# What is Southern Comfort? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 7, 2001, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-southern-comfort/48827 "2001-01-07T06:18:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![adam420](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@adam420](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adam420)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-southern-comfort/48827/1 "2001-01-07T06:18:38Z")
I just drank some tonight… It tasted pretty palatable but when my friend handed me his cup of Southern Comfort he told me that this was the last of the bottle he bought that afternoon. Then he fell down. I thought it wouldn’t be safe to give him more booze so I helped myself to the rest of his cup. I had always assumed it was a brand of whiskey but it didn’t taste like whiskey. Tasted like some kind of schnapps or something? What is it? And what proof is it? ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-southern-comfort/48827/2 "2001-01-07T06:26:08Z")
You don’t want to know! ---
**Author:** ![galyean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f9ae1b/32.png) [@galyean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galyean)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-southern-comfort/48827/3 "2001-01-07T06:27:21Z")
It’s sold in 80 and 110 proof. Most liquor stores carry both versions. It’s whiskey…brown liquor…just real sweet. It’s often an introductory whiskey for those who haven’t quite acquired the taste or simply can’t stomach what most call “real” whiskeys. ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-southern-comfort/48827/4 "2001-01-07T06:30:17Z")
Whiskey plus molasses, I believe. And anything that helped kill Janis Joplin can’t be all bad! ---
**Author:** ![adam420](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@adam420](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adam420)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-southern-comfort/48827/5 "2001-01-07T06:36:28Z")
That’s actually pretty smooth stuff for 80 proof. I took two or three big pulls off it and it didn’t hurt that much, and it was warm taboot. Goes to show you never can tell, or so they say ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-southern-comfort/48827/6 "2001-01-07T06:36:35Z")
At’s sold in 80 or 100 proof. It is a liqueur made from whiskey flavored with peach and caramel among other things. ---
**Author:** ![dragonlady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@dragonlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragonlady)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-southern-comfort/48827/7 "2001-01-07T07:10:38Z")
I’m guessing “yucky” isn’t the answer you were looking for?? ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-southern-comfort/48827/8 "2001-01-07T08:38:21Z")
yucky? YUCKY!!?? SoCo is the Nectar of the Gods! How dare you demean that golden ambrosia? Why without SoCo, it’s barely worthwhile for the South to even exist. There would only be four good things to have ever come from the South: 1. Chicken fried steak 2. The Allman Brothers Band 3. Lynyrd Skynyrd 4. Something else that I don’t remember (Sorry, nothing personal, just a lifelong Bostonian here) ---
**Author:** ![Heath\_Doolin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Heath\_Doolin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heath_Doolin)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-southern-comfort/48827/9 "2001-01-07T09:07:25Z")
And I agree…SC is a wonderful drink on the rocks ---
**Author:** ![jjason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@jjason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjason)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-southern-comfort/48827/10 "2001-01-07T15:54:22Z")
southern is made from either necterines or oranges if my memory serves me right will check bottle and confirm ---
**Author:** ![Tzel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Tzel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzel)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-southern-comfort/48827/11 "2001-01-07T16:23:28Z")
Now, I’m no liquor lightweight. I’ll be the last to pick up a bottle of Schnappes at the liquor store, and I almost always prefer straight shots of liquor to mixed drinks, but nevertheless, I _love_ SoCo, sweetness and all. 1 oz of SoCo with 1/4 oz of lime juice is pure heaven. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-southern-comfort/48827/12 "2001-01-07T17:01:07Z")
Southern Comfort was/is a strong mixed drink using bourbon and peach brandy. You may still find the recipe in bar manuals. Somewhere along the way somebody got the idea to bottle the drink. Today Brown-Forman owns that company. ---
**Author:** ![peepthis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@peepthis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peepthis)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-southern-comfort/48827/13 "2001-01-07T21:19:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Doug Bowe \* > \*\*Somewhere along the way somebody got the idea to bottle the drink. Today Brown-Forman owns that company. \*\* According to [SoCo’s website](http://www.southerncomfort.com/our_story.asp), the liqueur was invented in 1874 when M.W. Heron developed it “in his bar near La Rue Bourbon in New Orleans and served it in traditional fashion from a whiskey barrel.” In 1889, "seeking greater fortune, M.W. Heron opens a bar near Beale Street in Memphis and begins bottling Southern Comfort and selling it for $2.50 a bottle. The original labels were signed by Heron himself and carried the phrase, “None genuine but mine.”’ It is indeed caramel and peach flavored, not oranged or nectarines as **jjason** stated. My own recommendation: pour it into your hot chocolate as a quick winter pick-me-up. ---
**Author:** ![kevja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@kevja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevja)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-southern-comfort/48827/14 "2001-01-07T22:31:40Z")
In my younger days I did a dab of drinking, and Southern Comfort was one of the first hard liquors I tried. Two “death wish” hangovers later I stopped. Yeah, I’ve had a couple of hangovers since then, but not like those. At a party I was at last week, someone was drinking the stuff. I haven’t had a drop in over 20 years, but just the smell of it made me a little queasy. ---
**Author:** ![Sue\_Duhnym](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@Sue\_Duhnym](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sue_Duhnym)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-southern-comfort/48827/15 "2001-01-08T02:29:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kevja \* > \*\*\ just the smell of it made me a little queasy. \*\* I’m right there with you and not just a _little_. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-southern-comfort/48827/16 "2001-01-08T04:45:05Z")
I hate the taste of peaches, so I don’t like it. If I want a girly drink, gimme Malibu Rum on the rocks with a squirt of lime or lemon.