This year's best luxury mince pies have been named, and they don't come from Aldi, Lidl, Tesco, Sainsbury's, ASDA or Morrisons. In a taste test, 58p mince pies came out top, while Aldi's budget buy narrowly missed out.
Consumer experts Which? asked a panel of three baking experts to blind-taste nine premium supermarket own-label mince pies to find out the best this year. The experts judged mince pies from ASDA, Aldi, Tesco, Lidl, Morrisons, M&S, Waitrose and Co-Op.
The panel of expert tasters included French pastry chef Nathan Rave, who won Channel 4's Bake Off: The Professionals this year and award-winning baker Dan Lepard.
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Waitrose 6 Brown Butter Mince Pies scored 74 per cent, while the Aldi pack won 73 per cent. Both were awarded 'Best Buy' status, but the Aldi offering was half the price at £1.75 versus £3.50.
Which? said: "We only award the Best Buy logo to those products that hit the gold standard for quality."
Aldi's mince pies were the cheapest tested – Iceland's Luxury 6 All Butter Mince Pies are £2 while the M&S Collection Mince Pies are £3. M&S are known for having good festive options, as shoppers recently went wild for an M&S bottle of bubbly filled with gold glitter featuring flakes of edible 22-carat gold leaf.
It also praised Co-op's Irresistible All Butter Pastry Luxury Mince Pies (£2.25 for six) but said some mince pies were less impressive, including Morrisons' The Best and Tesco's Finest. "Asda’s Extra Special Mince Pies (£2.50 for 6) were also considered a tasty option and the judges commended their enticing, festive design and well-balanced flavour."
The Which? Head of Home Products and Services, Natalie Hitchins, said: "There’s nothing quite like a deliciously warm and crumbly mince pie straight from the oven to get you in the festive spirit.
"The competition was tight this year but the luxury mince pie offerings from Waitrose and Aldi have come out on top. "Our experts tasted pies from the biggest supermarkets in the UK to find out which ones will make the holiday season extra festive this year and found some great options which won’t break the bank."
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