For Charlie Adams, the start of the barbecue season each spring brings back memories of his grandmother Adora Spencer teaching him how to make her sweet and spicy mustard. “I remember helping mix the ingredients in a saucepan when I was 10,” he recalls.
Charlie continued to make the mustard for friends and family throughout the years. Then, in 2010, after his job was eliminated by the firm where he had worked for 32 years, he decided to produce and sell the mustard commercially.
The problem was that he had no idea how to proceed.
After a trip to the National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin, and a visit with the museum’s curator, he returned to St. Charles with a plan and a list of food industry contacts. Soon, he was in business, selling Adora’s mustard at farmers’ markets under the name Grandpa Spencer’s Mustard.
“Adora should really be getting all the credit, but Grandpa Harry Spencer [Adora’s husband] was the biggest fan of the mustard,” Charlie says.
Subscribe
Get a Missouri Life Magazine Subscription & Save Up to 69% Off Newsstand Prices!
Subscribe Today
In 2014, following Adora’s example, Charlie developed his own hot and spicy horseradish mustard recipes and added two new products to his line.
Today, Charlie is retired but continues to operate his mustard business as a hobby, selling at local markets and specialty food stores around the St. Louis metropolitan area. “I do ship all over the country, mostly to people who follow mustard competitions,” he says. “We have won over 20 awards.”
With the barbecue season approaching, there are plenty of creative ways to enjoy this award-winning, gluten-free mustard.
Photos by Grandpa Spencer’s Mustard
This article was originally published in the June 2025 issue of Missouri Life.
