Christmas isn’t Christmas without a belly full of mince pies. Of course we all like a home baked mince pie fresh from the oven, lid lifted to insert a blob of brandy butter. But, what with the all the working and present shopping, making mince pies is quite low on our list of priorities at the moment, so we decided to test the best the supermarkets have to offer.

Our festive taste test included:

• Marks and Spencer
• Co-Op
• Asda
• Waitrose
• Sainsbury’s
• Morrisons
• Mr.Kipling

With a blind test set up and a rigorous scoring system in place the competition began. It was a fierce battle with each pie being examined for texture, flavour, appearance, pastry/mincemeat ratio and the elusive ‘Christmas feeling’. Comments ranged from ‘melts in the mouth’, ‘crumbly’, ‘pleasant’ to ‘holding its own’ and ‘no’.

With the competition over, crumbs all over the table at least one member of the team complaining of heartburn; it was time to tally up the points. It was a close call with the winner being Sainsbury’s, with a total of 146 points and descriptions such as ‘nice golden pastry’, ‘tasty’ and ‘boozy’. The branded offer from Mr Kipling came in a healthy third place with Waitrose at the bottom of pile due to disappointing texture.