Ever on the lookout for an inexpensive everyday pour, I was excited to see Early Times Bottled-in-Bond on the coming soon section of the FW&GS website. When it arrived in the local state stores, however, it wasn’t local but confined to the western part of the state out near Pittsburgh. I'd have to wait and I hated waiting, but eventually, after about a month, it arrived here, too. I’d read reviews on Breaking Bourbon, Drinkhacker and Whisky Advocate that made it sound promising. On Breaking, it’s “Above Average” and touted at a nice cross-section of price meets quality when my go-to BiB, Old Tub is merely listed there as “Average.” On Drinkhacker, Early Times is granted a “B+” rating which is commensurate with Old Tub. On Whisky Advocate, they’ve given this a 91 point rating while Old Tub is rocking 87 points, and even here on Distiller, the community score for Early Times is 3.7 while Old Tub is 3.4. All of which leads me, after tasting Early Times BiB to ask, “What the f#*k are people thinking?” I know taste is subjective. But on cracking this bottle, it’s hot on the nose, way too hot for 100 proof. That’s not overall a deal breaker, but all I’m really getting off the nose is spice and cinnamon, a sort of red hots flavor that continues onto the palate where you get a little bit of caramel mixed in and a finish that’s peppery. Generally, when I want to buy a bottle, I scroll through the reviews here, filtering for text because I obviously don’t care for a star-rating that’s provided without context, and I look for people I follow to see what they thought of it (props to those of you I follow here, this shows the respect I have for your opinions). The first person I found was @skillerified who writes of it: "This bottle gets a lot of hype, and I looked for it for a year or more before finally spotting one on a bottom shelf (where it belongs), but in the end it's really just a middle of the road BIB." You, effing, nailed, it. Now, reading that would have put me off any bottle that wasn’t $25 but at $25 a liter, there’s not much risk in seeing for yourself. After all, you can always use it for cocktails, right? But now, having tasted it, I’d go further and say that this is at the bottom of my budget BiB list below Evan Williams BiB. The reason I’m leaning on Old Tub is I’ve always been able to get that for $17 here, and now it’s up to $20, and I won’t say it’s world’s ahead of Early Times BiB, but for me, it’s got a little more complexity and it’s price is in the same ballpark. Overall, I gave Old Tub a 3.25 and with Evan Williams BiB being a 3.0 in my book, I’d usually have to go with Early Times at a 2.75, but as I think it’s 3.7 community ranking here is inflated, I’m dropping that to a 2.5, which given there are almost 850 ratings (can't call those that just leave stars and write nothing "reviews," can we?) won’t put much of a dent in its 3.7, but hey, I’ve gotta do my part to bring balance to the dark side of the force (also maybe I’m a little salty that my beloved Old Tub is lower than this) I don’t really in good conscience feel I can go lower than that, because it’s not THAT bad, and I can see myself enjoying it as it decants (yes, I put it in my decanter to see what some prime-time air exposure might do to it). Now, this is tasting 99 for me, which means my next write-up has to be something special to celebrate the centennial review. Oh, what shall it be? Well, hang on. I’ll leave y’all to wait and see. P.S. This does get better if you let it sit out in the glass for a while, but who's looking to let a $25 daily sipper BiB whisky do that. The whole purpose of a daily sipper is it needs to be ready out of the bottle, not 20 minutes later, right? I want the world and I want it....NOW!