About Us
Charlies Mustard, LLC fundamentally started on January 1, 2019. It was on that day that I was cooking a New Year’s Day Ham dinner, and was looking for something unusual in the way of a mustard-based glaze. After considerable internet searching and my reflection on what might go together well, my first mustard was made. Not only was it delicious on the ham but it found its way into other cooking, including of course being a general substitute for retail mustards. This mustard was actually more of a sauce than a traditional mustard and unapologetically contains butter, milk, eggs, and sugar. To say that it is sweet and creamy would be an understatement, as would people’s reaction to awakening their taste buds!
In my general cooking, I have found an attraction with Tarragon as an herb to pair with seafood. One day, I was planning salmon for dinner and was struck with the thought of adding Tarragon to the base mustard sauce recipe. Wow! That was a winner and continues to be one of my biggest sellers.
I then tried a slightly spicier mustard known as “Hot English” to give it little more flavor. Shortly after that I made a batch where I added Cayenne Pepper.
In October 2021, my church Grace Lutheran Church in Carrollton Texas was having a craft fair. My mustard had generally passed the “it’s good and we like it test” by family and friends. I thought that it might be fun to have a small booth at the fair. It would allow me to sell some mustard and support the church at the same time. The initial logo was developed for that fair and labels were made. I had fun and sold a good amount of mustard, a win for everyone. I have many customers from that original fair and I sold again at a December 2021 Christmas Fair.
In late August 2022, I was accepted by the Dallas Farmer’s Market for a “test”. The test went well and I became a regular vendor, generally on Saturday, allowing me to attend church on Sunday. Over the period of a few months and listening to customers the product line expanded and I developed a line of more “traditional” mustards. I am proud of the mustards that we make which now includes 18 varieties.
2023 was kind of our “coming out”. Charlie’s Mustard, LLC. was officially formed in March and this website was soft launched in May of 2023. During the summer we spent considerable time and energy to get our branding refined which included all new labels. We moved our cooking to a commercial kitchen and got the website set to be able to process on-line orders. As a “surprise”, a suggestion was made by a visitor at a small farmer’s market that our mustard was so good that we had to be at the Texas State Fair. Mind you this suggestion came at the end of August and the fair runs September 29 to October 22. I filled out the application even though the website said non refundable deposit and all vendor booths were filled. Miraculously, the fair approved us. We were able to kick the production of product up and were successful at the fair. Now our on-line orders are continuing to increase. We are now in about 4 farmer’s markets and looking to grow that.
We are having fun experimenting with different flavors and this will continue in the future. Stay connected to the site to see the new varieties, and if you have a suggestion for something you might like, reach out and we will see what we can do.
