Every year Kahlua puts out a festive limited edition version of its coffee liqueur for the holidays. Last year it was Cinnamon Spice. In 2010: Peppermint Mocha.

For 2012 Kahlua turns to the Christmas classic of gingerbread, with Kahlua Gingerbread Liqueur.

Gingerbread is one of my favorite cookie/cake varieties… and it makes ample sense to put the flavors together in a liqueur… a liquified version of noshing on a bit of gingerbread alongside your coffee.

The nose is indistinct… a very sugary brown sugar note with vague baking spices attached. The body offers less coffee than you’d expect from Kahlua, again featuring mostly rough-hewn sweetness and a big, almost synthetic-tasting candy character on the finish. I’m hard-pressed to describe the resulting product as anything approaching “gingerbread.” It tastes more like raw molasses and some allspice thrown into the mix. The aftertaste is unbearably lengthy, mouth-coating, and not wholly pleasant.

I love the folks at Kahlua and the company’s holiday bottlings are usually intriguing. This one’s a miss.

40 proof.

C- / $16 / kahlua.com

Kahlua Gingerbread Liqueur

$16

4

Rating

4.0/10