Kelley’s Gourmet Mustard Named Grand Champion

Kevin Kelley’s late father, Howard, must be proud. Howard had started a successful catering business in the 1960s and Kevin learned that his customers loved his mustard. Kevin heard about the Mustard Competition in 2012 and entered his Kelley’s Gourmet stone ground blend in 2012 and every year since. He has won several medals over the years in the Deli Category and this year was crowned Grand Champion. It is pure magic on a corned beef or pastrami sandwich.

More than 250 mustards from around the world entered this year’s competition, held under thell direction of Barry Levenson, curator and founder of the nonprofit National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wis. Judges tasted mustards from as far away as Finland, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, France, Japan, and Sweden.

The National Mustard Museum, home of the world’s largest collection of mustards and mustard memorabilia, has coordinated this annual blind tasting since 1995. This year, more than 40 judges from around the country sampled mustards in 19 categories: sweet-hot, mild, honey, classic Dijon, whole grain, whole seed, classic hot, pepper medium, pepper hot, horseradish-wasabi, herb-veggie, garlic, fruit, mostardas, spirit, American yellow, deli, exotic, and mustard-based BBQ sauces.

For the second year in a row, Plochman’s, the venerable mustard company in Manteno, Ill., captured four Gold Medals, while Beaverton Foods, from Beaverton, Ore., won eight medals, including three Golds.

Perhaps this year’s biggest surprise was the Australian company MasterFoods, winning the Gold in the Classic American Yellow category.

The National Mustard Museum will display the winning mustards in a Salute to the Winners on Memorial Day weekend (May 27-29). The museum will host its 33rd annual International Mustard Day on Saturday, Aug. 5.

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