Speciality Dijon Mustard Review - Trader Joe's Provençal Mustard (from the Mustard Miscellany)

This time, I bring you, my loyal mustards, a real treat. Straight from the marvelous Trader Joe's Mustard Miscellany (which you can bet I'll be reviewing over the next few weeks!), I bring you a truly interesting mustard; Trader Joe's own Provençal mustard.

Get excited!

After rudimentary research, I have found that a Provençal mustard is considered by most mustard companies to be a Dijon with paprika, as Trader Joe's is; another example would be Edmond Fallot's own Provencal Dijon Mustard, which I plan to try once I can find it in a local shop!

As per usual with Trader Joe's mustards, the jar is nothing special, just a nice & functional glass jar with a screw top. Easy to use, effective for storage, really all-around okay. One thing I have noticed is that Trader Joe's seems to have a sort of continuity with its choice of glassware, as their wonderful stone-ground Dijon also has the same jar. It's food for thought.

On to the actual mustard - I had no idea it would be so paprika-y! When it comes down to it, the mustard is good not for the mustard flavor as much as the great paprika flavor, which is a taste you tend not to get with such a weak flavor. The white wine is also used well, and it is not overpowering to the rest of the flavors, as the acidic base of mustards can be (I'm looking at you, Heinz.) Although the paprika is great, I am a bit disappointed in how the mustard is masked by the strength of the paprika flavor; I would have preferred it if the flavors had balanced to be a Provençal mustard, not a paprika spread with mustard. But I digress - it's still good stuff. It's really nice on it's own, with a nice toasted bread like a baguette, and it also works well on savory foods, as long as you use enough of it.

This mustard excels in its amazing paprika-ful taste and smart use of white wine as the base of the dijon, but the mustard taste is just not strong enough to work with the paprika - if I have to search for the mustard while tasting, that's not going to earn great marks from me. Because of this, I give it a low 8; I may sound like I don't like it, but it's really still very tasty!

Yellow Mustard Re-Review - French's Classic

It's so cute!

Welcome, Mustardeers, to our first Hard Yellow Re-Review!

I've noticed that I've been rather harsh to a number of mustards I have reviewed in the past, including this hallmark of the contemporary mustard scene, French's Classic Yellow. This is the mustard you will see when you look up mustard on Google Images; it's the mustard you'll find at a barbeque, on a pretzel cart, or in a hot dog shop. This mustard is a reliable bastion of the Mustard faith.

Now, before I said the mustard was just okay. But now that I've received the mustard as a personal gift, I'm willing to go further and say it's really quite good. The vinegar to mustard ratio is not as large as I remember; while it still is more vinegary than Koop's, it's pretty formidable in the mustard flavor department.

I'd also like to talk about the shape of the bottle. Like, come on! This thing is a masterpiece of industrial design. The curvature of the bottle is optimal for squeezing; the cap is both small enough at the tip to avoid crusty mustardness, and wide enough at the bottom to allow easy squeezing; and it has a great iconic look, comparable to the classic Campbell's can as a classic icon.

All in all, I give this mustard 8 cutesy mustard bottles out of 10, for it's many strengths in the mustard category and it's superiority in the packaging one.

Yellow Mustard Review - Koops' Original

What a wonderful thing!

Welcome, Mustardeers, to the review of my favorite yellow mustard!

Koops' is a wonderful mustard, with a nice, full-bodied taste, unlike other common yellow mustards like French's, which goes down the vinegary line instead. The mustard has many great qualities that set it apart from the generic family barbeque mustard, which keeps me using it day after day. Fasten your seatbelts, because you've boarded the Hard Yellow roller-coaster of mustardy goodness!

First, the bottle shape is quite nice. It's big, has a nice hand feel and looks authentic with the real mustard yellow color, unlike French's or Heinz' brighter yellow. Even with my voracious mustard appetite, I haven't run out of the stuff from my month-old bottle. My only criticism is that the flip cap can yield a crusty mustard-disk if not cleaned after use; it's not a nice experience to have that drop in the middle of your food, you know?

Moving on to the consistency. It's a smooth mustard, but maybe slightly less than other commercial mustards. It gives off the feeling that there's real ground mustard seeds in there, instead of concentrated mustard powder. (It's probably still powder, but mouthfeel is mouthfeel.)

Finally, the overall taste. As I mentioned earlier, the mustard is frankly just more mustardy than other yellow mustards. The increased mustard flavor works well withe the tartness of the vinegar to create a wonderful casual mustard, great for use with hot dogs, burgers and the odd soft pretzel. I give this mustard a solid 8 Mini-Coopers (geddit) out of 10, for a nice, functional mustard that keeps every meal enjoyable without the stress of choosing the perfect mustard.

Aioli Mustard Review - Trader Joe's Aioli Garlic Mustard

Now here is a interesting specimen of the condiment jungle - an aioli mustard. Aioli is a condiment siring from the Provence region of southern France, made from a combination of olive oil, garlic and egg yolk with some lemon juice thrown in. This specific medley of aioli and mustard is quite the delicious condiment, if I do say so myself. It's not quite as much of a go-to mustard as others, but if a particular food does well with a garlicky flavor, it's definitely a good choice.

I've never actually had just plain old aioli by itself, but I've heard it is very much like mayonnaise, which is by no means a bad thing. Mayonnaise may be inferior to mustard, but it can still be delicious; and it isn't a stretch at all to say aioli is delicious. At least, with mustard, because I haven't had it and all... you get it.

This is a great baseline mustard for the aioli mustard world. It's nice and garlicky, has a good consistency, and a good colour to boot. I use it most during dinner with whatever I'm having; basically everything I eat already has garlic in it, so this does very nicely.

The jar itself is a little on the boring side. No interesting curves, the cap is just your normal screw-on, and so on. But the mustard itself is of very high quality, and is one you should never miss in your travels in the condiment jungle.

WALROR EDIT: this doesn't have a rating and I dunno if it should be 8 or 9, but I'm gonna go with 8.

Yellow Mustard Review - Lakeshore Strong Irish Mustard

This here mustard is another of my preferred mustards for daily use. This yellow mustard (it's not really that much of a 'yellow' yellow mustard though, but I'll elaborate on that later) has a powerful punch that wakes up one's palette in a jiffy, as the name alludes to. It'll tear your previous beliefs on an Irish mustard to flitters, ya gobdaw!

The mustard is obviously quite smooth, as can be seen through the stout glass jar favored by Lakeshore for its many kinds of mustard. Having a more mellow texture like this allows the mustard to perform well across the board, primarily on sandwiches, as a dip and with meats. However, this is where the mustard's mellow nature ends. Hidden behind this seemingly friendly yellow colour is a kraken of a mustardy flavor! Be sure to use this condiment in smaller amounts than your usual yellow mustards; when I first encountered this ferocious predator of the condiment jungle, I was unaware of it's 'strong' aspect until I had a tablespoon of the stuff on my tongue. Not the best way to be introduced, but it won me back over quickly.

The defining characteristic of a yellow mustard is the fact that it contains turmeric, a mellow but down-to-earth-tasting spice, which creates the bright yellow colour. Despite the fact that Lakeshore's Strong Irish Mustard likely contains turmeric for it's telltale colour, it is wildly unlike other yellows like French's in it's taste. It would likely be better to call this mustard an English mustard, for it's taste, but for now we'll still refer to it as yellow. Yellow or not, this mustard is one to look out for in your travels.

WALROR EDIT: This stuff looks pretty good, so an 8 should be alright.