Drink Review: Southern Comfort 100 Proof

Higher-strength, deluxe version of Southern Comfort, this smooth liqueur is great for giving a bit of extra bite to any of the myriad cocktails that use it.

Southern Comfort 100 Proof Review:

One of the liqueurs that epitomized the Nashville Tailgate Taste Test was a 100 proof version of Southern Comfort. For those Americans with a distant, dusty memory of 1990s-era college keg parties, Southern Comfort is a brand of liqueur that, well, is sweet, whiskey-based, and… Southern. It’s also generally considered a “marital aid” for people who associate Southern Comfort with domestic violence. Sort of like a Midwestern drink, Johnnie Walker Black Label.

Southern Comfort 100 Proof is an intense, late-in-life update to a classic. It’s still sweet and whiskey-flavored, but with a much higher alcohol content and a complexity that borders on shocking.

Southern Comfort 100 Proof has a lot going on. For the uninitiated, the use of 100 Proof means that you’re not looking at a sweet drink that tastes like something Grandma would knock back with her knitting. Rather, the booze shows up in a big way, as the kick of Southern Comfort 100 Proof really is up there with the major spirits.

And yet… there’s complexity here. Immensely ripe notes of dark fruit and whiskey marry perfectly in the glass, and the burn that comes with the higher proof is there, but well-difled. Sipping Southern Comfort 100 Proof is a very pleasant experience – it feels like the sort of smooth, warm, strong drink that you could sneak drink after drink of, until you couldn’t tell whether you were walking or still sitting.

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.

You know, the kind of chocolate that you want to bite into instead of drink.

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.

Southern Comfort 100 Proof Review:

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.

Re-Drinkability: Southern Comfort 100 Proof solves the classic “Liqueur You Don’t Want to Drink Much of, or a Cocktail You Want to Drink Too Much of?” problem.

Southern Comfort 100 Proof Review:

Re-Drinkability: 100 Proof Original is a perfect cocktail check-out line energizer. Sip it slowly, and you’ll have to step a bit more carefully, but the pleasant buzz you start with will make the whole process a lot less painful.

Southern Comfort 100 Proof is probably the most expertly done, expertly designed liqueur in the world. Its balance is unbelievable, and it’s so much more elegant than its cousin. Southern Comfort 100 Proof is very drinkable, just like its lower-proof cousin… but it’s so much smarter than that cousin that it borders on being dangerous. Southern Comfort 100 Proof is flat-out one of the best liqueurs the world has to offer, and it’s a pity that most Americans are too young to know that.

Southern Comfort 100 Proof Review:

Southern Comfort 100 Proof, 100 Proof is a classic. It’s a tiny little, square bottle of solid proof that you won’t realize just how devastatingly powerful it is until you’re in that stupidly out of control state when you think you can still drink it like you were drinking something just-mildly-spirited the night before. It’ll get you again, too. It’s one of those liquors that’s so expertly designed that you won’t even know how you got to a point where you’re dancing around the living room at 2:00 PM, wondering why there’s broken glass all over the floor.