Highland Black Mocha Stout

Brewed by Highland Brewing Company
Style: Stout
Asheville, North Carolina USA

On tap. Pours black with small head. Average stout. Strong chocolate aroma. Very mild to weak flavor.

Black brown pour with a thin white head that fades to lacing quickly. Lightly roasty chocolate espresso aroma. Bitter coffee roast flavor, unsweetened chocolate, and a slight hop bite in the finish. Smooth, oily, medium body with soft carbonation.

12 ounce bottle- poured opaque black with a wheat head. Aroma seemed weak, almost absent. Taste was black coffee with just a hint of chocolate. This was a very thin bodied stout without the creamy texture of most of the mochas. I found it slightly disappointing, average at best.

Not as flavorful as, say, a Rogue Chocolate Stout, but very good none the less. I didn’t notice any bitterness and to me it seemed very sweet. Just enough coffee and chocolate flavor without tasting like something from Starbucks.

Opaque black appearance, quickly disappearing head. Strong coffee flavor and scent (good chocolate flavor too). Little to no after taste.... impressive.

Bottle in Atlanta and what a great stout. Chocolate and coffee hit your nose and the flavor is the same. Slight hops to balance a beautifully poured black beer. VERY NICE.

Bonus bottle from kp on 1/10/2008/ Pour thin and black with rapidly fading head. Roasty chocolatey aroma. Maybe a bit of espresso. Taste is mild of some roasted barley and some chocolate. Dryish. Medium body. Pretty good and smooth and sessionable, but in general I prefer stronger sweeter beers. Just a preference. This one was well done for the style.

Kicking off my 2008 spring vacation with this one. 12 oz Bottle.

Appearance: Black like good coffee. No light getting through this thing. Thin lacing of a tan head, fizzles out even thinner as it sits. Appealing.

Aroma: Need to wait for it to warm up a little! Right off the bat, French-roasted espresso beans and semisweet dark chocolate. Mild classic hops lurk under the coffee-and-cocoa surface, followed by a twist of caramel and straw.

Flavor: Nice! A good thorough bitterness that continues to hearken to 70% cocoa dark chocolate and good gourmet coffee. A nice semisweet twist near the end rounds out the picture, and those mild hops keep it interesting. Excellent!

Palate: Quite pleasing. Silky and just a touch oily, much like fresh coffee beans. Just spritzy enough to not feel flat.

Overall: Another clear winner from the good folks at Highland. I’ve got one more of these with me that I owe it to myself to save and have with my scallops & shrimp. This is an excellent American stout and all-around enjoyable quaff. Bravo.