Best mince pies 2022: from Waitrose to Tesco and Aldi, which supermarket offers best Christmas treat?

The blurb says: “rich, crumbly all butter pastry packed with a delicious mix of plump vine fruits and glace cherries. Infused with French brandy and ruby port, with a refreshing twist of lemon zest, tangerine oil and festive spices. Finished with a gentle dusting of sugar”

Pros:

• Superb mincemeat that’s full of flavour. You can taste the orange.
• Generous filling and a good mouth-feel.
• Decadent, buttery pastry that isn't too crumbly.

Cons:

• Lacking a boozy note - it’s Christmas, give us more brandy.
• The packaging is a bit too busy for my liking.

Blurb: “Filled with brandy infused mincemeat. Our melt in the mouth all butter pastry mince pies are packed with a festive blend of luscious fruit, aromatic peel and warming spices, infused with a generous nip of brandy. Baked to perfection at a family owned bakery with four generations of baking expertise, that’s why you can taste the difference.”

Pros:

• Tasteful packaging that doesn’t overcrowd your vision with Christmas.
• Nicely constructed pastry that has a good level of butteryness that works well with the mincemeat.
• The mincemeat has a good texture and tastes grown up - there is a slight hit of booze that tells you December has arrived.

Cons:

• It is slightly too lean on the mincemeat for my liking.

The blurb reads: “With vine fruits, Valencian orange oil, spices, rich ruby port and cognac, in shortcrust pastry. All-butter pastry made with a splash of cognac.”

Pros:

• The pastry has good consistency, albeit with a lack of buttery heft.
• Packaging stays on the right side of tasteful, and even has a bit of sparkle.

Cons:

• The overall taste is pretty bland.
• The mincemeat leans too heavily into the orange oil, and I got next to no boozyness.

Blurb: “Infused with brandy, dry cider and ruby port for a rich deep flavour.”

Pros:

• I really liked the texture of the pastry, although the butteryness doesn’t come through as much as I’d hoped.
• There’s a healthy wodge of mincemeat awaiting you inside the mince pie.

Cons:

• You can taste the cider, but the other flavours are missing in action.
• All of the basics are covered, but this is meant to b the premium tier - all the stops need pulling out.

I had to go for the mini variety because the regular-sized mince pies were not available at my local store. I have made the assumption that - apart from their size - the mince pies are like-for-like

Blurb: “Filled with our luxuriously rich and fruity brandy-infused mincemeat. The Best Mini Mince Pies are part of our Premium Christmas collection.”

Pros:

• A low calorie count (127kcal), even when you double them up to regular size.

Cons:

• The pies were not brimming to the rafters with mincemeat - the three I had were half full at best.
• Only a tiny, tiny hint of booziness and zero luxuriousness in the mincemeat.
• The pastry was almost sandy in texture and not buttery at all - a real shame.
• If you put ‘The Best’ on your packaging, the product better live up to the title - this one doesn't.

The blurb says: “Crumbly, all butter shortcrust pastry cases, generously deep filled with lightly spiced mincemeat laced with brandy and finished with a sweet dusting.”

Pros:

• The snowflakes on the top are pretty.

Cons:

• Anaemic in just about every department.
• The pastry may as well have not been there. It was way too crumbly and disintegrated in my hands, creating an almighty mess.
• Little flavour in the mincemeat.

The blurb reads: “Rich and buttery beurre noisette pastry, filled with rich mincemeat made with apricots, glace Amarena cherries and almonds, laced with cognac.”

Pros:

• Waitrose hits all the verbal cues with its blurb. French pastry phrases? Tick. Luxurious sounding ingredients? Tick. It’s ‘laced with’ booze? Tick.
• The gold, minimalist packaging is also a win - it looks delicious.
• You get a lot of booze - almost too much at some points during the mouthful. But it gives the mincemeat a smooth note and a depth of flavour that develops as you munch.
• A generous filling, with mincemeat that sits on the right side of chunky.

Cons:

• Weighs in at a hefty 275kcal a pop - it is Christmas but it might be a con if you’re minded by such things.
• The pastry is slightly on the sandy side, although the texture provided by the dusting of sugar on top saves things somewhat.
• The pastry could go further with its butteryness.
• The packaging slightly oversells the mince pies, which - although good - are not quite stellar (especially for £3.50).

Blurb: “Melt in the mouth all butter shortcrust pastry, deep filled with vine fruits, cranberries, clementine and cognac. Delicious served warm.”

Pros:

• The packaging is a work of art.
• Pastry has good butteryness and is really well-delivered, becoming almost savoury at times in a way that provides you with an almost complete sensory experience.
• Mincemeat is full of flavour. It’s slightly on the sweet side but also offers up a good hit of cider - you also get the orange and the cherry.
• The texture of the mince pie is luxurious. It warms the throat too.
• Plenty of mincemeat filling.

Cons:

• Only a very minor criticism, but the butteryness could have been dialled up ever-so-slightly.