Custom PC - UK (2020-02)

The Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference offering

provides a rather intricate pastry design on a

solid, tasty, classic mince pie. There’s tasty,

chunky filling, good pastry and no weird

chemically artificial aftertaste that makes you

wonder if you’ve been poisoned.

There’s nothing hugely

adventurous here and there

doesn’t need to be – it’s just

a proper mince pie done well.

A great effort all round.

Morrisons’‘TheBest’pieis well-presented,

withnotonebuttwolayersofpastrystars,

butthey’relackingbothintasteandpastry

consistency.There’salwayssomevariation

inflavourwithmincepies,butthisveeredoff

intooddplaces.We’vehadmuch

worse,butthat’sreallynot

sayingmuch.Eventhenameis

wrong– thestandardMorrisons

mincepiestastebetter.

If you’re putting a star on a mince pie lid, you

make it a pastry star on top of the pie lid, or you

use a pastry star as whole the pie lid. You don’t

put a star shaped hole on the top of your pie.

We’re not kids. We’re not bad people. But we

had to laugh at the bum-hole pie

lids, because we’re not made of

stone. We ate the pie anyway

• it was okay. It’s a bit lemony,
  there isn’t much filling and it’s
  little bland.

ThestandardTescomincepieis a deadringer

fortheMorrisonsone,butthey’redefinitelynot

thesameinside– weevendida second,side-

by-sidetastingofalltheidentical-lookingpies

tomakesure.Weakerpastryanda muchless

pleasingfillingwerenotable

aspects.That’snotbrilliant

whenthecomparisonpie

didn’texactlylightupthe

roomeither.

Sainsbury’s standard mince pie effort was

the most spectacularly bland pie to grace the

table this month. Its pastry Christmas tree

on the lid is a unique effort this month, but

there’s otherwise absolutely nothing going

on with this pie at all, making it a complete

waste of calorie intake. The

only plus side was that, by

lacking much in the way of

discernible flavour, it was at

least also totally inoffensive.

Thesepungentweirdoshavea strongbut

notunpleasantscentwhenyoutakeoff

thepackaging,andmakea deliciousfirst

impressionwhenyoubitethem.However,the

chemicallyartificialaftertasteis real,andit’s

notourfriend.It’snotanybody’s

friend,infact.Anambitious

andstrangeoffering;we’renot

againsttheideaofthesepies,

buttheexecutionis lacking.

SAINSBURY’S TASTE

THE DIFFERENCE /£2 for six

MORRISONS

THE BEST/£2 for six

M&S ALL BUTTER

/£1.80 for six

TESCO MINCE PIES

/£0.87 for six

SAINSBURY’S

MINCE PIES/£1 for six

HESTON FROM WAITROSE

CHOCOLATE AND CHERRY

MINCE PIES/£3 for six

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