2020 - Heston from Waitrose - 4 Spiced Shortcrust Mince Pies with a Lemon Twist

Most mince pies come with a foil base. These don't. I like the foil base. It's like a mini plate to reduce spillage and to catch precious pieces of shortcrust pastry. I lost a lot of topping eating these.

Okay, so I've reviewed these before, 4 years ago. Which I feel is sufficient time to have forgotten what these tasted like to warrant an updated review. Let's see if anything has changed.

Lack of foil base and a missing section of topping on 2 of the 4 in my box (no, it's not mold) aside these are great.

The pastry is crumbly, buttery and spiced perfectly, quite the delight and very different from your usual shortcrust. The topping looks far more natural as from memory, 4 years ago, it looked like rabbit food pellets. Crumbly and buttery too, more akin to your standard shortcrust pastry, in crumble form.

On the other hand the mincemeat is nice but, it was lacking in quantity. It was hard to taste as there was an additional lemon curd esq filling to give the mince pie that lemon twist. This lack of a filling meant it is a pastry heavy pie and for those that like interesting pastry over filling, you'll love these. 

Still just about passes muster as a mince pie so let's score them.

6 points - Presentation

4 points - Nutritional content & Price

34 points - Pastry

27 points - Mincemeat

5 points - Satisfaction level

The Mince Pie Administration Score - 76 / 100

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