A bottle of Southern Comfort, The Grand Old Drink of the South, bottled at 43% ABV in the 1980s.

Southern Comfort is American whisky liqueur which can trace its history back to 1874. It was originally created by bartender Martin Wilkes Heron at McCauley's Tavern in the Lower Garden District of the French Quarter of New Orleans. Ownership of this brand returned to its native New Orleans with the Sazerac company in 2018. 

In an episode of The Thirsty Traveler entitled "A River of Whiskey", spirits historian Chris Morris describes the original recipe of Southern Comfort. Heron began with good-quality bourbon and would add:

An inch of vanilla bean, about a quarter of a lemon, half of a cinnamon stick, four cloves, a few cherries, and an orange bit or two. He would let this soak for days. And right when he was ready to finish, he would add his sweetener: he liked to use honey.

The original brand closed during Prohibition and was reopened afterward by Francis Fowler. Brown–Forman purchased the brand in 1979, in January 2016 Brown–Forman sold it to Sazerac Company.

Between the 1930s and 2010, the image on the label of Southern Comfort was A Home on the Mississippi, a rendering by Alfred Waud depicting Woodland Plantation, an antebellum mansion in West Pointe à la Hache, Louisiana, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and now provides bed-and-breakfast accommodation. In 2010 the plantation artwork was dropped from the label.