Bourbon by definition must contain at least 50% corn in the mash, if it's not 50% corn and labeled bourbon it's like a mouse in lion skin calling himself the king of the jungle, it just ain't true.
Whiskey is the general name, beneath that is scotch and bourbon and another half dozen labels 99% of people don't know. American, Canadian, Japanese, these are just modifiers of where the whiskey is from and not a sub category of whiskey like bourbon.
The flavor is a product of what is in the mash (corn, rye, wheat....) and what the barrel it's aged in (type of wood, if it's charred, if it's been used before) . The longer the aging the smoother the drink.
Telling you what you would like depends on your taste. Do you prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate, strawberries or blackberries? My wife doesn't like any whiskey, except highland scotch, not all scotch, not blended scotch with a lot of highland... highland only scotch. Me, I appreciate all types of whiskey, as evidence by my collection of 80+ bottles of different whiskeys.
Cheap whiskey is good for mixing, but NEVER with coke, an angle dies everytime someone ruins even cheap whiskey with coke.