330ml can. Pours deep red brown. Caramel, biscuit, figs, raisins, dates, quite bready. Medium body. Fine. Was expecting something a bit more exciting.

Bottle. Amber with a pale beige head that's soon less than a coat. Aroma is quite English with dried and stewed fruit, bread crust and spices. A little whiff of cardboard. Disappointingly thinner than suggested by the aroma with little richness in the malt. But the fruit doesn't detract from the almost stern malt that comes before decent and quite spicy bitterness. Is it just slightly astringent there or is that suggestion brought on by reading the ingredients? OK, not half as exotic as it sounds.