graduated to when I left Boones Farm wine as a teenager.

[squire]

I wouldn't say I don't like it I just have no use for it. It does work about as well as other fruit based liqueurs which is to say is useful in cocktails for people who don't like the taste of alcohol. I created a cocktail for my office manager's birthday party (she likes girly drinks) that we eventually named Skip and Go Naked.

[dcbt]

For some reason it seems to be a starter liquor for many as a teen, myself included. Seagrams 7 was another like that.

[squire]

Often the starting and ending experience with this brand are the same one.

[cowdery]

I worked for an agency that had Brown-Forman as a major account. I was on the team -- agency and company members -- that integrated the brand into Brown-Forman and developed the way Brown-Forman would market it, so I was pretty intimately involved. They bought it from a company in St. Louis and moved the manufacturing to Louisville. At that time it consisted of grain neutral spirit, sugar syrup, and a fruit concentrate made by them at a plant in Puerto Rico. The dominant fruit is apricot. Water is an ingredient too, of course.

Over the years (Brown-Forman bought it in 1979) Brown-Forman has fiddled with the recipe a little. Mainly they added bourbon as an ingredient. They won't tell me how much exactly, but it's in the neighborhood of 5 percent. The whiskey they use is the bourbon version of Early Times. I had this confirmed recently.

I also confirmed that they still have the plant in Puerto Rico, where they make the fruit concentrate.

Because it is cheap to make and sells for a premium price, Southern Comfort is second only to Jack Daniel's in its contribution to Brown-Forman's bottom line. The brand has struggled recently. Ironically, it has lost share to flavored whiskeys like Fireball, and also Jack Daniel's Honey.

[squire]

Since they confirm it I'll retract my comments saying Southern Comfort contains no whisky. Don't know why they'd bother with a small amount except to be able to say it's in there.

[squire]

I just found out about Southern Comfort Lime. Is this new news or am I just the last one on the train.