2020 - Waitrose - Butter Enriched Mince Pies

Being a Waitrose's standard mince pie they carry certain expectations. They should be on a par with the luxury range from the likes of Aldi, Tesco and Morrisons. 

2018 - Sainsbury's - Taste the Difference 6 mince pies

Stop the press! It's a mainstream supermarket that's claiming to have changed their mince pie recipe. Kudos Sainsbury's, you deserve another review so, let's get to it!

2018 - Harrods - Spiced Salted Caramel Mince Pies

Right, mince pie lovers. We're back with a new mince pie and a slighty refined reviews. Don't worry, the same amount of decision-making is going into each mince pie review, were just going to spare you from all the detail.
We're kicking this year off with the big guns a previous year winner, Harrods.

Spar - 6 Mince Pies

Now this is a treat. I was queuing at my local petrol garage to pay for my fuel oblivious to the fact that I was standing in a Spar. I just to happen to glance to my right and saw these. Without any hesitation at all, I picked these up immediately and paid for them. Lets see how these do amongst the rest on the leaderboard.

Morrisons - Signature - All Butter Deep Filled Mince Pies

I thought I'd change things up this year and buy a mince pie from the Morrisons Signature range. I'm beginning to notice that many of the standard mince pies from the big supermarkets are all very similar. Lets see if their premium range is worth the extra pennies.

Mr Kipling - Exceedingly Merry - 6 Mince Pies

Mr Kipling always seems to be one of the first mince pies of the season I try. Maybe I have high hopes for it, or it is just a good bench mark to start the season off with? Lets see how it fairs.

Riverford Farm Shop - Organic Mince Pies

We have a newbie to the blog here today. Riverford! Famous for their wide range of organic groceries and delivering them around the country to thousands of happy people while winning numerous awards for the quality of their produce. They made the claim that their mince pies were the UK's best on twitter recently and after a friendly challenge was proposed by yours truly, they jumped at it and have sent me a box of their finest for us to review. I admire their confidence. Lets see how it does.

Sainsburys - Taste the Difference - 6 All Butter Mince Pies

Sainsbury's have always made a decent regular mince pie. As you can see, we didn't hate it. It's about time we gave their luxury (or as my Canadian colleague says, deluxe) mince pies a taste to see whether they can improve on their base recipe.

Costco - Kirkland Signature - Mince Pies

After spending the past 2 years being told that Costco mince pies are really nice and not one of those people being able to get me some, a quick tweet and facebook post brought out a colleague at work who had membership and was heading to the members only store that same day. With my order placed within moments of her response the excitement was settling in. I had them delivered and without any further delay - lets get reviewing!

BHS Deep filled Mince Pie

BHS - A great department store with plenty to things to buy like clothes, shoes, bags and mince pies? Yes, BHS have a cafe who are now selling mince pies! This revelation was stumbled upon via BHS' twitter account. We swiftly made our way to a local BHS cafe to pick up some of these little giants. Can these deep filled mince pies measure up and break into to the well established clique formed by the supermarkets?

Harrods Alcohol-Free Cranberry Mince Pies

Last year you were all treated to the review of a puff pastry mince pie from Harrods' in-store bakery. They were good, but we didn't get to try their standard, boxed mince pies. This year, I am pleased to say I braved the Saturday morning tourist and Christmas shopper traffic and squeezed into one of the busiest stores I have been to in a long time. Not being a regular Harrods shopper, I had no idea where I was going and with some general directions given to me by staff, I eventually emerged (20 mins later) with a box of these alcohol-free mince pies. I'm not sure whether there were other types of mince pies around, but due to the sheer number of people I had to negotiate around, I picked the first thing that said mince pies, paid and left.

Duchy Originals from Waitrose - Organic Mince Pies

Okay, I promise this is the last box of mince pies from Waitrose! I picked these up simply because they said these mince pies are organic. It seemed interesting, I won't lie. Do organic mince pies taste any different? Anything special? Lets find out.

Heston Blumenthal 6 Spiced Shortcrust Mince Pies

Returning to fight for the top spot on the Administration’s leader board is the controversial is-it-or-isn’t-it-a-mince pie from the man who was clearly never told not to play with his food as a child, Heston Blumenthal. While this debate rages on within the Administration, once these turned up, silence fell, as we were all eager to sink our teeth into one.

Waitrose Christmas - 6 Shortcrust Mince Pies

Remember that imaginary hierarchy I spoke about back in the Co-Op review? Well, I'm going to assume Waitrose were at the top of your list too! Waitrose have many different types of mince pies available, from the budget "essentials" range to the organic mince pies (yes, organic - review coming!). In fact, I counted 6 different types, all under the Waitrose name. Lets see how their standard mince pies fair on the blog first.

Tesco Finest* Mini Mince Pies

As an honorary member of the administration it was vital that I had a benchmark to compare these mince pies when producing an overall score. So… according to the master administrator, Greggs (at time of writing) are the leader of the race, so I had to partake in a little taste test of my own to provide comparison.

Greggs 6 Sweet Mince Pies

Last year Greggs was second only to Heston Blumenthal's spiced shortcrust mince pies. It was a tough decision, but the originality of Heston's trumped the traditional mince pie. Can Greggs return to the mince pie game this year and triumph with the traditional mince pie done well? Have they changed the recipe? Design? Price? Lets find out...

Marks & Spencer - 6 All Butter Mince Pies

Marks and Spencer mince pies are a firm favourite of the blog. Whenever I have a craving for a good mince pie around this time of year, M&S are on hand to ensure that my needs are fulfilled. Last year saw their inconsistency loose them a few marks. Lets hope this year is different.

The Co-Operative - Loved by Us - 6 Deep Filled Mince Pies

If you were to list supermarkets / stores in order of prestige, most people's list would be remarkably similar. However, The Co-Op is often the store that's missed from that list entirely. In fact, on my list, I really wouldn't know where to place it. Maybe this is a good thing, I won't have any expectations from it and treat it as the humble mince pie that it is. Lets see how this one does.

Mr Kipling Exceedingly Merry 6 Deep Filled Mince Pies

Mr Kipling have long been a British baking powerhouse, producing a whole variety of cakes and pies since 1967. Everybody knows the name and what they do. Their mince pies were very much below average last year. Lets hope they read my blog and made some improvements this year.

Sainsbury's - Christmas by Sainsbury's - 6 Deep Mince Pies

Right, the first pie to touch my lips this year is a Christmas by Sainsbury's Deep Mince Pie. One would expect the first pie after 10 months, regardless of quality, to taste extraordinary; a feeling akin to a mother seeing her newly born baby for the first time! Okay, maybe that's a bit too far, but I was definitely looking forward to sinking my teeth into this one. Lets see how it did.