“The origins of this recipe take us back to the late nights of 1980’s, where a famous model asked London bartender, Dick Bradel, to create a drink that would wake her up. Rich coffee, smooth vanilla & luxurious dark chocolate, blended together to accent the stouts dark chocolate malt flavours. Café, vanille et chocolat? Dans une bière? Merci Mademoiselle!”

Glassware: Snifter.

Appearance: Solid black with two fingers of well retained foam resting atop. Nice hold and healthy lace work as we imbibe.

Aroma: At first meet the espresso martini element isn’t really what we’d hoped for. Yes, the coffee, dark chocolate and vanilla is there but it has this strange earthy quality which somewhat taints it all. We’re also picking up a bit of a fruity accent as well…a bit like glazed cherry. Which isn’t a bad thing of course but we wanted an espresso martini in beer form *bangs fists on table like a bratty child*

Flavour: Nope. It’s all just wrong. And why the hell is it so bitter?! Where’s the smooth, creamy and self gratifying vanilla, coffee and chocolate? For God’s sake how hard can it be to duplicate the basic flavours of this cocktail! Granted, the bitterness does start to diminish the longer it settles but the flavour profile is so far from what we were after. Very disappointing.

Mouthfeel: Garbage. The texture is rigid and watery and the bitterness is simply unwelcome. The body seems deflated but the Co2 is ok…at least they got that right.

Overall: So if our feelings aren’t already clear we didn’t like this beer. Honestly this is our 3rd or 4th espresso martini spin off we’ve tried and not one brewery has got it right yet. Why is it so damn hard? We don’t get it.