Hall & Woodhouse Coffee Stout (Aldi) By @SpectreUK

Some moments just fit together nicely. Well, there aren't many, but when Cinabar ordered some steak for our Friday night meal, and then put this Coffee Stout in the basket for me, I just had to have them both together. I've always thought that steak was cooked for a good stout to wash it down with. And this 5.2% in volume Coffee Stout was "Specially Selected".

Brewed in partnership with Hall & Woodhouse, this Coffee Stout promises to be, "rich, dark, and indulgent", with flavours of coffee, caramel and vanilla. I love a good stout with my steak and chips, sadly I rarely have a can or bottle in to write about. Then again, I rarely have steak and chips, so tonight is a double treat.

I recently switched down to fillet steak so I could fit in more calories for pudding, as opposed to blowing the lot on my favourite ribeye cut. However, fillet steak should not be sniffed at, as it is the most costly cut and some may say the tastiest. Besides, I get more chocolate and ice cream for afters.

On opening the bottle there was an aroma of vanilla mixed with caramel and chocolate from the almost jet black contents inside. It smelt pretty good, in fact I had to pour it and sniff again. Once I smelt this Coffee Stout in my beer glass, I just couldn't stop smelling it. I even got Cinabar and her mom to sniff it too. This is quite honestly one of the tastiest smelling beers I've ever smelt. Gosh, it smelt so good, I almost forgot to drink it.

After quite some time sniffing, I realised my steak was frying and the chips were almost done, so I better have a taste of this Coffee Stout. Oh my, it really does taste as good as it smells. Right from the start a collaboration of caramel, vanilla, chocolate malt and smooth coffee stroked my tastebuds like a velvet glove. There was then a little bitterness from herbal hops enhancing the coffee flavour, followed by that sweet velvety collaboration massaging my palate into the aftertaste.

This Coffee Stout is simply gorgeous. A sumptuous treat at the end of a week, whether washing down your steak and chips, or on its own as a liquid pudding. I'm sure it would go rather well with a chocolate bar or two, if you fancy an extra treat.