The National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin, just west of Madison, is one of those places that sounds like a punchline until you actually walk through the door. Founded by a former Wisconsin assistant attorney general who left his legal career to pursue his passion for mustard, the museum houses the world’s largest collection of prepared mustards, with more than 6,700 mustards from all 50 states and more than 70 countries on display. It is funny, yes, but it is also genuinely fascinating, and visitors who come expecting to chuckle and leave often find themselves spending far longer than anticipated reading labels, tasting samples, and discovering how serious the world of mustard actually is.
The Barry Levenson Story
The museum’s founder, Barry Levenson, began collecting mustard in 1986 following a painful professional disappointment. As the story goes, he wandered into an all-night grocery store in the early hours of the morning and heard a voice from the mustard section saying, if you collect us, they will come. Levenson took the instruction seriously and began accumulating mustards with the same dedication he had previously applied to legal briefs. By 1992 he had enough to open a museum, and the National Mustard Museum has been a Wisconsin institution ever since, relocating from its original location in Mount Horeb to its current larger space in Middleton.
Levenson’s background as a lawyer shapes the museum’s personality. The exhibits are witty and self-aware, presenting mustard history and culture with the kind of deadpan earnestness that makes the joke land better the longer you think about it. The museum takes its subject seriously while fully acknowledging the absurdity of taking mustard seriously, a balance that keeps the experience genuinely entertaining rather than merely eccentric.
The Collection
The mustard collection is the museum’s heart, and its scale is legitimately impressive. The shelves hold thousands of jars, bottles, and tubes representing styles from every corner of the mustard world: classic yellow ballpark mustard, grainy French Dijon, fiery horseradish mustards, sweet honey mustards, beer mustards from Wisconsin and Bavaria, fruit-infused mustards, and varieties flavored with everything from blueberries to bourbon to ghost peppers. The labels themselves tell a story about regional food culture, local humor, and the ingenuity of small-batch producers who have found their niche in the mustard market.
Free tastings are available throughout the museum, allowing visitors to sample an ever-changing selection of mustards on pretzel rods. The tasting experience turns a passive museum visit into something interactive, and most visitors find themselves lingering at the tasting table far longer than planned. The gift shop sells an enormous selection of mustards, many of which are difficult to find elsewhere, along with mustard-themed merchandise ranging from the tasteful to the gleefully ridiculous.
MustardPiece Theatre and Special Events
The museum has a small theater, cheekily named the MustardPiece Theatre, that screens mustard-related films and provides a venue for the museum’s programming. The annual World-Wide Mustard Competition, held each summer, draws entries from producers around the globe competing across dozens of categories. The results of the competition are displayed in the museum and inform the mustard selections stocked in the gift shop. Attending on competition weekend adds another layer of activity to an already entertaining visit.
The museum hosts various special events throughout its operating season, and the staff has a well-earned reputation for customer engagement that goes well beyond what most small museums manage. The overall atmosphere is one of contagious enthusiasm for an unlikely subject, and it’s nearly impossible to leave without feeling better about the world than when you arrived.
Middleton and the Madison Area
Middleton is a pleasant suburb immediately west of Madison with good restaurants and easy access to the capital city’s many attractions. The National Mustard Museum makes an excellent warm-up or wind-down for a day that also includes the University of Wisconsin campus, the Olbrich Botanical Gardens, the Wisconsin State Capitol, or the many independent restaurants and shops of Madison’s vibrant downtown. The museum is small enough to visit in 45 minutes to an hour, making it an easy addition to any Madison-area itinerary rather than a destination requiring significant time commitment.
Getting There
The National Mustard Museum is located at 7477 Hubbard Avenue in Middleton, Wisconsin, easily accessible from the Beltline Highway (U.S. 12/14/18) west of Madison. Admission is free, which makes it a risk-free detour for the skeptical. The museum is open daily year-round except major holidays. Parking is available in the lot adjacent to the building. Even if mustard holds zero appeal as a subject, the sheer commitment of the enterprise and the quality of the free samples make it worth at least a brief stop on any Madison-area visit.
The National Mustard Museum is Wisconsin at its most wonderfully weird, a monument to the idea that passion for anything, pursued with enough dedication and good humor, can become something genuinely worth celebrating. Go in with an open mind and you’ll leave with a jar of something unusual and a story worth telling.