Vita Divine Hazelnut

Rating: 9/23 Bottle kill here. Finally. N: Sugar, clean river water, and also confectioner's sugar. There's some hazelnut adding richness and a reason for this to exist, but that's about all that's happening. P: Super sweet with hazelnut and confectioner's sugar. The hazelnut flavor is decent quality, but fairly weak. There isn't much complexity here, but that does mean it works well if all you really want is that hazelnut flavor and you can put up with the sweetness. F: Not a ton of confectioner's sugar, but there is some. Clean water. Sugar. Vaguely some hazelnut. - Conclusion - So I bought this for making confections. For that purpose, its primary flaw having too much of that confectioner's sugar profile is not a big deal. The lack of fullness, however, might be a bigger problem. If maybe needing to up the amount of this in your recipe (or possibly try boiling it down and then spiking it with vodka) isn't a problem, the hazelnut flavor is solid and it's a cheap bottle, so I'd recommend it for cooking. My rating, however, will be based on its drinkability - either neat or in some variety of cocktails. I only know of a couple of cocktails that call for hazelnut liqueur and none that I consider to be staples, so this rating is really going to be based on its drinkability. Which is not very good. I really don't enjoy drinking this. Pouring some over ice cream works pretty well, but just drinking it is not fun. I'm looking at a 9 to 10 here. I think It's going to be a 9.

Rating: 9/23 N: I get rich roasted hazelnuts with sweet, rich caramel, just like in praline. This is actually a really good nose P: The flavor is quite light with mineral and artificial caramel flavors, as well as a dash of confectioner's sugar. It does have some nuttiness that I think is hazelnut, but the alcohol also shows through. It's smooth at least, so it's not awful, but it doesn't compare with the richness of Disaronno (I don't have Frangelico here to make the obvious comparison). It's recognizable as being probably hazelnut liqueur, which is more than I can say about many other liqueurs. F: The lightness lingers alongside the nutty artificial caramel. It's actually an improvement over the palate at times because the lightness and alcohol start dropping out. The artificial character is emphasized at the beginning and end though. Side by side with Disaronno (because it's the closest other comparison point I have), both do show a fair amount of alcohol. Disaronna is richer with a more biting flavor from the almond and a caramel more approaching butterscotch (though it's still a hair artificial). I like the Disaronno better, but not way better. This has a more gentle, floral flavor. I fully expected this to be terrible, but it's actually not. I don't really like it, but it's better than I expected. I think a 9 is about right for this, but I can see a 10.

9: This tastes like alcohol and chemicals. The nose is rich and nutty but the palate tastes off and artificial. It does taste vaguely of hazelnut (though is is not that convincing). The flavor is mostly alcoholic and sweet rather than nutty. There is also a weird fruity element. I sure wouldn't sip this. It's usable in mixing, but is otherwise unpalatable.