It actually smells quite amazing and on target. Just smelling this recalls pleasant memories of Winter with gingerbread lingering in the air. Granted you can smell the sweeteners and additives so as an experienced drinker I can also smell the headache from next morning but it's so overpoweringly pleasant I still looked forward to drinking this. There is just the faintest glint of ethanol in the smell but you really have to look deep for it. It tastes much more like syrup than flavored vodka though. Seriously, it almost has the texture of watered down syrup, which, in some ways, isn't an inaccurate representation of what this is. It doesn't quite taste like it smells either. I'd say it's closer to vanilla extract, caramel (artificial), simple syrup and Torani Hazelnut with vodka crashing the party at the last minute manifesting itself in a bitter, lingering aftertaste. If I didn't know what it was supposed to be I'd guess the flavor they were going for is caramel toffee and I'd wager I was just given some rather cloying holiday liqueur than a flavored vodka. Aside from the bitter finish there is almost no indication this is an alcoholic beverage. It's impossible to drink this stuff by itself. It's overwhelmingly sweet and sugary. You feel guilty for drinking it because there's no way all that sugar is good for you. I struggled finishing my glass just because of how much of a sugar overload it was. Still, as a mini this works wonders for seamlessly spiking your Starbucks drink and I can see it doing some work baking or for Holiday party mixes. So it has its niche which bumps this up an extra half star. Not terrible but it is quite excessive and decadent, so hard to recommend by itself.