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Overall Rating: 5/10

Price per pie: 31p

Review: The Co-op bakery mince pies have faired well in previous years – but those are the deep filled ones. These flatter ones don’t inspire tonnes of confidence – not sure how the ratio of pastry to filling will work?

And immediately it’s gone a bit wrong. The pastry overpowers the whole thing. It’s got a nice taste to it, and a generous sprinkle of sugar on top – but the ratio is way out. It’s such a shallow mince pie that it never really had a chance…bless it.

The mincemeat is reasonable but nothing to write home about – nothing special advertised though either. I think 5/10 is fair enough – it doesn’t taste too far wrong, it’s just too dry.

Still looking forward to the deep filled Co-op bakery mince pies though

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Overall rating: 8/10

Price per pie: 17p

Review: A standard mince pie from Co-op….we’ve been here before. The last mince pie I reviewed in 2019 was Co-op’s standard mince pie. I needn’t remind regular readers what happened there, but for the new or uninitiated – it was an *abomination*.

Surely this year they’ve sorted it out, heeded the warnings – created something edible for a start?

Phew. You can breath, it’s fine. In fact it’s better than fine, much much better. This is a great standard mince pie.

The box doesn’t promise any extravagantly named fruits or rich liquors, and whilst that’s clear upon tasting – this pie does deliver on flavour and quality of bake.

The pastry has a nice taste to it and is both a good texture and an acceptable thickness. Maybe the tiniest bit on the soft side, but not so to cause any structural issues.

The mincemeat is tasty and is surely the star of this show. The fill certainly helps with that – it’s right to the top, full to the brim with mincemeat. It’s not that anonymous brown sludge you get in some standard mince pies either. It’s sweet tasty – even sans fancy fruits & liquors.

All considered, I’m astounded this has followed the shocking 0/10 mince pie from 2019, it’s really head and shoulders above. This is sure to be a quality addition to the table during the festive period – where or not we get to share them with anyone is yet to be seen…

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Overall rating: 8/10

Price per pie: 17p

Review: A first showing for Premier Foods’ ‘Lyons Cakes’ brand mince pies on Mince Pie Reviews. It’s a standard pie – no promises of the fancy stuff. No idea what to expect…

I’m pleasantly surprised. The box is a merry red and green and gives us a sneak peek at what the pie looks like. A ridge top affair with a sugar sprinkle, no star and no visible mincemeat. The box told me no lies about the pies – they look good too, neat and with little mincemeat bubble around the top of the pastry.

They’re around average on the bite-o-meter, not dry and crumbly but also not too soggy – very nice. The sugar on top gives a kick of sweetness and then the mincemeat follows up.

Similar to Co-op’s 2020 standard mince pie, this is a pie filled well. No gaping cavity where mincemeat should be – which probably helps keep the pastry from drying out too. You get a pleasant sweet and fruity flavour from the mincemeat, which for 17p per pie from a standard offering is well worth entertaining.

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Overall rating: 7.5/10

Price per pie: ~31p

Review: I’ve liked these in past years, I’m a fan of apple turnovers so these appeal to me. Puff pastry is lovely and the sugar on top usually helps.

The Co-op’s puff pastry pies for 2020 feel very similar to those reviewed in 2017. The puff pastry is good and has a gentle brittleness – it also has a subtle golden brown top with a sprinkle of coarse sugar.

Hiding inside the puff pastry is a small but sweet portion of mincemeat. There’s nothing special about the mincemeat though – it’s not spiced and doesn’t have any fancy fruits, but it’s tasty.

Some people will undoubtedly be disappointed with amount of mincemeat, and this kind of ratio in a standard mince pie would be crazy.

This isn’t a pie you’d have as a workhorse of the festive period – it’s a show pony. And it’s actually pretty good too

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Well here we are….closing in on Christmas 2020. Things aren’t going *quite* to plan are they… I questioned whether to even do this again, considering how we’ll all be sat apart on Christmas day, saddened by the global pandemic, the lockdowns, the masks, the tests, the deaths and the bloody god damn misery of it all.

But some things must go on. Bin collections, the school run, government cockups, the big shop – and, it seems, lumped in with those fine institutions is the annual reviewing of UK mince pies. Who knew?

