10 Yellow Mustard Brands, Ranked Worst To Best

It's the condiment that everyone loves. No, I'm not talking about ketchup, or hot sauce, or even the uber-divisive mayonnaise. Rather, I'm talking about mustard: one of the most underutilized condiments in the history of condiments. 

There are so many different types of mustard out there on the market, and each one is suited for a different purpose. While Dijon mustard can be a punchy addition to your deviled eggs, and a whole-grain mustard makes for a tantalizing bratwurst sandwich, yellow mustard is well-suited for occasions where you need a pop of flavor, but not one that will override everything it touches. Its relatively inoffensive flavor, coupled by a hint of acidity and some back-of-mouth tingle from the yellow mustard seeds, makes it a popular addition for hot dogs, sauces, and more. 

Mustard was always a condiment that I grew up having in the fridge and used to add a bit of pizzazz to my meal. While I will admit that I have my go-to brand in my fridge now, I took some time to experiment and taste a variety of different mustard brands to see which ones were the best. Not only did I muster up the bravery to taste them straight from the container, but I also tried scooping each up with pretzel twists to get an accurate assessment of each product's flavor, consistency, acidity, and utility. Whether you're looking for a condiment to upgrade the flavor of your ham sandwich, or a topping for your freshly grilled burger, chances are that there is a yellow mustard out there for you. I'm just here to help you find it. 

If I were in the food manufacturing business, the last thing I would want to do is advertise a product as being "hot." Not only do you have to decide how hot should be considered "hot," but if you don't deliver on the promise of heat, your brand will surely be chastised by it until the end of time. 

Great Value's Southwest "hot" mustard tasted like a honey mustard in the beginning — though it's more sweet than anything. There wasn't any clear mustard seed flavor that really proclaims this condiment as a mustard. Instead, it gives off the impression that it's just an amalgamation of hot sauce, roasted red peppers, and some unidentifiable vector for that flavor. The heat didn't come on until after I had swallowed the mustard. It singed my tongue, but didn't leave an indelible impression on me as a whole. That said, the heat inside of this mustard was really muted, like it was being covered by a blanket and hidden in the corner. It wasn't bright, piquant, or really exciting — it just made me say "eh," and move on to the next product. In short, I think in trying to make a spicy product, Great Value completely skipped over the fact that there is supposed to be a mustard under all of that.

I do think that there is a place in this world for hot mustard. But brands like Great Value need to deliver on the promise of something fresh, bright, and exciting for the concept to be successful. Until then, it has to rank dead last on this list. 

I know enough about the food system to know that organic food is merely a marketing ploy. It's not healthier (after all, we're talking about mustard here, friends), nor is it necessarily safer to eat than conventionally produced food. But Nature's Promise, Stop & Shop's in-house organics brand, tried to pull out all the stops to get its customers to purchase organic mustard — at nearly double the price of other brands. 

This bottle is unassuming; it's packaged in the same-shaped bottle as many of the other brands on this list. The consistency of this mustard was slightly more liquidy than other brands, including Mike's Amazing, but it still clung to the pretzel twist well. 

The issue with Nature's Promise organic yellow mustard is that it had a sort of metallic flavor to it. It's almost iron-like, like the flavor you get in your mouth after you accidentally bite down on your cheek too hard. Moreover, the flavor of the mustard seeds wasn't particularly sharp, and the acidity wasn't at the level that the condiment needed to carry it through to the finish line. Overall, it's a really lackluster mustard, and it has more negative attributes to it than the other brands that I sampled. Unfortunately, a below-average mustard like this one deserves a below-average spot in this ranking — organic or not. 

Stop & Shop products, as a whole, have been a hit and a miss for me. I won't stop at the store regularly because it's too expensive, and I've found that some of its products just come out flavorless, as suggested by my findings in the great garlic bread experiment. But I put that all aside to taste the brand's store-bought mustard. And after tasting it, I can confidently say that I'm not impressed. 

Despite shaking up this bottle of mustard just as much as the other ones, I was disappointed to see that this bottle produced the dreaded mustard water when I went to pour it out. This product had about the same consistency as the other generic and premium mustard brands otherwise; it was thick, easily scoop-able, and could sit perfectly atop a grilled hot dog.

