Episode 31: Southern Comfort

Episode 31 • 13th November 2020 • Liquor and Liqueur Connoisseur • Matt Birchard

00:00:00 00:17:58

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Episode 31 features Southern Comfort. A whiskey based, fruit and spiced liqueur, it is bottled at 35% ABV, or 70 proof.

Enjoy this episode with some Southern Comfort straight, on the rocks, or substituted for whiskey in your favorite cocktail!

Southern Comfort's official website: https://southerncomfort.com

Brief Historical Timeline:

1874 - Invented in New Orleans at McCauley's Tavern by Martin Wilkes Heron
1885 - Potentially part of the New Orleans Cotton & Industrial Exposition when the original concoction was renamed to Southern Comfort
1889 - Heron moves to Memphis, Tennessee and begins bottling Southern Comfort
1904 - Rumored to have won a gold medal at the World's Fair in St. Louis
1939 - The Scarlett O'Hara cocktail was introduced
1960s - Janis Joplin is often photographed with a bottle
1979 - Brown-Forman, a US conglomerate in distilled spirits business, buys Southern Comfort
2010 - The antebellum mansion, a depiction of the Woodland Plantation shown on the label is removed
2011 - The first brand extension begins with a lime and a cherry flavored version
2016 - The Sazerac Company purchases Southern Comfort from Brown-Forman along with Tuaca as part of a $543.5 million deal
2017 - Sazerac puts the whiskey back into Southern Comfort

Key Cocktails:

Think of Southern Comfort as if it were a whiskey for mixing in cocktails!

Here's a Southern Comfort cocktail I learned in bartending school:

Alabama Slammer:

1 1/2 oz Southern Comfort

3/4 oz Amaretto

3/4 oz Sloe Gin

2 oz Orange Juice

Build over ice and garnish with an orange wheel, a cherry, or whatever citrus fruit you may have handy!

References:

Wikipedia article on Southern Comfort