Mince Pie Of The Year

              A group of respected pie connoisseurs select Britain’s best Mince Pie 2015 @UKBestMincePie     

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Waitrose Essential Mince Pies

More Waitrose pies, but they are far from essential. 

The prize for least festive box goes to.......

What is there to say about these pies except “don’t buy them”?

Well, they are poorly presented, the pastry and filling are horrible and the overall experience is like chewing a bag of wet flour. 

By virtue of only costing 16 pence per pie Waitrose Essential pies actually score higher than the equally disappointing  Waitrose Deep Filled; breaking the top ten with 1010.6.

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Waitrose Deep Filled Mince Pies

Which ever mince pies followed F&M were bound to be a disappointment but we expected better from apparent quality super market Waitrose. 

An uninspiring box.

A half hearted Christmas star motif.

Upon biting into the pie we discover a big air gap, and that the pastry is pretty horrible. The pastry almost tastes as if it’s not been cooked! The filling is also poor; an undefined mush that tastes too sweet. 

Waitrose isn't know for being cheep, and these pies weigh in at 28p per pie and we certainly expect better at that price. A score of only 744 and 13th place. 

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Fortnum & Mason Mince Pie Medley

Fortnum & Mason is another upmarket department store like Harrods, but specialising in food. 

Look at that box! A thing of beauty containing 12 mince pies. 

We have to be honest, these pies were expensive at £1.58 per pie (but still cheaper than Harrods) so are unlikely to hit the top of the score charts, but please read on!

OK, so the pie doesn't look very festive; we guess all that icing sugar could be snow? This photograph doesn't really do the pie justice as it is roughly double the height of standard mince pie! 

The taste. It’s amazing. We were determined to prove that you didn't have to buy expensive pies for the best taste, but we were wrong. This is the best tasting pie, by far! Filling was near enough perfect (Average score of 9.78!) 

Pastry slightly let down by the big air gap but still so delicious and overall experience was as perfect as Donald Trump is bigoted. One tester marked down the pie because it was so rich it gave him indigestion....he was released from his contract.    

There were apparently two different flavoured mince pies in the box, but we couldn't tell the difference. 

As stated these pies are expensive and as a result Fortnum & Mason only scores 555.5 Pie Points, but we cannot stress enough THESE PIES ARE INCREDIBLE. If you can afford them, buy them. Forgo the Turkey, just get these pies. 

15th Place.

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Marks & Spencer Christmas Star

Marks & Spencer (M&S) are kind of a big deal in the UK, and we’re reviewed some of their other pies favourably. 

Christmas Star are a more upmarket offering:

Lovely gold box and preview window; the pies look very appetising.

(We apologise for the blurry image; our photographer hadn't had a mince pie for a few days and was experiencing withdrawal, causing his hands to shake) 

Pie is well presented and looks very Christmasy. Instead of the usual foil pie case the M&S star pie comes with a biodegradable case; this is probably the most eco-friendly mince pie yet. 

Taste: the filling is rich and delicious and gathers good scores from the tasters, but the pastry is a little floury. However, the pie still scores well for overall experience. Once again price stops the pie from climbing higher up the Pie rank, at £0.44 per pie, but still a good score of 1152.78 pie points and 8th place on the leader board.

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Harrods Cherry & Armagnac Mince Pies

Harrods is an upmarket department store in London, famous for, amongst other things, its food court. 

There were great expectations for their mince pies, especially at the eye watering price of £1.65 per pie!

When you buy mince pies from Harrods they send you a card thanking you, which was nice. Fancy box too.

Harrods are bigger and more important than Christmas, so in place of a Christmas motif we get the Harrods “H”.

The pies smell wonderful, capturing the essence of Christmas, and the filling is delicious, well defined and densely packed.

The problem with these pies is the pastry; it’s very very gingery and overpowers the taste of the taste of the filling. Despite very high scores for filling, scores for pastry and overall experience are no better than average, and once the price is included Harrods only score 263.74 points, putting them in 15th place! It is worth noting that before the weighting for price was added to the score, these Pie wouldn't break the top 3, so even if you’re millionaire you’re still going get a better tasting pie at Iceland.

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Tesco Bakery Puff Pastry Mince Pies

These pies were controversial, they divided opinion, people loved them or hated them, they were the Donald Trump of mince pies!

Why? Puff Pastry!

Mince Pie “Traditionalists” believe that mince pies should be made with shortcrust pastry and thus these Tesco pies should not be under consideration for “Mince Pie of The Year”. Mince Pie “Radicals” however point out that a the definition of pie is “ A baked dish of fruit, or meat and vegetables, typically with a top and base of pastry” and as these contain Mince they are most certainly Mince Pies!

Traditionalists and Radicals both agreed that the filling tastes very good, but the pastry is where opinion is divided! One Traditionalist gave the pastry zero out of ten, which almost caused a riot!! Men had to be physically restrained when a Radical gave the pastry ten out of ten! 

