Mince Pie Taste Test – best mince pie Christmas 2015

Mince pies = officially the start of Christmas.

But not all mince pies are created equal – how do you know which one to go for when everybody knows you can’t really eat more than one…or two…ok maybe three without feeling just a little bit ill… Which mince pie actually is the best mince pie?

Well, we’ve done the hard job of multiple mince pie eating so you don’t have to – and we’ve come up with a winner from all the mainstream mince pies from major UK retailers.

Pies were rated according to texture, taste, appearance and fill, on a scale of 1-5, by four willing testers during a bit of an evening get-together. No-one other than me knew which pie was which, and everyone was somewhat surprised by which pies came out on top!

So where can you get the best mince pie of 2015?

Here are the results!

ALDI  – ‘fairly bland pastry but a good filling‘

My personal favourite from last year, this came in joint third with a score of 14.

ASDA – ‘bit too sweet, not keen on the pastry‘

Overall rating a somewhat disappointing 6 out of 20…well, there’s always next year!

Iceland – ‘overwhelmingly unexpectedly tasty – the adverts are all true!’

Came in a very respectable second, with a score of 14.5.

WINNER! M&S – ‘good spice, like the extra sugar on top‘

The most traditional looking of all the pies (appearance is where it fell down although it has since grown on me), and a winner with everyone – M&S Mince Pies were our winner with 15.5 out of 20!

Morrisons – ‘pastry not great, bland and quite savoury‘

A middling mince pie, coming in at 9.5.

Mr Kipling – ‘good, but not great‘

Perhaps not exceedingly good, but certainly not all that bad either with a score of 13.5.

Sainsburys – ‘too much pastry, more orangey than mince-y‘

Not exactly what we were expecting, which is why it only scored 9.5.

Tesco – ‘jammy‘

The mince ‘meat’ was more like mince ‘gravy’, but we liked the appearance and that boosted it up to 10.

Waitrose – ‘flaky crumbly pastry‘

But turns out that’s a good thing, as it’s joint third with 14.

So there you have it – M&S, ALDI, Iceland and Waitrose are the places to be this year if you like a good mince pie!

Happy eating 😀

 

Disclosure: I bought all these pies myself (and I ate them all myself too, whoops!) – this post is in no way endorsed or sponsored by any of the supermarkets or brands mentioned.