Bottle sample at a tasting at the Beer & Beyond shop. Thanks Tom. Dark brown to black with a bit of light brown foam. Lovely powerful chocolate spread aroma. Sweetish roasty flavor with chocolate, a bit of coffee, light acidity and a drier and slightly bitter finish. Medium-bodied. Decent, but the flavor doesn’t match the great aroma.

Nearly black, with a short, but thick brown head. Aroma is chocolate, cream. Flavour is slightly bitter milk chocolate, vanilla cream...malt. A substitute for dessert. Excellent....and feeling.

Chocolate vibe here is partway between bitter and milk. It’s nice - well-balanced, roasty malt and stimulating. Leaves bittersweet. Nice black colour, head. Among the better Harpoons. Bottle.

Refrigerated 12 oz. bottle enjoy by date May 15, 2013, set on the counter for a bit poured into a shaker. Pours black with dark brown hightlights and small beige head. A little lacing, medium body, medium carbonation, and light dry chocolate aroma. Taste is roasty, chocolate, ash, and herbal hops. This is a pretty good beer, but the ash is a big negative for me.

It pours a pitch black yielding the same color body. A foamy level brown head appears, closer to an off-white to the top of the head and gets darker closer to the body. The head is about an inch and slowly dies to a beautiful film leaving some nice speckled lacing around the sides of the pint glass. The smell is roasty sweet between milk chocolate, coffee and malts. The taste is exactly the same with a bit of light vanilla as the beer warms. The palate is about a medium and a bit watery, leaving nothing harsh on the tongue. Overall, this was a good milk/sweet stout that I would come back to.

12 ounce bottle into pint glass, best before 3/15/2013. Pours clear almost pitch black color with a 1 finger fairly dense mocha head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Spotty soapy lacing clings to the glass. Aromas of big milk chocolate, chocolate syrup, toffee, vanilla bean, light roasted malt, caramel, and light coffee. Very nice aromas with big chocolate notes and nice balance. Taste of milk chocolate, vanilla bean, caramel, toffee, roasted malt, toast, coffee, and light cream. Slight coffee bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of milk chocolate, vanilla, caramel, toast, toffee, roasted malt, and coffee on the finish for a good bit. Good flavor balance with a fair amount of robustness; but it feels a little watered down for a stout; zero cloying flavors are present after the finish. Medium carbonation and body; with a fairly creamy and slick mouthfeel that is ok; feels a bit thin. Alcohol is very well hidden with only a slight warming noticed after the finish. Overall this is a good sweet stout. Fairly robust with nice chocolate dessert flavor; and very smooth to drink. A nicely enjoyable offering.

A - deep black chocolate color. Minimal head. S - toffee. Cream, chocolate, some raisin as well. T - dark malts. Lots of candy characteristics like toffee, caramel and chocolate. Some figs and some creaminess. M - light bodied, mild carbonation. Delicious! O - surprisingly great. Something missing. Needs more stoutness. It’s just too drinkable.

Chocolate! The nose is all chocolate, dark chocolate, chocolate liquer. The flavor is more of a strong dark bitter chocolate, and really not much else which was a bit disappointing. There was little malt sweetness and without that, the beer seemed to be an exercise is creating a beer with all chocolate flavor. It had no backbone. Very dark brown-black and dark tan head, it looked nice.

Sample at the 4th Annual Coldest Day of the Year Stout Tasting on 01/21/2012: The beer pours a dark brown color with a medium light brown head that dissipates steadily. Short strings of lacing on the glass. Aroma of chocolate malt and roasted grain. Medium body with a chocolatey character and notes of roasty malt and bread. The finish is sweet with a cocoa aftertaste. Decent overall.