Southern Comfort will soon add whiskey into its recipe.
As reported by the New York Times, the historic brand plans to roll out a new-and-improved version in July that will feature the spirit most people already assume it contains.
Instead, SoCo gets its alcohol oomph not from whiskey but from a neutral grain spirit. The whiskey taste derives from a mixture of fruit and spice flavorings.
Motivation behind the recipe change is to refresh how consumers think of the brand. SoCo was “in danger of losing a lot of relevance in the minds of consumers,” said Kevin Richards, senior marketing director of Southern Comfort, in the NYTimes article.
The goal is for consumers to view SoCo as a whiskey and not a liqueur, Richards added.
The revamped SoCo will include a redesigned label and bottle, and a new 80-proof version. Flavored variants like cherry, lime and caramel will be discontinued and phased out.
Last year, the brand was purchased from Brown-Forman by Sazerac.
