In drinking news (the most important news, let’s face it), Brown-Forman is selling that American classic, Southern Comfort, to the Sazerac Company for $543.5 million (and throwing in Tuaca, an Italian liqueur, as part of the deal). For despite the increase in U.S. consumption of whiskey and bourbon, sales of SoCo have been in decline. Is this because we are looking for authentic whiskies and Southern Comfort isn’t considered one? Because it’s not—it is, in fact, a liqueur. Who knew?
I’d always thought of Southern Comfort as a whiskey. It’s brown and comes from the South (New Orleans, to be exact). But as drinks historian Chuck Cowdery related to the Huffington Post, the recipe, as he recalls, involves “grain neutral spirit, sugar, and a fruit concentrate in which the dominant fruit is apricot.”
But it sure seemed like whiskey, especially in the hands of Janis Joplin. The Queen of Psychedelic Soul had many uses for Southern Comfort, as related by Stephen Davis in his biography of Jim Morrison:
Obviously this is not the kind of connection a company wants consumers to make with its brand. And, to Brown-Forman’s credit, Southern Comfort landed a much classier spokesman: Danny McBride, aka Kenny Powers. (This assumes, of course, you are a fan of Kenny. But who isn’t, with lines like: “Sure, I’ve been called a xenophobe, but the truth is, I’m not. I honestly just feel that America is the best country and the other countries aren’t as good. That used to be called patriotism.”) Heck, I just might do a SHOTTASoCo right now.
According to Tripp Mickle of the Wall Street Journal, “In acquiring Southern Comfort, privately-held Sazerac is picking up a well-known global brand. It believes it can revive Southern Comfort sales as it continues to expand sales of Fireball, which has become one of the world’s fastest-growing brands.” Just don’t ask McBride to do ads for Fireball, a cinnamon-flavored whiskey. He may just flee to Mexico.
