Upon opening it had a sweet chocolate and coffee cake like smell as well as some nutty hoppy smell like an amber but not quite as fragrant. Taste is pretty delicious. Taste of dark chocolate expresso, coffee cake with brown sugar (Like the one the School used to make :P), caramel mocha, vanilla, bourbon, cherries, slight rapberry, biscuit bread, dark fruits like figs and plums like with some earthy hop bitterness. The aftertaste is like almonds, hazelnut or peanuts but bitter chocolate and coffee in the background. I give this beer a lot of credit. It does good to hide the alcohol all too well but also has a great balance with bitter and sweets. Overall a damn good beer if you can find it. A recommended for Porters or Stout lovers 😛