Let’s keep the CaJohn theme moving happily along with this new product from the “10″ product line called Mustard 10. In my never-ending quest to find mustard made hot enough for my heat tolerance, what better way to challenge the threshold of culinary sanity than to try this Jolokia and habanero mustard from the mad geniuses at CaJohns Fiery Foods.

This is actually the third mustard I’ve reviewed from CaJohn, coming on the heels of the Dog-on Good Mustard and the CaJohns Hungarian Mustard. One thing has become blissfully obvious after trying all these mustards…CaJohn makes a pretty mean mustard.

Ingredients: premium prepared mustard (vinegar, #1 grade mustard seed, salt, turmeric, paprika, spices), red habaneros, Bih Jolokia

For simplicity, it’s hard to go wrong with what’s in this mustard. Take some yellow mustard, make it cry with some extremely hot chile peppers, mix well, and serve. Here’s the description from the website:

Mustard 10
All the fabulous flavor of Premium Yellow Mustard with the glorious fire of the Naga Jolokia! Just coat a pork shoulder with this and cover with Rub 10, slow cook until done, and everyone will swear you’re from the Low-Country! Kicks up that ham & cheese sandwich just fine too, and on Brats, Oh! That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

First Impression: Ever since the release of the original “10″ sauce (which we got a sample to try early on), we’ve liked the evolution of the label design. That said, John has indicated that they may be revamping the label and its graphics a little to be more indicative of what’s inside the bottle. As for what’s inside, the picture gives you the visual that this is a brown mustard…and I thought it resembled any of the other commercially-available brown mustards save for one major thing….

The aroma tells you there’s more to this mustard than its innocent looks.

Yeah, yeah…it smells a lot like mustard, and while I’m not in the habit of sniffing my mustards all that much, I couldn’t help but notice that my nose hairs recoiled from the capsaicinoids emitting from this condiment. Not only that, but this mustard is wonderfully thick and separates very little upon standing.

Taste: For a mustard that features a couple of the hottest peppers on the planet, the heat sneaks up on you. My first foray with this was at dinner with some turkey sausage, which you can see above. As anyone from Wisconsin could tell you, mustard and sausage goes together as well as peanut butter goes with jelly. I slathered up these two links with a generous coating and began to chomp blissfully away. After about 20-30 seconds and really enjoying the taste of the mustard, a wave of heat finally hit me.

This mustard is simply one of the hotter ones I’ve tried, and it builds. While I wasn’t suffering by any stretch, each bite of mustard was an accumulation of heat over the last. By the end of my meal, I was sucking a bit of wind…and loving every minute of it. The great thing about it? The taste didn’t suffer one bit. It seemed like the habanero actually provided most of the taste aspect, but the Jolokia added that extra element of heat that separates it from others of its ilk.

To ask what the mustard is good with is just plain silly, because the simple answer is everything. Anytime you think to use a mustard, plug this one in instead of your plain ol’ yellow mustard. Try it in mixed into your potato or pasta salad, spread thick over your deli sandwich, dip your pretzels in it, or make your deviled eggs have a little more devil in them. Try and find something this mustard doesn’t taste good upon. I dare you.

Overall recommendation: Easily vaulting into one of the top three mustards I’ve tried in terms of heat, it also easily one of the better ones as well. Hideously hot for a mustard, Jolokia lovers will want to have a jar of this on hand for any time they have a condiment need arise. You may never like a milder mustard again. This paired up with the Dog-On Good mustard make for a must-have pair of condiments. Enjoy!

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