Tastes

As a marque brand named after the distiller, this is a clear step up from basic Jim Beam or Evan Williams Black (or Jack Daniels for that matter) in taste, complexity, and price. I came to bourbon from Irish whisky and dislike too much char or wood. Buffalo Trace has only hints of these to add layers to the sweet corn, maple and vanilla flavors. While I like Benchmark ( the young, cheap stuff from this mash bill), I love this bourbon and it's wonderful balanced flavor. To get this $5 cheaper, I drive to the next state over... And it's worth it! I'm a fan of Buffalo Trace and Four Roses products and enjoy this as much as the slightly more flavorful Bulleit and almost as much as my standby Four Roses Small Batch.

Sweet and smooth... This is what started me drinking whiskey. I may be Catholic, but I enjoy the Protestant Bushmills more than the Catholic Jameson's.

I was hoping this would be a nice "everyday" sipping bourbon, but I found the flavor too bitter (tannic?) for me. When mixed, the tannic flavor comes out more oaky, so not a bad mixer, but I prefer more rye notes. Perhaps I need to give it another try someday since others enjoyed it.

The green label is appropriate because I would describe this bourbon as green - not much age, grassy notes, and not much of the flavor I'm looking for in a bourbon - too much sour/tartness with the sweetness . I haven't mixed with it yet, but seems thin. I've heard others describe this green label as smooth, but for an 80-proof bourbon, I don't think it's particularly smooth - just thin. In a budget 80-proof, I will stick with Benchmark, which has the flavors I'm looking for (caramel, vanilla, tobacco, leather) and I find to be much smoother. While Benchmark isn't in the Distiller database, I would give it 3 stars compared to the 1 I'm giving Evan Williams Green label.

I started with Irish whiskey, so I like the sweetness, but the complexity makes this much more interesting to drink. Among the smoothest of any bourbon I've tried. Consistently wonderful, this is my favorite sub-$30 bourbon. Note that I am not a fan of wood (tannic bite) or smoke (char) as found in Woodford Reserve, Knob Creek, Elijah Craig, etc. or hot finishes.

Nice peppery spiciness, some sweetness (especially on the nose) and a warm, dry finish. Makes nice Manhattans and enjoyable neat.

Floral nose, sweet finish. Coming from Irish whiskey, I like this and the smoothness of the finish.EDIT: I had some tonight and tasted root beer.