Maple Grove Farms of Vermont Lite Honey Mustard

The advertising statement for this dressing claims - “Finally…a lite dressing full of flavor with all the zing of our original Honey Mustard. One of our favorites!” I cannot really disagree with this statement since I haven’t tried their original Honey Mustard but I would not say it has much “zing”. The smell is not very strong and the taste is similar. It has a good flavor that is not overpowering but a little on the sweet side rather than sharp or spicy.

This dressing has more fat, carbs and sugars compared to many other “light” dressing and this is reflected in the starting ingredient, high fructose sugar. That is followed by water, cider vinegar, vegetable oil (contains soy or canola oil), dry buttermilk, Dijon mustard (back mustard seeds, vinegar, white wine, salt spices), honey, salt, mustard (mustard seeds, vinegar, salt, spices), mustard powder, lemon juice concentrate, mustard seed, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate (preservative), caramel color, dry onion and dry garlic. This does indicate that mustard is definitely in this dressing since it is mentioned several times in the list of ingredients but the taste is not as sharp as you would think.

As I mentioned earlier, this dressing is not as “lite” as some others. The total fat is 5g (7%) with 0.5 g of saturated fat (4%) and total carbs = 9g (3%) and 9g of sugar. Also the sodium content is high with 300mg (13%). Apart from this the dressing is pleasant, sweet but not overpowering. If it had fewer fat and calories I would not object to using this dressing frequently. I compares fairly well again the Newman’s Own Light Honey Mustard dressing but is not as tangy or strong-tasting.

Taste Rating = 7
Overall Rating = 6
Style Category = Honey Mustard
Fat Category = low
Calorie Category = med calorie
Nutritional Category = none
Sodium Category = med

NEWMAN’S OWN LIGHT HONEY MUSTARD

In my book this is the “gold standard” by which all other salad dressings are judged. This has been my favorite dressing since the first time I tasted it around 2 years ago. I have eaten it, on the average, of three times a week since then and I’m still not tired of it. I, for one, am amazed by this. I can’t imagine eating anything else that frequently and not being ready to gag if I had to eat it again.

The smell is not very strong upon sniffing the open bottle. It is slightly reminiscent of Dijon mustard although that is not one of the ingredients in it but it does list “Creole mustard” as one. The taste, however, is very strong for a “light” dressing. The first taste every time causes me to pucker just a little bit because of the tartness of it. The taste does not get weaker but stays just a strong throughout the salad but you kind of get used to this tartness. This dressing is fairly thick and has small bits of something dark in it that I can’t identify by reading the ingredients on the label. It looks something like small brown seeds. It could be mustard seeds but the label states that it only contains “ground mustard seed”.

The statistics on the label compares it to regular honey mustard dressing. It states that it has “60% Less Fat and 45% Fewer Calories than Regular Honey Mustard Dressing”. It is not extremely low-fat (4 grams vs. 11 grams) and not extremely low calorie (70 calories vs. 126 calories) or sugar-free (5 grams). The list of ingredients does not contain many surprises; water, Creole mustard (ground mustard seed, distilled vinegar, salt), cider vinegar, sugar, vegetable oil (soybean oil and/or canola oil), maltodextrin, hone, contains 2% or less of : salt, buttermilk solids (milk), spice, xanthan gum, lemon juice concentrate, dried onion, dried garlic. It also has an expiration date on the bottle and I guess this helps to insure freshness but I wouldn’t think it would spoil or get weaker while sealed in the bottle.

As I stated earlier – this is my favorite dressing and until I find a lower-calorie offering with as much taste I’m going to stick with this. As a bonus their web site tell us that “Newman's Own, Inc. makes no gift to charity, but Paul Newman, who receives all the profits and royalties from Newman's Own, Inc., distributes all of that personally to the charities of his choice. Since the inception of the company, it is our understanding that the total amount of those gifts to charity has been approximately $200 million.”

Rating = 9

Style Category = Honey Mustard
Fat Category = fat free
Calorie Category = low calorie
Nutritional Category = none
Sodium Category = high

Wishbone Light Honey Dijon

This dressing from Wishbone used to be called “Just 2 Good” but it is not. This dressing has more of a sweet taste than others based on Dijon mustard. This taste is more like a honey mustard dressing because there is no “zip” to it. The taste is not bad just kind of weak. It seemed that I had to use more to be able to taste the dressing or it would be overpowered by even a weak salad.

The calories in this dressing are not too bad (50) and fat calories = 20 but as I mentioned above I tended to add more than the proper serving size in order to be able to taste the dressing. The ingredient list is pretty much on par with the other however in the list of leading ingredients are high fructose corn syrup, sugar and honey. These are 3 of the top 6 ingredients and lead to the 6g of sugars and 8g total carbs.

This dressing is a good choice if you like a sweet tasting honey Dijon dressing. It is not as sweet as a Catalina type dressing but more than usual for a Dijon dressing. The sodium of not too bad (250 mg/10%) and if you can stick to the serving size it is fairly good on calories.

Taste Rating = 5 bottles
Overall Rating = 5 bottles
Style Category = Honey Mustard
Fat Category = low fat
Calorie Category = low calorie
Nutritional Category = none
Sodium Category = med low