Kevin Brauch. "A River of Whiskey". The Thirsty Traveler. Season 4. Episode 402. Fine Living. Archived from the original on January 16, 2010. Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. In 2016, the brand was acquired by New Orleans, Louisiana-based Sazerac Company to bring its journey full circle. The Sazerac company is home to many other famous brands like Sazerac Rye, Buffalo Trace, E. H. Taylor, George T. Stagg, Blanton’s, and many others.

If your only exposure to “SoCo” is an ill-conceived shot you sort of remember taking one time, it’s time to give the spirit a closer look. From humble beginnings to WWII-era patriotism, Southern Comfort has a storied history. Here are seven things you should know about the famous southern liqueur. No. Southern Comfort isn’t a whiskey or bourbon. It is a liqueur, a distilled spirit that is sweetened with various flavors and extracts. The original formula and the current formula use whiskey as the base for this whiskey liqueur, but for some years a neutral spirit was used. What do you mix with Southern Comfort? Previously, there were also ground coffees available with both of these eggnog flavorings, but the coffee products have since been discontinued. Southern Comfort 100 is the biggest and boldest version of Southern Comfort at 100 proof (50% alcohol by volume). SoCo 100 is also available in two sizes at a slightly higher price: Stephens, Caleb (August 12, 2018). "Here are the top 20 best-selling whiskey brands in America". Orlando Business Journal . Retrieved September 9, 2019.When creator Heron patented his drink in 1889, he labeled bottles with the tagline “None Genuine But Mine.” The brand continued to use the line for more than 70 years, even after changing one of its “genuine” core ingredients, whiskey. Would you believe that Southern Comfort has ties to the American Film Institute’s top 100 films? That’s right the current number 4 film on the AFI’s list is “Gone with the Wind” whose main character is Scarlett O’Hara.

Heron was recalled as “that high priest of the temple … the alchemist who found and compounded the ingredients and supervised their merging and mingling with proud paternal devotion.” His small “superlatively charming” bar sold no beer, simply the best bourbons and Scotches, and ‘the Comfort’, variously described as “the jewel in this setting” and “incomparable and unique” served with “punctilious ceremony”. On a silver slaver, a tall, stemmed glass, a home-made macaroon on a small China plate to accompany the libation, and silver tongs to drop a preserved peach or apricot into the goblet, and “then from the amphora the nectar was poured in solemn silence.” As with a Dukes Martini it “was a rule of the house, as unswerving as the supreme law of the land, that a second Southern Comfort might be had, but never a third. The regulation, it appears, was salutary.” The famous long-serving Pennsylvania senator Boise Penrose was said to have drunk two before breakfast, and three after. The effect “liquid gold, mellerin’ the heart, and puttin’ a song o’ thanksgivin’ on the lips.” Southern Comfort is a smooth, sweet, easy-drinking experience every time. So what is this magical elixir known as Southern Comfort? You would be excused if you assumed this was bourbon or whiskey. a b c Simonson, Robert (May 8, 2017). "Surprise! Southern Comfort Has No Whiskey. But Soon It Will". The New York Times . Retrieved May 8, 2017. Mason, Ashley (December 20, 2016). "The Great Eggnog Taste Test That Almost Killed Us". Bon Appétit. When the World Came to Westwood: The Fowler Museum at 50". UCLA Magazine . Retrieved March 21, 2020.The sweetness of the old Southern Comfort is still there, but the 100 proof version adds a level of depth to it that’s great. Every so often, a sip that’s mostly bitter unfolds itself in the ways that only an expert liqueur mixologist could make it do – suddenly it’s all dark notes of cherry and tropical fruit, with a finish that’s all smooth, dark chocolate. Southern Comfort Product Listings 2019 Walmart. Retrieved November 28, 2019, from https://archive.today/20191127191243/https://www.walmart.com/search/?query=southern%20comfort. Southern Comfort was created by bartender Martin Wilkes Heron (1850–1920), the son of a boat-builder, in 1874 at McCauley's Tavern in the Lower Garden District, two miles (3km) south of the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. [7] According to the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau, McCauley's Tavern was "just off Bourbon Street", and the original form of the drink was called Cuffs and Buttons. [8]

I remember that Southern Comfort appeared like a shining beam of light in my largely monochrome teenage years in the late 1960s and 1970s. Don’t believe all that ‘swinging sixties’ stuff. Life was still drab; colour TV was only an occasional treat for those who could (which my parents certainly couldn’t) afford the expensive rented receivers. Explorations of alcohol were mostly confined to surreptitious half-pints of mild and bitter in otherwise deserted village pubs, and perhaps stolen sips of spirits at house parties. Also seasonally available through various retailers is Southern Comfort-branded eggnog. These currently include two variations of eggnog flavors, Traditional and Vanilla Spice. The Traditional flavor is usually available in oneUSqt (0.95L) and one-half US gallon (1.9L) sizes. These eggnog products contain no alcohol. [14] [15] Southern Comfort is actually considered a whiskey liqueur, which is a blend of whiskey, fruits, and spices. A Brief History of Southern Comfort Drink: Southern Comfort 100 Proof uses its higher proof to bring out some new layers of flavor. Cleaner, and a bit more like whiskey that its cousin Southern Comfort Original.Southern Comfort started out with a whiskey base but for most of the post-prohibition years, it used a neutral spirit. It wasn’t until Sazerac took ownership that whiskey returned as the base liquor. Southern Comfort Prices, Variations & Sizes This cookie is set by Rubicon Project to control synchronization of user identification and exchange of user data between various ad services. History [ edit ] A pre-2010 Southern Comfort bottle with its label showing an illustration of Louisiana's Woodland Plantation. The label was redesigned in 2010. [6]

Is there a more perfect name out there in the beverage world than Southern Comfort? Those two words alone conjure up strong feelings of southern hospitality, good times, and friendship. The origin story of the brand, like all good origin stories, is shrouded in the mists of time, and as will become apparent, somewhat contradictory. For many years Martin Wilkes Heron was believed to have created Southern Comfort in Memphis in or around 1890. Census records and directories appear to show that Heron had lived and worked in St Louis, possibly as a store porter and later clerk, and definitely from 1883 in the liquor business working for A M Hellman & Co, one of the largest companies in the Southern states, “renowned” according to the press, “for its best brands of whiskey” (Heron was an old friend of Lewis Hellman, and would return to St Louis from Memphis to act as a pall bearer at his funeral in 1901). Pour Southern Comfort Original, sweet and sour mix, orange juice, pineapple juice, grenadine, and ice into a blender. Blend until smooth, pour into a glass, and garnish with the orange wedge and cherry. Is Southern Comfort gluten free? Produced using neutral spirit and over 100 ingredients, 'Soco' matures for eight months prior to bottling. It is today enjoyed as America’s “Take it easy Drink”.The post war years saw grain supplies to distillers further disrupted by the demands of the Marshall Plan to send foodstuffs to a hungry Europe ravaged by war – some, including Merchants Distilling, used potatoes to distil alcohol. New and old grain based whiskey was in increasingly short supply. In spite of these potential obstacles sales of Southern Comfort continued to grow apace during the war years, and one might speculate that the introduction of the new 1941 war-proof formulation was when whiskey was first dropped from the Southern Comfort recipe to be replaced by grain neutral spirit and a whiskey flavouring, a fact that only became general public knowledge following the acquisition of the brand by Sazerac in 2016. Southern Comfort was created in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1874 by a bartender named Martin Wilkes Heron. According to evidence filed in a tax dispute in 1945 Fowler (quite likely with the chemist Holzmark) had discovered a ‘secret formula’ in 1934 for a flavouring that could be used to produce Southern Comfort. Whisky for the compound was provided by the Merchants Distilling Corporation of Terre Haute, Indiana. In 1941 a new flavouring concentrate, “a superior one in that it could be mixed by anyone and did not require ingredients made non-obtainable by the war” was created following a year’s research and development, by Fowler’s eldest son, Francis Fowler III, whilst working for Caligrapo. Caligrapo (now owned jointly by Fowler’s three sons) retained the rights to the recipe and was contracted to supply the concentrate to what was now the Southern Comfort Corporation, the name ‘Midland Distilleries’ having fallen foul of the law. Caligrapo continued to supply the concentrate up until the acquisition of the brand by the Brown-Forman Corporation in 1979, who also acquired Fowler’s secret formula. Heron moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 1889, patented his creation, and began selling it in sealed bottles with the slogan "None Genuine But Mine" [8] and "Two per customer. No Gentleman would ask for more." Southern Comfort won the gold medal at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. Southern Comfort 100 Proof is a perfect end to the Nashville Tailgate Taste Test. You’ll always drink it to taste it, but you’ll never want to drink more than you can handle.