Taste test: Cusacks beer mustard

Lovefood tries out some unusual types of mustard.

We’ve been in the kitchen with a new product from Cusacks that got our attention due to its unusual ingredients: beer mustard.

Beer mustard is something we'd heard of before, but not tried. Armed with pork pies and crusty bread, we decided now was the time to give it a go.

Three varieties

We blind taste tested three types of mustard: a plain English mustard (without beer), a Smooth Beer mustard, and a Coarse Grain Beer mustard. Did they receive a thumbs up or a thumbs down?

We were also interested to know whether anyone could identify the boozy content of the latter two when placed next to each other.

The results

English mustard
Thumbs up
Overall, this mustard did really well. Our tasters said it had a slightly sweet taste, but the heat “sneaks up on you”. “Christ, that’s hot!” was one dramatic comment. And it really is. You should go gentle on this one, or it rushes to the back of your sinuses, stinging like a swarm of bees. But it’s also really good.

Only one person who tried this said they didn’t like it, saying that it was too hot. But the majority were quite content with the “smooth, full flavour.”

Smooth Beer Mustard
Thumbs up
Most tasters commented that the flavour of the Smooth Beer mustard was almost the same as the English mustard, but much hotter. However, that did lead a couple of people to the conclusion that there was nothing but heat and not much in the way of taste.

Generally though, people liked this one, but struggled to put a finger on what was different besides the heat.

Coarse Grain Beer mustard
Thumbs up
A mixed reaction, but more gave it a thumbs up than down. This has very large grains, which appealed to some people who liked the “crunchy” texture, although others said it didn’t look appetising and was lumpy rather than crunchy.

Do they taste like beer?

It was only after tasting the coarse grain that one person managed to put their finger on a taste of alcohol among the fire, but they didn't identify it as beer. And even though I set up the test and knew which mustards were which, I struggled to pick out the flavour of ale in either of the beery mustards.

So while the beer flavour isn’t all that apparent, we’re still giving a thumbs up to all three for their overall flavour.

Have you tried beer mustard? Can you recommend any producers? Let us know in the Comments below.

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