To add the controversy the lowish price of the pies (£0.25 per pie) and the decent scores actually had these pies at the top of the leader board for a time before settling down into a still slightly controversial 2nd place!

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Walkers Spiced Orange & Cranberry Mince Pies

These pies helped spark the great pie debate of 2015. 

Although nothing looks too suspicious on the box, but looking at the pie “in the flesh” you can see it has no top to it:

Thus, can this really be classed as a pie? Pies should have a top, is this just a tart pretending to be a pie? Imagine the controversy if this “pie” won pie of the year? Not to worry, it won’t.

You only get 4 pies to a box, and at £2.79 these need to be really delicious to trouble the top of the chart. 

The added cranberry and spiced orange do add a christmasy touch to the filling which scores well. The pastry also scores a decent average, giving a good overall score

The price holds these pies/tarts back and it’s worth noting that if scores were calculated on taste alone these pies would be sitting in 4th place, but this is a list for the average person, not millionaires!  Thus Walkers Spiced Orange and Cranberry mince pies manage only 12th spot :(

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Walkers Glenfiddich Luxury Mince Pies

Combining two of Scotland’s great loves, shortbread and Whisky, these were met with excitement at Pie HQ!

The pies are packaged in a very fancy box, no preview window however. 

All the “fancy” budget was spent on the box, as the pies themselves look very plain. In fact they look exactly the same as the standard Walkers pies.

Even though they look the same they taste different, and in many ways, worse. You can definitely taste the alcohol, but some found it overbearing. The pastry might well be the same but combined with the filling gives a lower overall experience score. 

Of course price is a factor, and these pies are pricey; 66.5p per pie! The most expensive yet. Total score? 451.56 pie points. A disappointment.

See these pies perform disappointingly on the rankings page.

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Walkers Luxury Mincemeat Tarts

Walkers are famous for their Scottish Shortbread; can they cut it in the ultra competitive world of Mince Pies? Let’s find out!

 Attractive and very Scottish themed box, but no preview pane. No pie decoration either. 

Pleasingly the filling is as densely packed into the pie as it is shown on the box, and it tastes very good too! The pastry is a little less enjoyable; much thicker than most other pies and lacking flavour. Overall a very good pie experience though. 

The one thing holding these pies back is the price; almost 50p per pie! Easily the most expensive we have tested so far. It’s the high price that stop these pies from challenging right at the top of the rankings, resulting in a surprisingly low 904.22 Pie Points and leaving Walkers’ pies in 9th place. 

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Marks and Spencer Classic

Marks and Spencer’s (M&S) used to be a byword for quality. In recent years the company has not enjoyed the success it used to, thanks partly to the fact that their main customer base (old women) are dying off. 

Much is expected of their pie offerings this year.

Even the cheapest mince pies from M&S are “All Butter” (£2 for 6), an encouraging start. No preview window, but should we be worrying? It is M&S after all! 

The pie itself has a very “classic” look, not even a Christmas motif. 

Upon biting into the pie we discover a generous filling and no air gap between filling and pie roof. The pastry is nice, but not outstanding. The same goes for the filling, which scores well but not well enough to trouble the top of the score board. The filling also has a very “zesty” taste which some testers found overbearing.

Overall, a solid safe bet pie from M&S. Not too expensive, but expensive enough to reassure you of it’s quality. Solid marks for filling, pastry and pie experience give an overall score of 1195.797; good enough for 5th overall so far!   

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Mr Kipling Deep Filled Mince Pies

Mr Kilpling is known for the slogan “[He] makes exceedingly good cakes” and early 20th century novels (admittedly this might be a different Mr Kipling...)

His cakes may be good, but how are his pies?

No preview pane in the box, note how rounded the top of the pie looks in the box picture. 

The real pie has a rather flat top and the pastry doesn't look as golden as the box picture except around the edges where it looks burnt. Nice holly detail though.

On biting into the pie we find well defined fruit filling and no air gap, but that’s as good as it gets for these pies. The filling taste is a disappointment and the pastry tastes, there’s no other way of putting it, bad! We did not enjoying eating these pies. Worse still is that these pies cost a penny more than the excellent Iceland pies reviewed previously!

All the negative points lead to a score of 633.88, embarrassingly low for Mr Kipling, placing the pies below the awful ALDI basic pies (but still above LIDL) in 9th place. 

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Iceland Luxury Mince Pies

UK retailer Iceland is known for it’s huge selection of frozen foods, but they do offer unfrozen products, including mince pies

Spoiler Alert! These mince pies were good, really good. So good we ate them all before taking a picture, but they look as good as they do on the box.

The pastry is all butter and delicious, easily the best we've tasted so far and then there is the filling; great fruit definition and the cranberries give an extra Christmas taste!  The added alcohol also gives an extra taste punch without being overpowering. 

The other good news is the price; £1.49 for 6 (24.8p per pie) not the cheapest, or the most expensive, but great value for the taste. After such praise the pie scores 2171.88 Pie points, easily hitting the top of the rankings list!