But I was waiting for something remarkable when it came to the flavor of this mustard. I felt like I got promised a hot, exhilarating date with a great flavor, and ultimately got catfished. Of course, it tastes like ground mustard seeds, but there's no acidity or brightness present whatsoever. If you want a punchy condiment for your sandwich, heed my advice and skip Stop & Shop's brand entirely. 

Before we start, I'd like to pose a question: Who would ever pay more than $5 for a small container of mustard? While all the other brands out there were, as a whole, budget-friendly, this premium yellow mustard from Woodstock gave me an awful case of sticker shock. Mustard is a condiment I don't think twice about using — and I'm hesitant to think that someone out there would be buying this pricy mustard only for special occasions.

I will say one thing, this mustard is interesting. I didn't think that I could say that about such a simple condiment, but I have to say it when it comes to this product. Woodstock not only uses the typical organic mustard ingredients, but it also packs in paprika, turmeric, and other spices (I think I could pick out cumin in it, too). For some other condiments, like a fancy aioli or an upgraded salsa, I would be all for trying to stick complementary ingredients into places where they're not typically found. But, for me, mustard is supposed to be a familiar condiment with a flavor that I can easily anticipate. This is one wheel that didn't need to be reinvented. 

The actual mustard flavor on this condiment was dull, too. I did get a healthy dose of acidity, but I think it was confused by the spices as much as I was. In the end, I walked away with a stale taste in my mouth, and about this brand as a whole. 

Great Value offers two mustard products: a regular mustard and the organic version. There's only a slight upcharge in price that sets the two apart. I personally wouldn't spend the extra on organic, but I will certainly leave that one up to you to decide. 

This mustard committed one of the other great cardinal sins of condiments: burping. Every time I squeezed the up-turned bottle, spurts of mustard burped out and covered the inside of the serving dish, counter, and seemingly every surface in my kitchen. What this means is that you're getting less mustard on the bun and more on your plate, napkins, table, clothes — you get it. But at least there's no mustard water here. 

I also found the Great Value organic mustard to be rather thin. It was thick enough to stick to the pretzels and a spoon, but its texture was overall not as satisfying as other brands. However, the good news is that this mustard has a slight pop of acidity — though I doubt that it's enough to carry the whole mustard to a win. In the end, I would have liked to see something more bright and flavorful, rather than stale and rudimentary. 

When you add the word "amazing" to your label, you almost always set yourself up for failure. A brand has to go above and beyond to be considered for this title. After all, how do you elevate a product that's as simple as plain yellow mustard to the title of "amazing"? 

Mike's Amazing tried to do that to its mustard, and I can't say it was a success. This mustard touts the title of being "stone-ground," but I can't tell that there's anything different about it when compared to the other brands that I sampled. The second taste of this product revealed a restrained acidity. My eyes didn't poke out of my head, and my throat didn't tickle when I sampled this mustard, which really set it back in my ranking.

Ultimately, Mike's Amazing's only saving grace was that it utilized a unique bottle shape and dispensing lid, which would allow for mess-free pouring. While it would be an excellent, handy container to have on the table at your next barbecue, I wouldn't be able to justify the slightly higher (yet, not overwhelmingly expensive) price. Rename it to "Mike's Average," and it might have more potential here. 

Great Value has the potential to be the best yellow mustard brand out there. It's already known for offering brand-name-comparable products for nearly everything, ranging from food to home goods. And its mustard barely reaches the level of being brand-name comparable — just barely. 

This mustard, like the brand's organic product, burped when I tried to pour it from the container. I think a quick redesign of the bottle shape could help prevent this (or, you can just take the cap off and pour it from the bottle, if you'd rather) — so I won't let it bog this ranking down too much. The big thing I noticed about this product is that it is very, very-vinegar forward. Overall, I like a punchy mustard because it reminds you of its purpose: to offer something fresh and to save you from other components that are too fatty or rich. But I think Great Value takes the acidity of this product a step too far. I could barely stand to eat this mustard on a pretzel — and I wouldn't think to eat it straight from a spoon — because it makes my eyes water. The vinegar flavor overrides the mustard entirely. 

Granted, not many people enjoy eating their mustard by the spoonful. I don't think you'll notice it too much if you add it to a sauce, since it will have a chance to mix with other flavors and come down from its acidic high. But I think it would be too overpowering if you served it on a sandwich — which is ultimately the reason I had to bump it back slightly in the ranking. 

