Marks & Spencer Cheshire Chocolate Porter

Marks & Spencer
Brewed at Robinsons
Style: Porter
London, England

Serve in English pint, Stem glass

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bottle from M&S Bath. Surprisingly bright golden brown colour, doesn’t look like a porter at all. Sweet chocolatey nose. Very light-bodied, shy malty base with flavours of chocolate and shy hints of bitter hops in the finish. Lots of chocolate flavours going on. Not my cup of tea.

Bottle. Dark brown with a beige bubbly head. Aromas are chocolate and hazelnut syrup with caramel. Light lemon with medicinal notes. Flavours are sweet chocolate malts with coffee and hazelnut. Citrus with sickly smooth cheap chocolate. Artificial and cloying. Not great.

500ml bottle. Pours a slightly hazy dark copper. Not much on the nose, just a faint hint of milk chocolate with a bit of cream. Chocolate and cream feature in the taste as well, could have a bit more body on it, a bit watery infact.

Bottle from M&S Liverpool. Clear mid brown colour. Lasting cream coloured head. Milk choc aroma. Slightly bready and malty too. It’s got more milk choc in the mouth and swallow. A bit of a one trick pony to be honest. Just some milk choc flavour, which isn’t overly strong and some fairly bland malty beer underneath. No real hop on finish, bit of sting from the carbonation. Touch of powdery choc on finish.

500ml bottle from some, thanks to oh6gdx, January 2010. Copper colour. Ridiculous levels of chocolate. Quite artificial tasting. Not too much else happening. Very sweet. Bags of flavour but too sickly for my taste. Limited notes as I rather assumed this was the same as Robinsons Chocolate Tom but I guess not.

300ml bottle (M&S)
Chocolate and vanilla custard aroma. Same in the taste. A bit thin tastewise, but still quite full bodied.

50cl bottle. Good strong whiff of chocolate malt on opening, but much lighter in colour than I expected - brilliant copper, but rather flat in appearance with a thin ring of white head. Sweet to start with then a rich malty chocolate flavour develops with some vanilla, to be followed by more sweetness, which gets rather overpowering. There is an earthy bitterness in there somewhere, but it gets lost under the sugar. Shame it’s so sweet.

Bottled (from some random Marks & Spencer in London). Amber colour, small beige head and some slight lace. Aroma is chocolate, fruits, some wood and mild notes of vanilla as well. Flavour is chocolate, some vanilla and mild fruityness as well.

Clear copper under a skim of beige.Youngs Double-type added confectionary aroma, sweet and low on cocoa; more choc and black cherry yoghurt, plenty of booze welling up in the background, some mulled apple strudel notes. Thin and bitter with alcohol; harsh rum-like woodsy hints, cherry stone, paper, dip of bread, zero roast. Inoffensive, bland and boozy. Not nearly enough body or interest for a 6% Chocolate Porter.

Bottle.Golden with a small head.Far lighter in appearance than I had expected.Chocolate dominates but not in a sickly way as sometimes happens.Malty finish with no lacing.Far far better than anticipated.