Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 8

Bottle from London Beer Lab. A murky brown-black in hue with a thick, lasting beige head. Lovely, heady aroma of tropical fruits. Quite thick and oily in the mouth but a little powdery too - almost like powdered hot chocolate that hasn’t dissolved properly. Unusually for a modern IPA, the taste is even better than the smell. There’s a big aggressive bitter hop kick up front, but the bitterness fades to reveal a delicious mix of chocolate, lime, mango and clementine. Little bit of pine and spice too, but chocolate and tropical fruit are the main themes. Lots of chocolate in fact- good to see a black IPA that actually has the malt showing up amongst all the shouty hops. There’s a hint of warming alcohol in the finish but again it doesn’t detract from those main themes. Overall it’s a delicious, tasty, well-balanced brew that just needs the texture refining a bit to make it truly great.