I got mixed feelings about Woeber's jalapeño mustard the second I pulled off the safety lid. When I took a whiff of the product, I could immediately smell something that was borderline sulfuric. Although I understand that's it's hard to put that jalapeño flavor into a shelf-stable product, I at least expected something a tad more enticing than this. 

Although I was a bit distracted by the aroma, I was immediately immersed in the heat of this mustard. I'll admit, I'm not a fan of heat or hot, spicy things. So, I would not be the person that would use this jalapeño mustard for anything I eat. But if you're a spice lover looking for a product that doesn't skimp on the bright, punchy, and mouth-tingling flavor, this is the brand you want to go with. It was like getting hit with ping-pong balls of flavor. And I can appreciate how the heat remained, though it was subdued, even after I finished the bite. It was a roller coaster ride from start to finish, and I, for one, get queasy on roller coasters — which means I can't say that this is the product for me. 

I can appreciate that Woeber's still made a yellow mustard, all things considered, but it was also successfully able to add a strong, novel hit of spice and flavor to this product. But I don't think that the heat would be universally loved by all eaters, nor would it be able to be used in every single setting that normal mustard is used. Spice aficionados though, have to get their hands on a bottle of this stuff for their ham or turkey sandwiches or an upgraded homemade barbecue sauce — it's that good.

I saved what I expected to be the best for last in this ranking. French's yellow mustard is the product that's always been in my fridge, from my early childhood years to the present. So, it would be interesting to see if sticking with the status quo meant I was missing out on other, more spectacular brands. 

French's is a good mustard, don't get me wrong. While the consistency is slightly more liquid-y than Heinz, it can still be dolloped on a pretzel or hot dog no problem. When I tasted it on a spoon, I noticed that the acidity of this product was not what first came to mind. Rather, it was the mustard seeds, which have an earthy, almost-bitter flavor, that hit the back of my palate. The acidity was less prevalent here, which I could appreciate after my run-in with Great Value's yellow mustard. 

I think that Heinz and French's products were almost equal in terms of ranking. Both had a solid flavor, though French's was more mustardy than the former. I ultimately put French's in second place because the acidity was not as finely tuned as it could have been. If I'm adding it to a sandwich, for example, I want to have a solid balance of both vinegar and mustard flavor. French's is on the cusp of having the perfect balance of flavors in its recipe, but until it reaches the exact equilibrium, I can't, in good conscious, put it in first place. 

There are two brands that I expected would be neck-and-neck for victory in this race: Heinz and French's. Heinz is one of my favorite popular ketchup brands, but I admit that I've never tried its mustard before. 

Above all, Heinz is a brand known for its reliability, and its mustard is clearly a testament to that. After tasting it, it's the brand I will forever associate as being the "all American mustard." Heinz's yellow mustard is remarkably thick, so much so that I could dollop it on top of my pretzel like a mound of frosting. This would make it ideal for adding to a hot dog or a sandwich where you want that viscosity. Though, I have no doubt it would mix well into a sauce, too. 

However, there was a little bit of mustard water on this one — which initially made me feel a little wary about putting it in the top spot. But its flavor was spot-on for what I was looking for. It had the mouth-puckering hit of vinegar that makes your eyes almost water, which would provide some contrast to fatty deli meats and other condiments. I could also appreciate how easy it was to hold the mustard container and dispense it into my testing dish. So long as you give this mustard a couple of extra shakes, I have no doubt that it will fulfill all of your condiment needs (and more). 

I tasted each of these mustard brands solo (off of a spoon) at room temperature, as well as with a hard pretzel twist. I didn't want to try the mustards with other flavorful foods, like hot dogs or sandwiches, because I wanted to assess the flavor of each brand without any other elements or competing ingredients getting in the way. Each bottle was vigorously shaken up for about 10 seconds to reincorporate any lingering moisture (which I call "mustard water") and level the textural playing field. 

The first thing that I looked for in each bottle was flavor. I wanted a balanced acidity, as well as the flavor of the mustard seeds, to be paramount. Despite this being a shelf-stable condiment, I prized mustards that had a bright flavor to them, rather than those that tasted stale or dull. The texture of the mustard should also have been thick enough to sit atop a sandwich, but liquid-y enough that it would easily dispense from the container. The brands that performed best in this ranking had an approachable (yet still compelling) flavor and a vast utility — meaning you could schmear it on any food that needs a bright pop of mustardy essence.