Maille Question
 

We will be in Paris later this year and love the Maille mustard out of the tap. We were planning on bringing our jars to be filled but wonder is it really cheaper? Does anyone know?

Cheaper than what? Can you get out of the pump where you live? It appears that the NYC outpost of Maille where we got our refill last year has closed so we have no other option if we want the out of the pump mustard. BTW we have 4 jars on the table to be packed for our trip to Paris this week.

I'm curious..... Why is Maille mustard a cost consideration?? We buy it in jars at the grocery the first thing when we arrive in France. And we leave what's remaining it at the gite/apt when we leave for home. You can purchase it at Amazon for $4.19 in the US.
https://www.amazon.com/Maille-Style-...0_&dpSrc=srch&

Stu Dudley

It's about 15-20 pct cheaper in Paris than in NY, if a few bucks is worth that trouble to you of packing pots of mustard in your checked luggage (ie, the black truffle mustard costs 29 euro or $36 versus $43 in NY) . Where do you think it comes from when you get it that way? It still is in a container from the factory, and then you fill a pot up, what a gimmick.

You take Maille mustard to Paris? Isn't that similar to taking sourdough bread to San Francisco??

Stu Dudley

Maille is all about boutiquey-hype. You can buy it (many varieties of it) at Aldi and Lidl here for under 2 € for a big jar. You're paying for the "sommeliers à moutard" and a lot of brand expenses. Of course, you're not going to find their white-truffle specialty or be able to pump it, but at the end of the day it's just mustard.

While I'm sure that watching a mustard pump is a bigger thrill than most of us will ever have in our lives, since Maille is just about the #1 mustard brand in France and can be bought in any supermarket, I can't claim to see the point of going to the Maille shop at Madeline if your interest is in the mustard itself and not the thrill of the pump.

I don't know anything about the relative advantages of bringing jars to Maille to get mustard from the tap, but I do know that the mustard they sell in France is not the same as what I've been able to buy at my local D'Agostino in New York. I'm not a mustard lover, and I buy just the basic Dijon, but the mustard we've bought in France has a much greater kick; the stuff we get here is much blander--formulated, I assume, for the "unsophisticated" American palate! So if you really are into mustard, I can understand wanting to buy it in France even though it's available from Amazon.

Buying it in France, sure. Buying it from the taps at the overpriced boutique, unnecessary unless you want that thrill kerouac refers to.

I didn't go to the Maille shop my last trip but did the time before. It was fun because there were some flavors I had not seen in the US and I got a "sample pack" of several interesting flavors or my brother and SIL who like to explore things like that.

To me..the pump mustard tastes different....I know we can get jars at the supermarket but I do think the taste is different and there are different kinds Thanks for the info

We have never bothered to bring the jars back with is when we have gome to Maille. We enjoy the varieties of mustard that we can’t get here in the US. If you enjoy going to the Maille shop, then go. I don’t know if it is less expensive by bringing the crock with you...we use them for all kinds of things and don’t want the hassle of packing them (but that’s me).

Trader Joe's Dijon mustard (imported) often has a big kick, but its quality control is unreliable.