The loveFOOD mince pie taste test

12 people, 84 mince pies to try: let the 2012 loveFOOD mince pie taste test begin!

It would be sacrilege to let Christmas go by without eating a mince pie. And because many of us are too busy buying presents and worrying about the turkey this time of year, shop-bought mince pies can be a godsend. So to make sure you buy the right ones, we tested 14 different types – from Lidl and Aldi pies all the way up to Harrods and Heston’s – on 12 greedy colleagues, asking them to mark each one out of ten for filling, pastry and appearance.

I’ve worked out a grand total for each entry (filling mark + pastry mark + appearance mark), with a possible 360 points up for grabs. So starting from the worst-performing pie and working upwards, here are our results…

11th place – Budgens ‘Supervalu’

These poor pies scored a miserable 48% for their filling, even less for their pastry, and 50% for their appearance. Comments included “the pastry is too dry”; “supermarket feel to it”; “below standard”; “pastry tasted uncooked”; and even “slightly sour aftertaste”. Mind you, with an average price of 25p per pie and a name which drops the ‘e’ in ‘Supervalu’, we weren’t expecting miracles.

Grand total: 47%
Cost: £1.50 for six.

10th place – Co-op ‘Irresistible butter crust’

The Co-op offering actually scored one point less than Budgens on filling, but excelled on pastry (50%) and appearance (60%) to secure tenth place. “Sugar and spice but not entirely nice,” said news editor Simon; “awful”; “powdery pastry”; “weird taste to the filling” moaned others. A couple of people found the holly pattern very pretty indeed, though.

Grand total: 52%
Cost: £2 for six

9th place – Riverford ‘Organic’

Oh dear. We weren’t expecting our box of Riverford organic mince pies to perform this badly, especially when The Telegraph’s Rose Prince praised them for being “the most delicious mince pies I have ever tasted”. Despite her opinions, they only scored 56% for filling, about the same for pastry, and a disappointing 46% for appearance, due to their rustic style. Comments included “OMG so heavy”; “pretty doughy pastry”; “too sweet”; and “looks like it’s been stepped on.” Not really good enough, when each pie costs about 83p. On the upside though, office manager Nick couldn’t stop raving about them: “definitely my favourite! Tastes like flowers”.

Grand total: 53%
Cost: £4.95 for six

8th place – Sainsbury’s (In-store bakery)

All the supermarket pies seem to be performing badly so far. Sainsbury’s scores the same as Riverford for pastry, but gets lower for filling (47%) and higher for appearance (59%). Comments included “It’s not a pie, it’s a cookie with mince jam” to “lacking in filling”; “nothing special”; and “no flavour”. Favourable comments were lacking, although a couple of sweet-toothed tasters appreciated how sugary the filling was. This was our only supermarket mince pie that came from the in-store bakery (costing 25p each), which we initially thought would give it a head start. Clearly we were wrong!  

Grand total: 54%
Cost: £1 for four

7th place – M&S ‘Ultimate all-butter’

Another surprising result, given the quality usually associated with M&S. The ribboned box they came in was beautiful, but the pies themselves only scored 53% for appearance, 60% for filling (getting better) and 62% for pastry. Some approved of the “nice firm pastry”, whilst others said it was “too dry” or “lacking in rich-ness”. Compliments included “nice rustic feel to it” and “looks handmade”, both of which were overshadowed by “nondescript in pretty much every department”. Again, not really good enough when you’re paying 75p per pie.

Grand total: 58%
Cost: £2.99 for four

Joint 6th place – Tesco ‘Finest’ and Fortnum & Mason ‘Almond mince pies’

What fun, a 42p Tesco pie drawing with a £1.66 Fortnum & Mason pie! It just goes to show that you should never judge a mince pie by its box (the F&M one, pictured here, was beautifully ornate). Both performed reasonably well, with Tesco winning on both filling (64% compared to F&M’s 58%) and pastry (60% compared to 58%), but F&M unsurprisingly winning on appearance due to its sugary almond crust (60% compared to Tesco’s 51%).

Comments for Tesco included “a tasty number which stands out for its filling”; “too much alcohol in this”; “not very exciting to look at”; and “average.” No-one picked up on the almonds in the F&M pie, and tasters disagreed on the pastry: “a cakey texture – I like how different it is”; “the pastry really let this one down”; and “weird pastry – I don’t like it”.

