Rating: 8/23 N: I smell some coffee with some sour and faint roasted notes, but also a huge amount of confectioner's sugar. It's a surprisingly light nose, unfortunately, and it isn't very appealing. Still, it smells kind of syrupy and herbel, like root beer.. SBS, the regular kahlua actually has a more complex nose with extra earthy spiciness and some chocolate. This is oilier with more alcohol, but I might be getting a little bit more rum funk as well. The rum is really a bigger presence here, but I'm not sure that it's an improvement, over regular Kahlúa since it just increases the emphasis on the low-quality rum. Could be a good choice over ice cream though. P: Smooth, sweet, rich, roasty, then confectioner's sugar. It's syrupy and there's a bit of cinnamon and pepper as well as weird anise. There are faint suggestions of chocolate, but they're more like chocolate syrup. There really isn't much going on here though and the confectioner's sugar is quite powerful. I was hoping that there would be a stylistic difference that would make this closer to the old style of Kahlua, but tragically this tastes much more like modern Kahlua, but I guess with a bit more alcohol. Regular Kahlua is sweeter and more syrupy with less apparent alcohol, but it has more chocolate and fun spices to it, making it a bit tastier and helping to cover up the confectioner's sugar (well, at least until the finish). This is clearly emphasizing the rum more. It's less sweet with more wood and smoke, but also a lot more alcohol flavor. Sadly, the rum used here isn't very good. It would have been awesome to have a rum with personality in this like Plantation Xaymaca or just a solid choice like Appleton Estate. Unfortunately, this still isn't sippable, unlike the old style of Kahlua. Some sulfur does make its way in here. It's a bit less balanced and spicy and fun than regular Kahlúa. It's also kind of herbal, like Jagermeister, but with the bad, cola elements. At least regular Kahlúa is its own thing, but this just keeps reminding me of bad, syrupy rum. Maybe there's some tobacco in here too. F: Confectioner's sugar and chocolate with something a bit roasty, possibly with some of the tobacco. Rum, black licorice, and some cola. Not much happening here, sadly. It's a tough call between this and regular Kahlua which I would get. The price difference is trivial, but this is less complex so it isn't an obvious win with the higher ABV. In fact, usually I'm using Kahlua in a tiramisu to take to work, so more alcohol is actually worse. At least regular Kahlúa is its own, fun, sweet thing. The confectioner's sugar from the regular one is what gives me pause, but this really reminds me of low-quality syrupy rum mixed with Jagermeister and perhaps a bit of coffee. I think this deserves a 7 to 8. I'll give it an 8 right now. It's better than the generic stuff, but maybe I should still stick with the regular Kahlúa. What a disappointment