Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Well, what can I say. Its been such a busy few months, that the Administration has had to take a back seat this year. For this I can only apologise.

However, despite the lack of reviews this season, it did not mean that my eyes were not on the mince pies that were available. After my annoyance at Sainsbury's lack of any effort, I noticed they were not alone, there were many other companies that had made no effort. This is very disappointing.

I hope to see some improvement next year, but if not, I may amalgamate previous years mince pies into one overall greatest mince pie leader board, and only review the pies that have changed from previous years. Sound good?

While I cannot crown a winning mince pie for 2014, I wish you all a fantastic Christmas and a very merry New Year.

I hope 2015 brings you even more mince pies and a whole load of new reviews to make up for this year.

And the Winner is.....

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We are proud to announce that The Mince Pie Administration's top rated mince pie for 2013 with an amazing score of 90.7 out of 100 is.... [insert drum roll here].....

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!

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.

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.

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.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Please have one less roast potato to ensure you have room for this year's winning mince pie. I certainly will be.

We'll hopefully be back towards the end of 2013 to start this all over again! I also hope it will be the year I taste the exclusive Costco mince pie. If you cannot wait until next year, be sure to have a read of fellow blogger Andy Savage's review on this pie.

http://derbyphotoscouk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/costco-mince-pies-are-best-mince-pies.html

From everyone at the Mince Pie Administration, we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year.

See you all in about 10 months.

:-)