Grand total for both: 59%
Cost: £9.95 for six (F&M); £2.50 for six (Tesco)

Joint 5th place – Harrods ‘Limited edition Cointreau and orange’ and Lidl ‘Snowy Lodge’

Another comical pair. This time it’s a 16p pie (our cheapest in the test) drawing with a £1.66 pie… that’s over ten times the price to pay for the same standard of pie! Madness. Lidl (pictured here) actually beat Harrods on both filling (58% compared to 54%) and appearance (a whopping 69% compared to 60%), but was let down by its pastry – Harrods scored an impressive 65% for its crust, whereas Lidl got just 53%.

The Harrods pie was too boozy for some: “I’d have to take it easy eating these on Christmas day”; “too much alcohol!”; “where’s the bin?”; and “these will get granny wasted at Christmas!” (loveFOOD editor Andrew, who’s fond of a tipple, said they were his favourite). There were a few compliments too: “crunchy and tasty”; and “a classy pie”. Lidl was accused of being “stodgy” and “cheap tasting”, but was also praised for its “rich taste” and “very pretty” appearance.

Grand total for both: 60%
Cost: £9.95 for six (Harrods); £1.89 for 12 (Lidl)

Joint 4th place – Aldi ‘Specially selected’ and Greggs ‘Sweet mince pies’

A fantastic performance from both pies, considering the cost (28p for an Aldi pie and 23p for a Greggs one). Aldi scored around about 60% for every category, while Greggs exceeded in appearance (67%) and lost marks for its filling (53%).

People loved the Aldi pie for its “perfect pastry”, “tasty filling” and “fragrance”, although some still detected “supermarket quality”. Comments for Greggs included “pretty looking”; “love it!”; and “what a mince pie should taste like”. Some found the sweetness of the mince “overbearing” though, whilst one taster said that it “looks like a child made it”.

Grand total for both: 61%
Cost: £1.69 for six (Aldi); £1.40 for six (Greggs)

Bronze – Morrisons

Hurrah for Morrisons! The highest performing ‘cheap’ option, at 33p per pie. It scored a brilliant 73% for appearance, 60% for pastry and 54% for filling. Flattering comments ranged from “a Christmassy appearance” to “above average” and “looks beautiful and posh”. But where it impressed on appearance, it was criticised for being “too sweet and not enough depth in the mincemeat”, and one unhappy elf said that it “tasted horrible – I wanted to spit it out!” It just goes to show how subjective a person’s mince pie tastes can be.

Grand total: 62%
Cost: £2 for six

Silver – Euphorium bakery

The only small chain bakery (there are about seven across London) in our taste test performed very well indeed. The Euphorium pies were deep and sticky, which did make them tricky to get out of their foil cases (I had to chop up all 84 pies into quarters, so I’m qualified to say that). It scored 69% for its filling, 63% for its pastry and 62% for appearance. Comments included “tastes handmade”; “a good balance between pastry and filling”; and “wonderfully moist”. Some people found it too rich though, and one taster said that the pasty was more like cookie dough. It’s also worth noting that each pie costs £1.60… you could get five or so equally decent Morrisons pies for that price.

Grand total: 65%
Cost: £1.60 per pie

Gold – Heston Blumenthal’s ‘Spiced shortcrust’, from Waitrose

Heston’s whacky pies have won for two years running now. Last year it was puff pastry pies with pine sugar dusting, and this time it’s his spiced shortcrust offering, which comes with a sachet of tangerine flavoured sugar for sprinkling on top. The mincemeat is flavoured with lemon curd, rose water and apple juice, and they look more like fancy biscuits than mince pies (see the last photo in the slideshow above) – a fact which our taste team loved. They scored an incredible 78% for appearance and 68% for both pastry and filling, putting them clear of second place Euphorium by 24 points.  

“A different take that works pretty well”; “liked the look of this one”; “nice to see something a bit different”; and “tastes great, especially if you love cinnamon” were among the compliments. But you can never please everyone – some found the cinnamon overpowering, whilst others yearned for a more traditional-looking mince pie.

Grand total: 71%
Cost: £3.29 for four 

Which shop-bought mince pie is your favourite? Or would you always bake your own? Talk to us in the comments box below.

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