Appearance: Very dark brown but transparent. The colour of weak black coffee or strong black tea. Aroma: Coffee essence, vanilla. Clean and sweet. Flavour and Texture: Sweet very mild black coffee with a hint of vanilla and brown sugar. I'm astonished, gobsmacked and appalled that there is no official Distiller note for this. Tia Maria is a classic liqueur that's been made since the 1930s - come on Distiller guys, get with it! Originally, this was made by a private company in Jamaica from locally grown beans, but those days are long gone. Since the early 2000s it has been made in Italy and the original strength of 31.5% has been dropped to a mere 20%. Hiss, boo. The brand has been on-sold by many owners and is now owned by Pernod-Ricard. It's a mere shadow of the mighty liqueur I remember from my university days in the 1970s. They used to have an advertising jingle that went: "Tia Maria gold and brown, drink it when the sun goes down" which we changed to "Tia Maria gold and brown, drink it until you fall down". Still pleasant as a mild coffee liqueur over shaved ice or ice-cream (and darn nice in a milkshake). I still occasionally like to spike my Coca-Coca with Tia Maria, lord forgive me. Nice, but it's not the animal it used to be. If it was still the old recipe I'd give it 3.5, but as it is ... "Average" : 78/100 (2.75 stars)