The nose starts with a light coffee aroma reminiscent of stale Folgers left from the previous day’s batch then chocolate nibs, light fruit of orange peel, and light barrel spices with no ethanol bite. The taste is a thin mouthfeel starting with coffee, chocolate nibs, then orange peel and light spices with light ethanol burn that finishes short with stale coffee with chalky undissolved powdered creamer. So drinking this neat, it is flawed with the coffee flavors overpowering the whiskey notes to the point that it feels like just another coffee liqueur and not a coffee/whiskey blend. I’m a big fan of combining whiskey with coffee, but this doesn’t accomplish that balance of roast coffee notes mixing with fruits and barrel spices of the whiskey. So if you’re stuck with a bottle and don’t enjoy this neat, I might have a possible concoction that might solve the conundrum of how to finish this bottle without utilizing it as drain cleaner. I took the remainder of my sample, made a 1:1 ratio with chocolate milk, added a few frozen cherries, tablespoon of maple syrup, ice and stirred which then transformed this into a very enjoyable cold cherry mocha with some maple syrup richness. 1.0 neat, 4.0 for the cocktail. Thanks @PBMichiganWolverine for the generous sample.