Kahlúa (26.5%)

Rating: 15/23 N: Sour, funky, rich, mature, complex, sweet. It's sort of like a deeply sherried (mainly PX) malt whiskey. I get this roasted coffee scent with dark (70%) chocolate. The fruits are dark cherries, plums, raisins, blackberries. I smell the tart rich alcohol. This isn't incredibly complex, but it is substantially more complex than regular, modern Kahlúa. It's very much on the hedonistic side. P: Sour, bitter, sweet, rich, old. Very interesting, there's a bit of a fermented flavor, sort of like kombucha, but also some really nice medium roast coffee with some amazing rich qualities. I get roasted coffee beans and 70% dark chocolate. The fruits cIt kind of makes me think of rich, well-aged scotch like Glenfarclas 25 but it's more like some of that Kavalan Soloist Port Cask richness with its sweetness and tartness that makes you need to drown it in water to avoid being consumed. It's surprisingly complex with a fascinating character that makes it great to sip slowly. The flavor isn't as heavy-handed as that of a fresh bottle of Kahlúa or Kahlúa Especial. It's much more complex and interesting. This is still very sweet, but less aggressively so and far more balanced. F: The bit of rough, chalky sugar does linger. The complexity isn't as great here, but there's still a nice balance of dark fruits and those chocolate and coffee flavors. The aged alcohol tartness that reminds me so much of Kavalan Soloist port is substantially reduced. As for the fruits, I get dark cherry primarily now and not really much else. It's still a pretty nice finish. This is more complex than Kahlúa Especial, with a higher quality rum flavor to its base and a nice sour coffee on the light side of a medium roast. I'd give it the edge over regular Kahlúa as well with its fascinating character, complexity, rich depth, restrained syrupiness, and lack of that overwhelming confectioner's sugar character. I'd say that this is a huge improvement and while it isn't amazing, it is fascinating to analyze and contemplate. It's tough to guess what the original flavor was since this has actually been opened for something like 30 years (probably more, actually), but it tastes good now and I have little hope of finding an unopened bottle, so I have to rate based on what I have. I'm thinking of starting around a 15. Maybe it doesn't quite deserve that, but maybe it's even better. I'm guessing it's a 14 to 17. 15 and 16 seem most likely.