Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hi, my name is Jack Marshall. I'm a digital reporter with the City Worlds group
00:04And I'm here today to do a bit of a as you can see a mince pie taste test now
00:08I've cleared out pretty much the entire UK stock of mince pies. I'm gonna be in pies now until probably roughly June
00:16This is keeping me in stock. I'm gonna have to work on these throughout the entire festive period
00:21But anyway, yeah
00:22So my original plan was to go to all five of the top
00:25Supermarket chains brands in the UK and get some of their own mince pies from each one and try them out
00:30But I'm gonna have to discard Morrison's straight for the back
00:32So I went to my local Morrison's and in mid-December, they didn't have any mince pies
00:36They said it's sold out
00:38Don't know couldn't see a space on the shelf where there was an empty spot saying mince pies should be so
00:42Couldn't even get some from Morrison's. So we're doing Aldi. We're doing Tesco. We're doing as the and we're doing Sainsbury's
00:49Now the basic idea is we're gonna just go straight in and see what everyone I like
00:53I'm the cup of tea on the side there for if I get a bit too claggy
00:57What else can you do? Let's crack on and get started, right?
01:00So first one we're gonna be trying today is Aldi's
01:03Which is always branded as Holly Lane a lot of their kind of sweet treats and confectionary style stuff is always Holly Lane
01:09To make it seem seem like it's not what it is, which is essentially Aldi on brand stuff
01:14Yeah, first impressions
01:16They look like mince pies. They've got a nice kind of like little
01:21Little pattern on top. I'll show you that now
01:23Got a nice little pattern on top in the shape of a snowflake. So that's all good. It's not got any powdering on it
01:29I mean, it's got a tiny little bit nothing crazy
01:32normal size
01:34Pastries quite firm some can get quite
01:37Quite soft almost and they fall apart each bite, but these seem quite firm
01:41I'm gonna chop it open have a look at the cross-section and see we're working with
01:46Yeah, normal mince raisins stuck on there on the knife
01:50Well, yeah, it's good it's got some nice crumbly pastry which suggests it's quite quite fresh and not too
01:56Too soft and a bit don't know underwhelming. So I'm gonna do a taste test and see how we go
02:08Yeah
02:10Classic mince
02:14Not much right home out loud about that if I can get my words out
02:18Fine the pastry is nice
02:22Basically I'm come through later. You're quite dry mince pies are quite dry
02:26It's fine. Nothing crazy, but these were pretty cheap. I'll include the prices so you can see what we pay for each one
02:33But yeah solid nothing. Nothing to write home about that's that's Aldi you got we pay for six mince pies. They're pretty solid
02:41Right second one. We're gonna do Tesco
02:44And these are described as merry mince pies don't know what makes them especially merry. I mean, yeah
02:51Well, we'll crack over and see and white dusting of sugar on the top of this one might be able to make it out
02:56Just on one side not massively covered all over the top. It's got a little star on the top
03:01Yeah, pretty standard
03:03Joyous and buttery pastry and rich fruity mince meat is the description. So
03:08Let's crack on find out what it's like
03:10The
03:12Pastry with this one is a lot firmer than even the Aldi one. It feels almost like almost biscuity
03:20So I will crack it open first
03:22The mince meat. It's a lot more filling in this one. What more filling of the mince meats. That's nice
03:30Looks darker as well. So I'm gonna go for a bite and see how we get on. I
03:33I
03:38Like this one much more than the Aldi one
03:41The mince meats a bit richer
03:46Definitely got more of a fruity flavor. The Aldi one was very sweet
03:50This also feels like it's got more
03:52Fruit if you excuse me for talking with my mouthful. This feels like it's got more fruit than just your regular raisins
03:59It's definitely got a bit more about it. I'm looking on the back now
04:04currants raisins
04:07Yeah, it's got orange peel in it as well. So I think I'm getting that the pastry is also a nicer
04:12It's just a bit lighter even though it is like tough on the outside and it's got a bit of flavor to it
04:19So yeah, overall I'm leaning towards Tesco than Aldi at the minute
04:23But yeah, not too bad at all
04:25Right. Next one Asda. Now as you might be able to make out I've gone for the luxury version of their mince pies
