Mustard Tasting @ The Maille Boutique

My sister won this weird and wonderful experience for four randomly at a charity Dodgeball evening. She kindly invited myself and the hubby along with her and her boyfriend despite the fact she had no idea what this would be all about.

We turned up at the boutique in the Piccadilly Arcade one very wet and windy Thursday evening. Before the tasting began we were given a glass of champagne and were able to wander around the empty shop admiring all of the mustard and other products for sale before we were whisked upstairs to find out what was in store for us.

I have to say the tasting room was very impressive. There were floor to ceiling windows overlooking the busy street below and welcoming lighting with a long bar laid out with canapes as a pre-tasting snack. We were given plenty of wine and water throughout our two hour experience as well.

We learnt all about the history of mustard production and La Maison Maille. We were taught how best to taste and smell the mustard to bring out the particular flavors and we were given the opportunity to try as many as we liked on small pieces of bread. As you can imagine we went mental and made ourselves almost sick! I think we probably tried twenty or more mustard types between us.

The standouts for me were the Honey and Balsamic Vinegar and the Cognac and White Wine. I know the Sun-Dried tomato was also a popular choice among the group. Almost every flavor you could imagine was represented and the very kind mustard Sommelier even gave us recipes. For example glazing meat in the mustard before cooking or adding a mustard containing Truffle and Chablis into scrambled egg.

The best part of the evening was after our tasting and purchases we were given a free gift each in a beautiful bag of a black truffle and Chablis mustard as well as their aged balsamic vinegar. This was a pretty generous treat bearing in mind the cost of the products.

I didn't know anything about mustard before this experience, to be honest, I didn't even know that I liked it but this really was an insightful evening. Go down to the store in London, they will allow you to try before you buy or if you are more confident in what you might like check out the website where you can buy online:

http://www.maille.com/en_GB

Happy Tasting