Keen followers of our social media will know that we’ve been running a mince pie taste test in the office over the last month or so.
Following Nathan’s trip to Tesco’s one lunchtime in November, when he triumphantly returned with a box of ‘Finest’ pies, we decided we needed to explore the best mince pies on the market.
Today, we’re pleased to share the results – we’ve done the hard work so you don’t have to!
Our taste test strategy
We’re a marketing agency, so we needed a strategy.
We decided to test a range of supermarket and local bakery pies, judging each on price per pie, weight, quality of filling and quality of pastry, giving each an overall score out of 10 for value and taste.
In total, we tested 12 different mince pies. Rather worryingly, we’ve calculated that between us we’ve eaten approximately 70 pies over the last 6 weeks and we shall therefore be going through a painful detox and rehabilitation process in January.
So what was the verdict?!
Our winner is MARKS AND SPENCER! Full scores are:
|
Ranking |
Pie |
Total score (out of 30) |
Comments |
|
1 |
Marks & Spencer Luxury |
25.5 |
A quality pie. Good amount of filling, tasty pastry, good value. |
|
2 |
Iceland Luxury |
24 |
A good, classic all-rounder. |
|
3 |
Aldi Specially Selected Sloe Gin |
23.5 |
Controversially, a ‘tart’ rather than a pie. Delicious though. |
|
4 |
Asda Extra Special |
23 |
A good solid pie. Filling needs a bit more flavour. |
|
5 |
Greenhalgh’s Luxury |
21.5 |
Nice homemade taste. Could do with a bit more fruit in the filling but good local option. |
|
6 |
Aldi Specially Selected Classic |
20 |
Could be boozier. Pastry not buttery enough. |
|
7 |
Costco |
20 |
Good value for a big pie. Sponge topping nice and light. |
|
8 |
Lidl Deluxe |
19 |
Better than the ‘Mini’ versions but nothing special. |
|
9 |
Tesco Finest |
17 |
Very average. Not enough filling. |
|
10 |
Pound Bakery |
17 |
A value pie but tangy filling isn’t very ‘Christmassy’. |
|
11 |
Waterfields Deluxe |
16.75 |
Not bad but expensive and Viennese pastry too thick. |
|
12 |
Lidl Deluxe Mini |
9 |
Terrible. Nothing ‘Deluxe’ about these. |
Congratulations to M&S from Team CRE8!
Credible taste testing you can rely on
Quite incredibly (and if you disregard the Aldi Sloe Gin tart, which would be a shame as it’s delicious), our results match those from leading consumer guide Which?, proving that we really know our stuff.
See the Which? report here for more mince pie news!
And with that news, we’re out for 2019. Thank you to everyone who has supported us this year, we’re proud to work with our exceptional clients and we’re looking forward to helping you continue to grow and succeed in 2020.
We wish you a very merry Christmas and a prosperous new year!
Team CRE8 🎅🏼