What makes a great mince pie?

I love mulled wine but again only at Christmas. Need to keep it special. 😉

In fact a good mince pie is less durable than a bad mince pie! 🙂

If we were to test all the mince pies in all the shops we would still be doing taste tests! We choose the luxury version of each shop’s to make sure we were testing like for like.

So next year will Which? be testing the economy version which seems to be the choice of most consumers?

I have passed on your request to the testing team and they are going to consider it for next year. It will be a bit trickier to ensure that they are definitely testing like for like as there are just so many different varieties out there but they are keen on the idea. 🙂

My heart goes out to them but I hope they persevere despite the difficulties.

Let me know when you do a gin test. I can relieve your team of work.

I’m not sure that “economy version” correctly describes anything in my local M&S convenience store.

Nonetheless, to deal with the burning question of the day and to re-mediate Which? delinquency here, I have now tested the M&S red box “6 All Butter Mice Pies” against the black and gold box “M&S Collection” mince pies.

The latter are notably more expensive at £2.60 versus £1.90 per box.

I noticed immediately that the Collection pies look noticeably smaller but much more fancy than the plain and simple red box pies. M&S claim the former weight 54g each while the latter weight 58g each.

All pies were preheated in an oven, as per instructions.

The pastry was found to crumble much more readily on the Collection pies. Using a sharp knife I couldn’t really slice them open without also causing most of the pies to disintegrate. The red box pies were found to have much more sturdy cases and could be readily sliced into halves or quarters. Taste-wise, there wasn’t much difference between the flavour of the two pastries.

Regarding the fillings, I think the Collection pies do have a slightly richer and fuller flavour (this may be due to the inclusion of trace quantities of brandy and cognac).

Both types are suitable for vegetarians, but contain butter, so they’re not suitable for vegans.

Overall, I think they’re both nice products.

We are deeply obliged to you, Derek, for carrying out this exhaustive and expensive examination of the popular pies sold by M&S, a step too far for the mighty Which? it seems.

To ignore a family product sold by one of the country’s biggest retailers – and regarded as the leader in many food products – and to only try the luxury versions, seemed bizarre to me so we are grateful to you for undertaking this demanding assignment.

I hope you get a suitable reward in due course.