So we have been working hard this evening.
On the menu were 12 different varieties. They were not all the ones I wanted to try but logistics haven't allowed it this week.
Waitrose Heston's Night Before Christmas Mince Pies
Tesco's Standard Mince Pies
Tesco's Finest Salted Caramel Crumble & Festive Spice Mince Pies
Tesco's Finest Spiced Rum Mince Pies
Asda Extra Special Sloe Gin Mince Pies
Asda Extra Special Mini Luxury Mince Pie
Asda Standard Mince Pies
Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Winter Berry, Clementine & Gin Mince Pies
Sainsbury's Deep Filled Mince Pies
Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Mini All Butter Brandy Mince Pies
Booths Standard Mince Pies
Aldi's Special All Butter Mince Pies
My crack team of 10 expert testers came to the following conclusions after a blind tasting:
Gin is great. It does not however belong in mince pies. It tastes like kids sweeties and is horrible.
The fanciest top of the range mince pies are a waste of money and disappoint greatly. Heston's Mince Pies were just meh, and on knowing what they were nobody said they would want to try again. It was a novelty that didn't live up to expectations. Sainsbury's Winter Berry, Clementine and Gin Mince Pies were an enormous fail, coming last or second to last in everyone's list. The Tesco's Salted Caramel Crumble Mince Pies were nice but everyone marked them down as not proper mince pies - they were the most expensive and definitely weren't worth the money.
The most budget mince pies had a clear winner with Sainsbury's (but several people said they rated Aldi's budget option highly but these's were in the study because DH couldn't find them yesterday). Next was Asda with Tesco being the least popular.
The mini mince pies were nice but the pastry to filling ration was off (the two options in the research also come in normal sized versions) and per g were definitely not as good for your waist line - if you were trying to loose weight it would be worse for you to eat 2 than one normal sized one). Don't buy mini mince pies even if you have good intentions!
What was interesting was that the midrange options scored the best across the board generally. Our winner was Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Mini All Butter Brandy - though we would have preferred the standard version. It was the top pick for 3 of us but came in highly with everyone. This was followed but Tesco's Finest Spice Rum mince pies and then Sainsbury's Deep Filled mince pies, Booths Mince Pies and the Aldi Special All Butter (Butter Pastry seemed to be the most tasty).
In Summary: Hats off to Sainsburys (though we will forget your god awful Winter Berry Things), don't waste your money on the most gimmicky mince pies, don't buy mini mince pies, Asda mince pies are the worst in terms of sugar/fat, all butter pastry comes out best.
If you had to buy only one mince pie, you should get Sainsbury's All Butter Brandy ones but if money is tight just go for their Deep Filled ones (or Aldis).
None of our panel now want another mince pie this side of Christmas! But we had a good night.
I still want to try the Iceland and Greggs mince pies, but perhaps thats one for another year!
Enjoy mince pie season!