Tesco Need to Leave the Price Alone! (Spirit of Louisiana)

Member Name: DavyMichelle

Product:	Spirit of Louisiana
Date:	08/07/09 (168 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Affordable, Decent Taste, Lovely Smell

Disadvantages: Not Quite Southern Comfort, Recent Price Hike

Spirit of Louisiana was a brilliant bargain buy up until its recent price hike. Up until very recently, it cost around £7.99 for a 70cl bottle of whiskey liqueur. Compared to £17.25 for a 70cl bottle of Southern Comfort, that was a real bargain! Unfortunately, the price has now crept up to £9.99 per bottle of Spirit of Louisiana, and at that price I'm not so enthusiastic about this product.

When I first tried this, it was obviously as a cheaper alternative to Southern Comfort. I thought this had a lovely strong smell that really whet my taste buds before I'd even had a sip. On tasting it for the first time, I found that the taste was strong, smooth and with a lovely twist of flavouring. This is a little sweeter than Southern Comfort is, with a bit less of an orange twist to it, and a narrower array of spices.

The texture isn't quite as thick as Southern Comfort is, but I'm not entirely sure why as they both have a 35% alcohol content. The original Southern Comfort definitely has a much spicier, thicker taste and texture to it than this impersonater does.

When you mix Southern Comfort with a mixer like cola or lemonade, it retains its flavour through the taste of the mixer. When you mix Spirit of Louisiana, it gets a little drowned and watered down really. You can still taste the spirit, it's just not very strong when mixed. I'd definitely recommend against mixing this with lemonade, as the flavour you get is pretty much just sugar. At least when you mix it with cola you get a bit of a spice coming through.

I've got nothing against this on the whole. It's quite nice, it's got a really lovely smell to it and the texture and taste is very pallatable. But it's not quite on par with the original Southern Comfort, and I don't think much to the recent dramatic price hike. At £7.99 it was a no brainer for me, I'd choose Spirit of Louisiana every time for the sake of saving a whole £10. Now the price is creeping up, I think it'll be a case of what mood I'm in as to which brand I buy.

Summary: Recommended