“Aromatic toasted coffee notes with hints of cinnamon waffle and rich maple syrup..”

Glassware: Snifter.

Appearance: Impenetrable black with a wispy brown overlay. It all disappears bar a bubbly island which hangs around. It somehow leaves a beautiful cascading lace though.

Aroma: Smells absolutely amazing! The structural scent which we don’t even see on the label is chilli peppers but they’re perfectly passed off as cinnamon, licorice and paprika. We even get more subtle hints of nutmeg and cumin as well. Maple, coffee and oatmeal pale in comparison to the levels of spice going on. It’s incredible but we wish they dialled the spice back a bit.

Flavour: Hot damn. Like the aroma it’s definitely spice-driven but it’s backed up with robust coffee and lightly smoked malt. The cinnamon cuts through but the maple is unfortunately missing. Mixed spice continues in to a slightly bitter finish with charred malts going the distance on the back palate.

Mouthfeel: Slightly thin for the style. Dry and kinda course texture. Low Co2. 7.5% ABV shows its hand a little.

Overall: Surprisingly unrefined for Mikkeller. Way too much spice and little balance on show. Thankfully we have the imperial version still to come. Let’s hope there’s more joy there.