I tried this because I heard it was incredible for the price and. . . it is incredible for the price. The aroma and flavor both hit all the expected bourbon notes. On the nose there's vanilla and cinnamon, and the taste hits with powerful spice, charred oak, and a hint of dark maple syrupy sweetness. The spice lingers through the finish along with a bit of tangy corn. Yep, it's bourbon. I'm not a bourbon expert by any means. I've tried 8 or 10 of the bourbons that are most commonly recommended as affordable but quality: Knob Creek, Wild Turkey 101, Eagle Rare, Elijah Craig, etc. I can notice some differences in flavor profile but overall they mostly taste, well, like bourbon, and I've found that when it comes to bourbon what I want is basically just something that tastes like bourbon. Maybe if I tried really hard in a blind test I could painstakingly conclude there are one or two other bourbons that I've liked a smidgen more than Evan Williams bonded, but it'd be a close call. Recently I did a side-by-side comparison with this and Knob Creek 9 and I actually liked this more. It costs half as much. I'm starting to think there's not much reason for me to buy other bourbons. I mean, every once in a while maybe I'll try a new one just for variety's sake. But in a way it seems almost dangerous. What if I realize I like something else noticeably more than this? I'd have to start spending $30 a bottle or whatever that other one costs, instead of getting this one over and over for $15. My exploration of liquor is still fairly limited, but so far this is the starkest example yet for me of a product that "clears the neighborhood". It's not mind-blowingly delicious, but there's a lot of stuff that costs significantly more and isn't significantly better, and Evan Williams bonded is so darn cheap and so darn tasty that it's hard to find anything with a better value for the price.