Mince Pie Appreciation

Sainos in store baked. Better than Greggs.

Mate currently residing in south west France is visiting for Xmas.
Biarritz airport seemingly does not have a duty free!
Local Waitrose want +/-£20 for Ricard of another French brand I've never heard of.

Looking like an expensive experiment.

FRENCH sloe gin pies in Asda

I’ve done a buy...

greggs 6-slab = £1.75 can confirm

Sainos in store baked. Better than Greggs.

+1

Also teh first Pret one today - nice but pricey.

29p if you buy a Christmas coffee though!

The two sainsbury's I've bought from were a bit overdone with hardly any filling.

Tried Tesco Finest and they were empty, taste was good though.

How did you get on?

Ended up being two bloody quid from the one at the end of the road (garage/spar hybrid thing).

It’s very sweet and syrupy. Pastry isn’t bad. Quite nice, but I can only handle one at a time.

It’s nice in its own right. M&S and Iceland still holding top places for me. Would probably choose the Asda sloe gincer over Tesco Finest normal mincer, however.

a sad lesson for any dedicated scene advocate

Pret coffee... shudders
I'd rather pay the extra to not have it!

One at a time is a good thing, I agree they’re on the sweet side.

Two magpies bakery in Aldeburgh.

Sensational pastry. Firm yet somehow crumbly.

Mince just right level of sweetness. Perfect quantity. Half a mark off for a bitter aftertaste that is initially very pleasant but lingers for a touch too long.

Light dusting of sugar.

I'm putting my neck out here and giving this one a 9.5/10.

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I had a hazelnut hot chocolate which was lovely.

That looks insane

M&S the collection mini mince pies: I'm not saying I smashed five in a row, but I'm not not saying that. Good pastry, nicely spiced mincemeat, hint of booze, not too sweet; 8.5/10

I found the big ones to be too crumbly. Good to know

This is where the mini ones may have a structural advantage, being only a couple of bites in size.

M&s red deck. 4 on a train journey. It's fine. It's fine.

Opening salvo. Sweetcrust pastry with added ground almonds and orange zest. Sainsbury's finest mincemeat with extra apple.
9/10 since no clotted cream.

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Holy shit that does look good

Are you rating your own pies?

TBF they do look good.

Yep. Perhaps bad form.

Had two of these last night. One oven warmed, the other cold, for science. Not deep, crumbly pastry crying out for more butter but the filling was amazing. You could taste the bits of apple and individual fruits in the filling. Nice change from a more homogenous filling with no texture. My favourite so far

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