Spicy Spirits: Southern Comfort Fiery Pepper

Last week I attended a launch party for Southern Comfort Fiery Pepper, a new extension to the SoCo brand, held at Neely’s BBQ Parlor. 

So how was it? Straight up, the flavor is on the sweet side (as is regular SoCo), and reminded me of Red-Hot candies, but it has a familar, vinegary Tabasco twang on the finish. I suspect this one will find a broad spectrum of drinkers. It’s not very spicy, it has just a hint of naughty sizzle, which nearly disappears when mixed into drinks.

It went down particularly easy mixed in the “Burnt Lemon” cocktail:  SoCo Pepper, turbinado sugar, and homemade lemonade, garnished with a candied lemon peel.

For me, the big surprise of the evening wasn’t the spirit — but rather, the discovery that Neely’s has a cigar cellar, which was dark and refreshingly chill after the crush of BBQ-hungry hordes upstairs. If I didn’t have dinner plans afterwards, I might have lingered to try the cigar-and-SoCo Pepper pairing offered.

I have to call out the soundtrack for the evening, too:  “Hot and Cold” by Katy Perry; “Burning Down the House” by The Talking Heads. “Hot Stuff” by Donna Summer. Whoever put together the playlist sure had a lot of fun, and I stuck around for an extra drink just to see what song would come up next.