The Great Mince Pie Contest

Mrs42 and I invited a whole bunch of friends (and their many children) around for pre-Christmas drinks and nibbles.

Except it was all a pre-text to find the best mince pies.

Those of you who follow bri's journal might remember his recent The Search Continues blip and his quest to find the best mince pies. Well, we thought we'd lend a hand.

So, we bought and our friends all brought mince pies from different shops and we had a 'blind' mince pie tasting session with seven official tasters, who all tasted the 8 shop bought mince pies with the help of mulled wine and cups of tea:-)

The search is over. The results are in and I'm very pleased to be able to share our findings with you:

1 M&S Frozen Puff Pastry Mince Pies: This pie was the winner by 4 points with 49/70, although it divided the tasters who thought that the puff pastry was just not traditional.

2= Somerfield Deep Fill Mince Pies: Joint second for this tasty little number with 45/70.

2= Sainsbury's Deep Mince Pies: The second pie in joint second. Another 'deep' fill pie with 45/70 ;-)

4= Tesco Finest Mince Pies: My personal favourite, but a bit too sugary for some scored 41/70.

4= Co-Op Fair Trade Fruit Mince Pies: Nice fruit in this pie, but let down a bit by the pastry, again with 41/70.

6 M&S Classics Deep Filled Mince Pies: Surprising lower quartile finish for this 'up market' mince pie. It got a 5/10 from me and an overall score of 38/70.

7 Co-op Luxury All Butter Mince Pies: Perhaps all that butter made these pies a bit too rich? A poor 35/70 for these pies.

8 ASDA's Rich Fruit Mince Pies: Last place for ASDA's own with a meager 30/70. Far to sweet pastry and filling for our tasters.

A late home-made entry from the step-mum of one of the tasters was scoring well, but there wasn't enough to go around so we had to exclude it from the final results.

Well done to all the tasters (<- this is bri filling his face) ... and there you have it, if you like puff pastry then the frozen M&S ones are for you, if not then get you pie deep filled at Somerfield or Sainsbury's.

Mission over. I feel a bit sick.

Oh yes, many thanks to the Reindeer Gang for scoring and bringing the Baby Jesus Cup Cakes. Brings whole new meaning to 'the body of Christ' ...

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LOTD: La La Love You's Big Gun blip - awesome colours.