Deep, pitch black coloured body with a nice, three centimetre tall rich brown head that fades quickly (and looks crazy when it dies, given that the small bubbles fade like soda), but leaves behind a very telling and pungent, jet black glow with an oily top. Aroma of roasted malt, vanilla, light icing sugar, some very subdued coffee (on the lighter side of the roast scale, as in 'city') with a softer molasses and pure caramelised sugar flavour with a very soft bitterness towards the end, but in a good way. Medium to perhaps even Full-bodied; Strong rich malt flavours dominate with the roasted malt, molasses, star anise, nutmeg and especially allspice noticeable throughout with a large malt backbone, but bunches of flavours and a really robust yeasty finish that hits precisely. Aftertaste shows the grass, dry, herbs and especially spice characteristic from this, balanced out by some strong malt and alcohol throughout. Overall, a very enjoyable true stous that shows more of an Export Styled / Foreign Stout than anything else, but pungent with the punch and alcohol coming through at the very end. I sampled this pints-ized, 473 mL can purchased from the [late] New Beer Distributors in New York, New York on 10-June-2017 for US$4,25 sampled just two years later on 21-September-2019 at home in Washington, missing the best beer store in New York.