04:31Now the only reason I did that is because they were reducing price to the same price as the regular one
04:36So I thought if it's a similar price product, I'm going for it and there were no regular ones there anymore
04:41They sold out. So let's go for a luxury one
04:45First impressions this one just looks a lot more
04:48Fancy like it's got a dusting of powder on top. You can make out so I've got raisins poking through little ones on top
04:56So that's not I don't know if it's raisins might just be some mince meat on top
04:59It's got a bit more detailing on top as opposed to just a pastry pattern
05:06Yeah, the pastry feels pretty standard it's very similar to the Tesco one actually not as
05:15Not as dense as the Aldi one
05:18The top is definitely thicker. So the crust of this just looks a lot more homemade
05:23It just looks a lot more
05:26almost like rustic really
05:28The pastry is a lot crumblier, but
05:31Yeah, it's still still keeping its shape, you know
05:34Like I said before some gets kind of soft when you bite into them and they just become a big flat mush
05:37So let's have a try. I think the telling between quality is really in the mince meat. So let's try that
05:46Immediately a lot more orange
05:50This apparently has brandy, ruby port, cognac and Valencian orange oil. I can definitely taste that orange oil
05:58That's really nice actually
06:01I've got to say straight off the bat. That's one of the best mince pies I've ever had again
06:07Excuse me for talking my mouth full. It's the orange oil which is really coming through. It's lovely
06:13Really nice high quality you can pick up some of these for the reduced price
06:17I definitely recommend it because that's excellent
06:19That's definitely our frontrunner so far followed by Tesco and Aldi. I'm gonna try Sainsbury's one next
06:24So we go and now we come to our final one, which is Sainsbury's just standard first impressions. It looks quite
06:31Quite not bland quite pale pastry, but that's a little Christmas tree and there's nice
06:37nice kind of like
06:38Frilly detailing on the sides, but it looks very pale compared to the others. It's got not a tiny dusting of sugar, but
06:46dunno
06:48It's kind of nice. Well, yeah
06:50Almost like with pastry and stuff like that
06:52I like it just to have a slightly darker colour because I feel like it's just gonna have a bit more flavour to it
06:56so yeah, I'm gonna cut the
07:00tree in half
07:05Smells pretty standard. Like with the other ones you definitely get a big hint of orange whereas with this one
07:13Nothing's really coming through on that front
07:15I'll have a bite of this side
07:20Quite crumbly
07:29I'm not sold on that. It's actually quite bitter
07:36Getting a bit more apple, a bit more apple flavours coming through but overall
07:45I think I'm definitely leaning in the flavouring of this of picking up a lot more the bitterness of apple
07:50Rather than like the sweetness of like an orange extract in there
07:55So yeah, I'm not sold on that as much. I'd
07:59I've marked that third behind
08:02Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Aldi
08:06Now I'm an adherent to Aldi, love shopping at Aldi, but they've quite underwhelmed me there
08:11Whereas at the opposite end of the spectrum the Sainsbury's weren't, but Asda weren't rather
08:16Really impressed. So yeah, a little underwhelmed by Sainsbury's there and I think these were the most expensive ones
08:23So yeah
08:25There we go
08:27Right guys, so there we have it. We've done a bit of a taste test on mince pies
08:30I've got to say they are, you know, they can be a bit of a much of a muchness
08:34But I definitely did notice the difference in the extra quality and luxury ones from Asda
08:39So if you are looking for a quality mince pie this Christmas, I'd be recommending this one here
08:44Tesco did okay, good price, solid value, nice flavor, nice little hint of orange in there as well
08:50That was okay. Sainsbury's, a little underwhelmed, bit bland on the pastry front
08:55The mince meat was a bit bitter for me, didn't really enjoy it
08:57And the Aldi one was just, it just tasted very basic and kind of like bottom of the range
09:02So there we go. We've had a bit of a taste test
09:04Let us know if you have a go-to
09:06Go-to mince pie which you have every year
09:09if you're one of those people who really goes for the fancy ones or the ones with
09:12icing on top or if you just like a bog-standard one with a brew at the end of the day
09:15Let us know and thanks for watching and have a lovely Christmas