So it falls to Tesco, that bastion of British supermarkets, to offer up the first pie. It’s their standard, their bread and butter. Let’s get to it…

Overall rating: 4/10

Price per pie: ~31p

Review: I didn’t expect a superstar performance here, they’ve not faired well in previous years but they’ve certainly not been that awful.

The box promises a “butter enriched pastry”, but to be honest he pastry doesn’t have a very nice taste to it at all, and its claggy – damp almost. The mincemeat is neither sweet, spiced nor very fruity which is shame.

Not sure how they’ve managed that.

I mean just look at it…have you seen a sadder looking mince pie? Poor thing.

This is the sort of mince pie that’s put out in great numbers at large scale catering events, it’s cheap but barely cheerful. The sugar on top and the nice star are the only saving graces really.

Describing this as the “2020” of mince pies would be overly harsh…so maybe it’s the “August 2020” of mince pies.

If you think that’s unfair, maybe grab a pack and let me know what you reckon ‍♂️

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Overall rating: 0/10

Review: Shocking. What a state. Co-op’s most standard pie is an abomination.

What can I say? This is not good at all. To provide a bit of context, my middle son is a big mince pie fan too, he tried this one before I did and ended up spitting it out into the bin…

I can see why. It’s maybe the plainest and driest looking pie ever. And that translates to the taste. It’s like the ‘spoon of nutmeg challenge’ (if you haven’t seen that, Google it), the pastry sucks every ounce of moisture out of your mouth and the mincemeat doesn’t help you out at all.

Disappointed in Co-op for letting this out the door. They’ve had a good showing in recent years, but this one leaves a bad taste in the mouth – quite literally.

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Overall rating: 9/10

Review: The best fancy mince pie of 2019? Certainly up there with the finest. It’s rich and sweet with lovely biscuity pastry.

These mince pies look the business, very fancy and would make a fine centerpiece on your table after Christmas lunch. The crumble pastry really makes this pie the special specimen it is – it’s so good. Crumbles but still holds it’s shape. The filling is lovely too – with probably the strongest punch of booze this year from the French brandy, without overpowering a fruity snack of mincemeat with whole fruit. Whilst these are maybe a touch rich for a “workhorse pie”, these will impress any visitor over Christmas.

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Overall rating: 8.5/10

Review: These filled cookies from ASDA are the first non-mince pie, mince pie items I’ve come across this year. They’re good.

Last year we had popcorn, cocktails, cream and all sorts – this year the mince pie flavoured stuff has been hard to come by. Not sure why.

I’m a fan of anyone having a go at making an unusual item that tastes of mince pies. Sometimes they taste good and other times they’re just vaguely cinnamon and fruit. These cookies have a good punch of ginger and cinnamon in the dough, then the mince pie flavour comes from a good dollop of mincemeat underneath the dough in the centre of each cookie. They taste nice, the cookie is soft and the mincemeat is a good mix of fruits. They’re quite sweet but for a quick mince pie flavour fix they’ll do for me. Nice work.

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Overall rating: 9/10

Review: Well I’m as surprised as you are! Standard supermarket mince pies have been lazy this year – too soft, tasteless. Not this one.

It’s safe to say my expectations for this mince pie were low, Sainsbury’s have smashed past those and pushed their way into the upper echelons of 2019 mince pies.

The pastry isn’t soggy on the bottom or too crumbly – instead we’re greeted with a great bite, not crumbly but sweet and almost biscuit-like.

The mincemeat is sweet, fruity and rich with some great whole fruit that so many of the standard pies are missing. No ‘paste’ in here!

To finish off there’s a generous sprinkle of sugar on top and a nice design. I think this will be hard to beat in the standard category this year – buy it in bulk and serve it when you have guests over the festive period.

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Overall rating: 6.5/10

Review: Another Co-op pie…how many do they have? This one is middle of the road – certainly not very luxury.

Pastry on this one is quite nice but there’s better out there. It’s very slightly too soft and crumbly. Similar for the mincemeat. It’s certainly not bad, it’s just mediocre, not very tasty…

As a mince pie it looks right and tastes ok, but nothing to get excited about. There’s better mince pies out there from Co-op in 2019.

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