Saturday 9 November 2013

Morrisons Christmas 9 Mini Mince Pies

Here at the Administration, we tend to overlook the mini mince pies as generally being mostly pastry and never really being that great or noteworthy. That is until some are thrust in your direction. They cannot be overlooked in those circumstances! We decided to dust off the crumbs from the larger mince pies, print out new score sheets and take a very small bite out of these mini mince pies to see whether anything has changed.


Presentation - 4


The packaging does nothing to add to its score. A cellophane wrapper with a tray of 9 mini mince pies inside is quite simple. I'm not sure whether these are baked in store and so are packaged in the simplest way possible or whether these are baked elsewhere. Either way the packaging is shoddy and once opened the cellophane wrapping tears easily and so it is difficult to keep these protected or covered again. Christmas decorations extend only to the wonky sticker applied to each side.

As for the mince pies themselves, they are much more "Christmassy". Each mince pie is decorated with a surprisingly detailed (for mince pie decoration) snowflake. Each mince pie is identical, except one on the top left, which seems to have symmetry problems! Each pie looks evenly baked and tasty.



Nutritional Content & Price - 7

If you estimate that each of these mini mince pies are half the size of a full mince pie, they are doing pretty well on the nutritional front. 107 calories, 9.5g or sugar and 4.1g of fat. If you double these to compare to a regular mince pie, you will find they are pretty good.

At £1.69 for one packet and at the time of purchase available also at 2 for £2.50. So, buying 2 packets will save you £0.88. These are not that bad value - unless you look at it from the point of view that 2 mini mince pies equal 1 regular sized mince pie; in which case you're getting 4.5 mince pies for £1.69. Doesn't sound that great now, does it?

Pastry - 13

The pastry is very buttery - to the point where it is too soft unfortunately. It is not too sweet, which is good. However, for me there is too much pastry. For a mini mince pie, they have done well in keeping the thickness down, but it is still a little too much for me. I would say that the pastry hasn't absorbed the moisture from the mincemeat, but there is barely any mincemeat in there to form a decent opinion.


Mincemeat - 10

Sorry, for a mini mince pie, you would expect that it would actually be harder to half fill a mince pie, but Morrisons have managed it here. In fact, there is much less than half. It is a pathetic amount of mincemeat. Not even enough to taste through the pastry. The sticker on the packet says that these are filled with vine fruit, cherry and brandy. This sounds promising, but due the minuscule amount present, I have my doubts as to whether all three of those ingredients were actually present. I tried to scoop out what was there to taste, but all I tasted were currents and sugar. I am disappointed as there was plenty of space for it too. Usually the thickness from the pastry leaves no room for the mincemeat.

Overall Satisfaction - 2

Not everyone will agree but my arguments for passing over the mini mince pie market still stand. However, this mince pie shows that the possibility of an evenly distributed mini mince pie is out there - just need someone to actually fill it (pun intended!).


Here are the scores from my fellow mincers;

Tester 1 
Presentation (5) Nutritional content & Price (5) Pastry (18) Mincemeat (20) Satisfaction Level (5)
"Stodge!"
Tester 2
Presentation (7) Nutritional content & Price (7) Pastry (33) Mincemeat (32) Satisfaction Level (9)
"Smooth, soft, buttery loveliness"
Tester 3
Presentation (1) Nutritional content & Price (7) Pastry (15) Mincemeat (20) Satisfaction Level (3.5)
"This is one pie I suggest not to buy."


OVERALL

55.9 / 100

Look at where these fit in on our leader board.
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