Cooney’s Mountain Mustard
Hot

The people who own and run Cooney’s Mountain Mustard (Denny and Kim Cooney) have been my neighbors at the Bowers Chile Pepper Festival for the last 2 years. The first year I was there I didn’t try their mustard mostly because I’m not a huge mustard fan at all! But, after talking to them again for two straight days, I decided that I should at least try out their mustard. I must admit that I shouldn’t have waited as long as I did! To like or dislike mustard isn’t part of the equation with this product as you’ll soon find out! You can surf on over to their website and buy some up http://www.cooneysmtmustard.com/index.htm

The 8 oz. jar is $4.00 while the 16 oz. jar is $7.00…

First impression: Cooney’s Mountain Mustard HOT and MILD come in a very unassuming 16 oz. jar. Keep in mind that this is a review of the HOT version. The label is very basic and traditional in design, but also has a very shelf-friendly commercial appeal to it. Sometimes you have to go all out, other times it’s best to stay simple. Perhaps I should take a hint from time to time! Lol As I have a habit of complicating everything I touch.

Ingredients: peppers, mustard, sugar, vinegar, flour, onions, and salt.

Okay, with peppers being the first ingredient on the label one might think that this is going to be a very spicy mustard! Also the bright yellow color and nice thick smooth consistency of this product really shines through! Let’s get a closer look to see how much heat this spicy mustard dishes out!

Appearance/Smell/Taste: I crack open the lid and give myself a snoot full of the aroma of the mustard. Whoa! It doesn’t smell like mustard! That’s odd. It smells more like relish with just a hint of mustard, which to me is a plus, since the odor of mustard kind of makes me ill. Using a spoon I scoop out some of Cooney’s to take a better look and to also give it a taste. It looks great on the spoon. The addition of the flour to the mix gives this mustard a real nice thick consistency. It’s not too thick mind you and still pours rather nicely onto whatever you’d be using it for. Getting up the nerve to actually put some mustard in my mouth after sniffing it a few more times to make sure that I’m really smelling more relish than mustard I give it a go! Initially the taste is very sweet, but it’s still not overpowering for my palette. There is a real nice flavor of relish that is stronger than the hint of mustard flavor I am getting at the back. I can’t believe that I actually like a mustard product! This is huge for me, as more often than not I deny mustard on any type of sandwich, burger, pretzel, or whatever! Even though this is labeled as a HOT mustard, the heat is definitely way low on the HSB heat scale. I’d say it’s a 2, but definitely not a 3. This could safely be put out on a table for anyone to dip in pretzels , chips, or to be used on hot dogs and hamburgers. With that, I decided to make up a juicy Roasted Onion Salsa Burger and top it with a generous helping of Cooney’s HOT Mountain Mustard!

Prepared meal: Roasted Onion Salsa Burger made with Free Range Ground Beef

½ lb free range ground beef mixed with 1/8 cup Roasted Onion Salsa formed into patties and cooked to perfection on the grill. After letting the burgers rest for 2-3 minutes I placed the patty onto my 7 grain flax seed bread. Regular hamburger rolls just don’t cut it with me any longer. I prefer whole grains to bleached, processed, enriched flour products. Even if it says wheat flour, avoid it if they had to ‘enrich’ it with any nutrients. This just means that the flour was so highly processed that they had to add something to it to make it have any health value what so ever. Stick with the minimally processed stuff. I then slathered a generous amount of Cooney’s onto my burger and this is what it looked like!

Complement to meal: Well, it’s true! I like a mustard product! It’s been a long time coming since I could endorse something that is called mustard! But hey on the burger this stuff was the bees knees! Once the product heats up a bit the mustard flavor is slightly more dominant than it was cold or served room temperature. Although it definitely kept some of that relish appeal to it, this flavor just got moved towards the back a bit. Still has a nice sweetness to it without being too sweet to turn my stomach. I must say that Cooney’s would be great for dipping pretzles, on burgers, sandwiches, wraps, and perhaps even added to a salad dressing to make a mustard style vinaigrette!

Initial impression: 8/10

Ingredient quality/content: 7/10

Flavor/textue/smell: 8/10

Heat: 2/10

Overall: 6.25/10