GODIVA Chocolate Liqueur

Rating: 13/23 N: This has a more earthy, smoky nose than Van Meer's does. It's a more genuine chocolate scent, though it may be a tad less approachable. I do get some alcohol on the nose and it's a bit bitter and off, though it isn't too bad. P: Similarly viscous to Van Meer's, which is a bit of a disappointment because I was expecting a richer, more syrupy drink. It tastes milky like Van Meer's, but the chocolate is richer and more authentic, though it disappointingly isn't really fuller. Also disappointingly, some of the bitterness melds into the vodka this was made from. The chocolate flavor is solid, but the vodka throws it off. There is a waft of cereal that brings in a little bit of unsolicited mineral lightness and the complexity is not balanced because the nice chocolate flavor is fighting with the alcohol. F: The chocolate remains more than the vodka does, aside from the vodka's bitterness, which actually works well. It's a disappointingly light finish though. It mostly just kind of fades out to kind of a watery milk flavor with a bit of chocolate. This is fine. It's better than Van Meer's Chocolate, but it's not something I'd really enjoy just sitting around and drinking. The key failing here is that the chocolate flavor isn't full enough. I suspect that this is because chocolate is expensive and it takes some work to make it stand out with alcohol mixed in, but I think that cost-cutting is probably the biggest factor here. Considering the low ABV, it's quite surprising how thin this is. Its flavor isn't as full and compelling as Sheelin White Chocolate's is, sadly. This is kind of in that same zone with Disaronno, where I really want to like it a lot more, but I don't. It isn't quite as good as Bailey's. I'm in the 12 to 13 range for this one. I think it's kind of right between Disaronno and Bailey's in terms of how much I'd like to drink it (even though I'm not sure what to do with it), so I'm giving it a 13.

This smells oddly meaty and sour. Tasting it, it isn't aggressively creamy, but to does have its own perspective. It tastes sort of like chocolate mixed with sour evaporated milk which is not a good outcome. The overly sweet Van Meer's is still obviously overly sweet, but this has a host of other issues. It's a bit sour, which is not a flavor associated with chocolate when it has a cheesy umami sense to it, so the result is an ineffective attempt to combat Van Meer's syrupy sweetness. Compared with Tolon Tolon Chocolate, this is less aggressively bitter and also less spicy. Despite the rotten flavors here this is tastier than Tolon Tolon Chocolate. This looks more like chocolate than Tolon Tolon Chocolate does: it's way less green. The palate is smoky like a nice campfire with sweetness and creaminess that balance well. The smoke has this odd sort of Ghirardelli quirkiness to it, but it isn't bad. It does taste a bit artificial like Van Meer's does in that regard. It's a reasonable chocolate flavor mixed with kind of sweet smoke and maybe some toasted marshmallows. It's sort of a toasted marshmallow fudge flavor. Has anyone tried such a thing? Tolon Tolon Chocolate has a slightly creamier mouthfeel, but it has these weirdly bitter herbal flavor and some out of place spiciness. Godiva's out of place smoke, on the other hand, is more hedonistic in a fancy sort of way. This fights to be better than Van Meer's Chocolate, but the fact that it's fighting indicates that it is way overpriced.

Delicious. Tastes just like Godiva chocolate. I mix it with Skrewball to make a Reeces Peanut Butter cup drink.

You can never go wrong with anything Godiva...