Mince pies return to the blog in 2025, and this years review we focus on the Mince pie but with a Twist. but what do i mean? well, we look at the traditional Mince Pie in essence but each supermarket has put a little tweak on them, whether it be a different crust, flavour, additional filling or simply changing it but it still needed to be a mince pie. So lets have a look at five leading retailers version of the Mince pie but with a twist.
Over the years we have looked at different pies and flavours, from basic to fancy, alcohol to premium, next year we will be looking a “free from”, however this year we are looking at that tradional Mince pie with a twist, but due to the populairty little tweaks have been made, so i wanted to look at those changes. Most supermarkets / Shops do a basic and a premium one, some places do some more varations and looking around some shops have done a broad range of pies.
So with our pies like other years, lets throw some rules and expectations out, there was no price limit this year however, most of these pies were valued between £2.75 and £4 which tells you there not cheap. Similar to this almost every alternative Mince pie came in fours, the tradional and premium version still comes in 6 but for some reason these do not. Some shops didnt do an “twist” and stuck to the two options, Coop do and ill be honest i found this literally the day before i posted this (i check for 7 weeks) so feel free to check that one out.
Lidl Waitorse and M&S all had the main two and i was surprise at the time to not find any others. Lastly is it had to be a Mince Pie at heart, it had to still had Mincemeat and be based on a Pie, which might suprise you but there are other versions out there which we may have covered and in the future. As normal ive removed any independants, they are great but out of fairness and consistantcy i cant use them.
Asda
Asda does have a couple of varations with in their selections, i choose the Caramel Florentine Mince Pie which has Caramel and brandy infused Mincemeat topped with a cherry Almond Florentine. Because of the design the first thing you notice in the amount of texture when eating, it almost felt like a granola / breakfast style texture which wasnt unpleasant but definetly different for a Mince Pie.
You do have a sweet caramel taste but its not super strong, and the filling itself is relatively juicy in turn, the pasty is slightly crumbly but arguably gets lost because of the topping etc. Some may look at this pie and say urh that looks a buit weird, i get it and it actually taste probably better than it looked, but overall its ok.
5/10
Tesco
Part of Tesco Finest Range, this pie takes the tradional pie literally and added the a couple of twists, and when you look at there range this year its not exactly varied. But this pie has a Lattice effect with a rum and Raisin based mince pie filling, i drink Rum and may have a slight varations to your taste bud. The use of Lattice Pastry is unique but this meant theres naturally less pastry and you do notice it, epseicaslly with the lack of sugar which would normally be on top of the Pie.
The pie isnt that sweet and you do get hit by the Rum flavour straight away, it stays for most of the pie and perhaps hangs a littler afterwards, for me its fine but i get some may think this is way to strong much like i think brandy is some times too much. The increased raisins do make this slightly chewey, again not really unpleasant but its a bit odd, and im not sure i liked the idea of the chew, especially as i think the pastry isnt great, and if i didnt like rum i propabably wouldnt have enjoyed it.
5/10
Morrisons
Now Morrions have a reputation, and this is also apparenty in my past reviews, being a family style supermarket and their focus on that with the fresh food and bakery, often there food is very good though can be a little pricey. They have some options but the pie we choose was certainly an “out there choice”. The Cherry Bakewell Mince Pie with Shortcrust Pastry, Glace morello cherries mince meat, and frangipane sponge with flaked almonds on top was out choice.
The cherry and Almond hits you straight away with the frangipane sponge adding a completly different texture for the pie, it was sweet soft and very easy to eat with good pastry. However! this is perhaps the step too far, the mincemeat is completely lost, you feel like your having a different cherry bakewell not a different mince pie. For those that enjoy a cherry bakewell and not a huge fan of Mince pies then this is for you, if your more of a fan of the old school pie then this perhaps is as i said that one step to far even though it was very enjoyable to eat.
6/10
Aldi
To my surprise Aldi have lots of different options and to be honest i never really noticed this before, it was very hard to nail down which one to choose so i would recommend exploring some more of the range. The one we choose was carrying on that morrisons view of something a bit different. The Billionaire Crumble Mince Pie has atleast mincemeant in side with a hint of caramel sweetness, but the pastry and crumble on top was all about the cocoa finish, this made the pie very chocolatey and almost had a Mud pie type of flavour, with a very crumbly top, a little tough but still crumbly.
The Mincemeat does get lost again with no real effort in raising the flavour to combat what else is going on with caramel and cocoa, and if you like the cocoa style foods (which alot do) its actually quite pleasing to eat with a tea or coffee due to it slightly being dry.
6/10
Sainsbury
Much like Aldi, Sainsbury has a very good range of pies and different pies, arguably the best range of all the shops this year and again i found it super tough so choose just one, by the end of Xmas i may end up trying others for personal choice. The one we choose was there Christmas Carol-mel Mince pie with a buttery pastry and silky caramel layers and caramel mincemeat, i may have mentioned caramel alot and to be honest you are whacked with caramel from the off and throughout, even the after taste is caramel.
Its a very easy pie to eat with the buttery pastry being loverly and soft but the caramel dominates, you cannot taste the mincemeat and pastry is also a little lost, the design on top with a star cut out is fine and there is enough of the pastry to add a little texture but its all about the caramel. Its a sickly toffee style caramel which if you like that is lovely, i do and its almost like a caramel pie, much like the cherry bakewell from Morrisons. Its lovely to eat and the same question again about being a fan of mince pies, but even though its quite sweet it was a realy pleasant thing to eat.
7/10
Overall
There two main themes going on this year, one is that caramel seems to be the dominate flavour used for alternative pies, its the one use to add the twist and in some cases it works well and some dominates. The second is that if a pie is taken too far it completely takes it away from what a mince pie should be. The underwhelming Tesco pie was ok though i probably liked the rum more than others. The Asda pie offering something different and actually fine and was a good showcase of doing something different while keeping it tradional.
The morrisons Cherry bakewell was really nice, i probably enjoyed it the most and to be honest destroyed them off camera with a coffee. But it was not a mincepie in anyway shape and form, and if you are a big fan of cherry bakewells and want one this xmas but want to be a bit different then great. The Aldi one was similar, maybe not to the extreme but i actually would have like it without the caramel, maybe a mince pie and chocolate combination could work? well maybe if the filling was more moist and sweeter to combat the pie as the caramel didnt offer that support.
But talking about Caramel, Sainsbury’s Caramel Bonanaza made there Carol-mel Mince pie lovely to eat, however maybe be too sweet and sickly? probably and Mincemeat side of things again it gets lost. But it was arguably the best within the conditions of the review this year