Go buy some and eat them. 

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LIDL Favorina

LIDL is the budget super market of budget super markets in the UK, competing directly with ALDI. Like ALDI, LIDL has a growing reputation which now sees the car park packed out on the weekend as the population flock to buy cheap Parma ham.

On to the pies:

You get 12 pies for £2, a good start. You cannot see the contents of the box, perhaps the image below tells you why:

A nice festive holly leaf detail but other than that the pie isn't the most appetizing we've tested.

It gets worse.

The pastry is mostly flavourless, tasting either underdone in the middle or overdone at the edge. The pastry is also surprisingly thick (in a bad way).

It gets worse.

The filling is a joke. It’s a good thing we had 12 pies to make sure the filling is as intended. There is zero, ZERO, filling definition. The filling resembles a paste that has been pumped into the pie, worse still, it tastes dreadful.

No air gap though, so a little plus.

So, low scores for pastry, filling and overall pie experience give LIDL Favorina mince pies a total score of, an embarrassingly low, 248.06 Pie Points; putting LIDL in, would you believe it(!?) DEAD LAST.

See it sitting in last place over on the Rankings Page

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Morrisons Signiture

Morrisons super market would like to think they can compete with Tesco and Sainsbury’s. Their “Signature” range are the top of line (i.e. most expensive) products offering “The very best is Quality AND Taste”; we’ll see about that.

Another pie with all butter pastry, and festive looking box. That pie is the corner sure looks delicious. Suitable for Vegetarians too, lovely.

The pie itself has no festive decoration, which is a bit of a disappointment. Disappointment does not end there; the all butter pastry only slightly better than the ALDI top of the range pie and well behind Tesco and Sainsbury’s too. 

The filling does not live up to hype displayed on the box image; not very well defined or tasting, again well behind Tesco and Sainsbury’s and even CO-OP.

Poor pastry and filling scores inevitably lead to a poor overall score and at 29 pence per pie Morrisons Signature pies score a lack lustre 912.03 pie points, leaving the pies in an underwhelming  6th place :( See how they compare on the rankings page.

Its worth noting that Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s top of the range pies are 4 pence more expensive per pie, are they worth the extra money vs Morrisions? Absolutely yes! 

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Tesco Finest All Butter Pastry

Another mince pie from Tesco, this time their “Finest” offering. These are Tesco’s direct competition to the Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference pies, so how do they compare?

A nicely presented box that informs you that the pies are made with Cognac (you cannot taste it...) and you can see the lovely snow flake decoration. 

We were obviously very eager to taste these pies as a bite has been taken before we could even take a photograph....

There is not too much sugar on the top, but the pastry tastes a little burnt around the edges....the filling however is easily the best we've tried thus far, superb flavour and great fruit definition. 

One taster said the pie was the “best I have ever eaten” and gave it 10 for pastry, filling and overall taste. Some doubt his sanity.

Despite the slightly burnt pastry and the fact that these pies are the most expensive so far (33p per pie) the great filling and overall taste scores give an overall Pie Index of 1561.875 which eclipses the previous leader (Tesco Bakery) and gives Tesco Finest All Butter Pastry mince pies the top spot! Tesco are now holding first and second place! Head over to the rankings page to see Tesco’s dominant position for yourself!

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Tesco Bakery

Tesco’s have an in store bakery in most locations. The next batch of pies were apparently baked at an in store bakery, or maybe just defrosted. Either way, they were pretty good pies!

No problem seeing what awaits you here thanks to the big plastic box, not very festive though. You get four pies for a pound (25p per pie) but will they be worth it? 

The presentation of the pie isn't fabulous but does give a “home made” feel if you wanted to pass them off as your own. 

The taste is majestic; the filling rich and well defined. The pastry is good, but not the best so far, however the lack of a full pastry top allows the flavour of the filling to come through nicely.

The great taste and average price give a total pie score of 1390.464 which, would you believe it, catapults the pie in FIRST PLACE, thanks in part to being cheaper per pie than the Sainsbury’s taste the difference offering.

Head over to the rankings page, if you wish (you should).

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ALDI everyday essentials

ALDI’s image as a low cost no frills supermarket is changing, but they still offer a wide variety of products on the “low-end” of the quality scale. For example, their super basic mince pies:

The packaging is easily the most budget we have seen so far, but these pies cost a mere 59p for six!

Perhaps all the cost saving has been made in the packaging and the pies themselves will be to a decent standard? No.

The presentation of the pie is pretty poor; no festive motif. The pie itself is anything but deep filled, being less than 10mm thick. 

The pastry is particularly “floury”  and mostly tasteless. However, if you are able to actually find some filling it actually tastes pretty good.

The overall taste is dominated by the pastry and lack of filling leading to an overall score of 850.9 putting the pie dead last in the rankings, the score would of been much lower if they cost more than 10p per pie!