Yvash’s Store-Bought All-Butter Fancy Mince Pie Taste Test 2020 part 2*:
Asda Extra Special Luxury (£1.50): 3/5
Decent filling, Port-rich, which is lucky as the pastry is very soft and collapses under the slightest pressure, very low structural integrity. Not a bad experience, though, would happily scoff many.
Asda Extra Special Luxury Slow Gin (£2.00): 4/5
Ok, so these are a little bit different, and not for everyone - but I really like them. The filling has that unmistakable commercial Sloe Gin flavour; slightly astringent, blackberry-ish. They’re distinctly odd, and that’s in their favour - the pastry is identical to the standard pies, after all. Debatable Mince Pie territory?
Aldi Specially Selected Classic (£1.50): 1.5/5
Oof. Oof. I am so disappointed, Aldi. Horrible, floury pasty encasing a filling that leaves you with a bizarre, bitter aftertaste. Worst of the year by a fair margin. I was really hoping for something better than this.
Aldi Specially Selected ‘Exquisite’ (£2.25): 2/5
These look very fancy, sprinkled generously with a gold edible glitter of some sort, but it’s a glamour - under the glitz is a mean, shallow pie with admittedly good pastry and a filling that tastes like a bad Yankee Candle. Wtf, Aldi. Rather glad it’s so shallow, now.
Lidl Deluxe (£1.50): 4/5
A welcome surprise after Aldi’s absolute shambles; a genuinely great pie with nice pastry, a generous, well spiced Cognac-rich filling with great mouth-feel, let down a little (for me) by a heavy icing sugar dusting; they’re quite sweet as it is!
Morrisons Shortcrust ‘Baked in Store’ (£1.50): 2.5/5
Very, very dry pastry and an unremarkable filling, a standard mince pie that floats no boats but delivers what you’d expect - albeit generously, they’re like twice the size of boxed pies.
Bit of a fail on the Morrisons side; couldn’t find any of their All-Butter boxes this close to Christmas, which is on me, really - so went with the Bakery pies as consolation.
Sorry Part 2 has come so late; what with all the weirdness that’s happened over the last couple of weeks it’s a near miracle I managed to get any of these last ones in for review, but I have enjoyed myself indulging in my favourite seasonal treat, and I hope this has been a help or at least vaguely entertaining for others. Merry Christmas, DiS!
*all pies eaten cold and unadorned
