Dark brown with a frothy, tan head. Aroma of milk chocolate and vanilla promises a dessert beer. Taste follows for the most part—sweet up front with a mild, roasted bitterness on the backside. Mild cherry pop at the end. Medium-bodied, smooth. Not a huge amount of depth, but quite pleasant enough even with the lactose and cocoa additives in firm control of things.

330ml bottle – Pours a dark brown colour with a large mostly lasting foamy beige head. Aroma is chocolatey, roasted malts and cocoa. A moderate to light sweet chocolatey taste, roasted sweet malts and milk chocolate flavours with a bitter chocolate finish.

Backlog January 2019. Clear dark brown, almost black body under a thin beige head. Aroma of dark malt, chocolate and cocoa. Taste is sweet and mostly chocolate and sweet malt with a mild cocoa flavor in the background. Fine body and nice aftertaste. Not bad at all.

330ml bottle, from the fridge but left for 30 minutes to warm up. Pours black, small slightly fizzy beige head, good retention; looks nice. Aroma of lightly roasted coffee beans, dark chocolate and lots of lactose; more subtle and milky in aroma than I was expecting. Still inviting. Taste has a more noticeable slightly bitter coffee note, lactose, chocolate nibs. Quite dry and moderately bitter in the finish. Texture is smooth with a moderate to full body and soft carbonation. This works well. Overall a tasty beer, quite subtle, not full on like some flavoured porters and stouts, but this makes a nice change.

bottiglia 33 cl, schiuma fine color cappuccino persistente, colore marrone intenso quasi nero, al naso caramello cacao caffè vaniglia, in bocca da il meglio è cremosa cioccolato al latte vaniglia caffè, carbonazione piatta, oily, corpo rotondo, watery, dolce con amaro moderato. Ottima. Non invadente, equilibrata. Da sorseggiare con calma c. Cantina della Birra 29.05.20

Cocoa-flavoured porter from the brewery that basically kick-started the craft beer revolution in merry old England, longneck bottle from Geers with a label in unmistakable Thornbridge style. Thick and frothy, thickly papier maché-like lacing, very mousy, yellowish pale beige, stable head on a very dark chocolate brown beer with initially near-clear burgundy red hue visible at the edges. Aroma of 'fondant' chocolate bars but also quite some 'koetjesreep', 'Haagse hopjes', cappuccino, coffee cream, toasted hazelnuts, pecan nut cake, old raisins, dried rosemary, hard caramel, dried figs, 'blood'-like natural iron, sugared tea, black peppercorns, hints of old cinnamon and faded vanilla beans as well as nutmeg, burnt toast and rubber. Sweetish onset, rounded with hints of prunes, raisins and dried dates, very light sourish undertone, softish carbonation; smooth, oily, rounded body, toffeeish and pecan-nutty malts quickly superseded by a dark-chocolatey effect in which the chocolate malt and added cocoa nibs merge together almost seamlessly. This clean, dark, full and focused malt profile leads to a coffee grounds-like bitter roastiness in the end, but in a very mild, soft-edged, restrained way, indeed consistently profiling itself as a (modern era) porter rather than a stout, even if this black coffee-like roasted bitter note persists and lingers about longer than anything else - yet, as said, in a very gentle way. The cocoa nibs probably constitute a portion of this 'end bitterness' as well, and so does a 'deep', soft hop bitter accent - but I hasten to add that it is in this case clearly the malts and the cocoa nibs that stay in charge of this whole beer, with a blood-like iron effect resonating as well. Round, soft, sweet, chocolatey without going into overdrive - this reminds me a bit of the legendary Young's Double Chocolate Stout, dating back to an era when flavoured stouts and porters were still very rare and unique. Very old school, this chocolate porter, more so than I was expecting even - apparently Thornbridge's style has hardly (if at all) evolved in the past ten to fifteen years... This is more old-fashioned than I was expecting, I can imagine this being popular fifteen years ago in absence of a great many alternatives, but in the year 2020 it does feel a bit, well, outdated. Technically very well made, though, the cocoa nibs shine through with enough magnitude, and the basic beer indeed remains a soft, toffeeish and only mildly coffeeish, Samuel Smith-ish porter, just like they promised. Nice, but restrained and perhaps a tad too metallic, so it probably would not be my first choice chocolate porter when in England, if any more highly profiled alternatives from the many heirs of Thornbridge are available...

Bottle, smallish head, very dark brown color, pronounced cocoa presence, mellow chocolate presence, some earthy notes, mellow sweetness, medium bodied, very nicely balanced. Highly enjoyable.