Best mince pies 2020 - Tesco, Asda, Aldi, Lidl, Sainsbury’s

With Christmas fast approaching all of the major supermarkets have started introducing their festive food ranges.

Some of the yuletide treats on offer this year are a little odd, like these M&S yumnuts, but the traditional mince pie will forever be a festive favourite.

We have independently blind-tasted these five major supermarket’s mince pies, scoring points based on overall taste, texture and the quality of pastry.  

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Given a score out of five for each of the main criteria, the judging panel awarded just one supermarket the golden crown of ‘best supermarket mince pie 2020’. 

Our panel of three people, my lovely housemates, ranked each of the products with a score out of five (five being the highest and one being the lowest), to find out which of the sweet treats was closest to the the grand total of 45 points. 

Tesco Finest - £1.75 

Tesco describes their finest mince pie as ‘rich crumbly pastry packed with a delicious mix of plump vine fruits, Napoleon glacé cherries, festive spices and citrus peel’.

The filling is infused with Cognac, French brandy and port which is meant to give the pies a deeper flavour.

Out of a possible 15 the Tesco Finest mince pies scored nine points in each category across the board for taste, texture and pastry. 

Scoring a total of 27 out of a possible 45 points, these Tesco Finest mince pies weren’t all bad with the other two blind tasters scoring them highly for both taste and texture. 

Sainsbury’s - £1.00

Next up we had the standard mince pie from Sainsbury’s, at the lower end of the budget they fared well against the critics. 

The all butter shortcrust pastry was a real winner for one of our panel members, who awarded them 13 out of a possible 15 points and giving them the highest marks of five for taste. 

Overall, out of a possible 45 points across the panel, Sainsbury’s mince pies were given 30 points for their bargain Christmas favourite.

Aldi Specially Selected - £1.49

The second-most expensive mince pies out of the lot, Aldi’s Specially Selected range wowed the judges who awarded them a total of 34 points. 

Aldi’s all butter shortcrust pastry cases are filled with a luxury mincemeat and sweetened dried cranberries which have been infused with brandy.

These mince pies were described as ‘delicious’ and the judges even went back for seconds after the tasting panel had finished.

Christmassy in flavour, epitomising this time of year in a taste, the mince pies have perfectly flaky pastry and a strong, indulgent flavour. 

Aldi - 79p

Another Aldi offering, this time we have the budget mince pies coming in at just 79p - but how well do they really compete against the rest? 

On the packaging front these mince-pies weren’t as inspiring in design and opted for a more traditional pared-back approach to the boxes. 

But, for 79p you really can’t argue and they’ve been approved by Good Housekeeping. 

The 'soft and sweet filling' was praised by one of our panellists with Aldi's 79p mine pie being their favourite. 

Out of a possible 15 the Aldi mince pies scored 10 points for taste, eight for texture and seven for pastry. 

Being the cheapest mince pies on the block Aldi pastry’s got an impressive score of 25, beating Asda’s budget range.

Asda - 87p 

The penultimate mince pies in this supermarket face-off are these from Asda, costing just 87p.

Making the results even more shocking, the judging panel had no idea that these mince pies have been highly commended by Christmas Q 2020. 

The second cheapest and perhaps incomparable to the premium options, it was only fair to see how this budget treat fared against the rest - could it really hold its own?

Unfortunately, the Asda mince pie came in at the bottom of the pile and was the worst rated by our panel of judges. 

Scoring eight for taste, eight for texture and just six for pastry out of a possible 45 points - the Asda mince pie pulled in just 22 points.

Lidl Deluxe - £1.49 

Last but by no means least are Lidl’s Deluxe all-butter mince pies.

Also approved by the Good Housekeeping Institute, were these mince pies really any better than the competitor’s budget ones? 

Described by our judges as having a ‘very intense’ flavour these mince pies pulled in just 23 points, being marked down for taste and texture. 

Scores on the doors - here are our judge’s favourites:

First place - Aldi Specially Selected (34 points)

Second - Sainsbury’s (30 points)

Third - Tesco Finest (27 points)

Fourth - Aldi (25 points)

Fifth - Lidl Deluxe (23 points)

Sixth - