Southern Comfort tweaks recipe to include whiskey

For some people, music is the medium that conjures up memories of a certain time or place. For others it’s food, with the sight and smell of a favorite dish transporting us to a time that’s long since passed.

Whenever I see a bottle of Southern Comfort, I’m taken back to the nightclub days of my 20s when I couldn’t really afford top-shelf drinks but still wanted to party like a rock star. For a bargain booze, this stuff is very approachable — especially if you have a sweet tooth, thanks to the addition of fruit concentrate and extra sugar.

But one of the biggest misconceptions SoCo fans have is that this stuff is whiskey. It’s not. Originally developed by New Orleans-­based bartender Martin Wilkes Heron, Southern Comfort is actually a whiskey-flavored liqueur that’s been made since the 1970s using grain-neutral spirit, another term for distillate that is essentially vodka. A change in ownership from Brown-Forman to the Sazerac Co. in 2016 put into motion a plan to resuscitate the brand and bring it in line with the current worldwide whiskey craze.

In July, Sazerac introduced a new, 80-proof version of Southern Comfort with updated packaging — and most important, a new recipe that included actual whiskey. It’s not as cloyingly sweet as SoCo’s original 70-proof juice, yet doesn’t burn the throat as much as the 100-proof version that has also been updated to now include actual whiskey.

“The true roots of (Southern Comfort) lie in whiskey, and with the new 80-proof Black Label, we’re embracing that,” said Kevin Richards, senior marketing director for the brand. “Southern Comfort … (was) born in New Orleans, one of the most soulful cities on Earth. Everything we do moving forward will reinforce that critical connection, celebrating the city and the brand’s uniqueness and spirited character.”

Find Southern Comfort at just about any retail location for $15-$20 per bottle.

Visit southerncomfort.com.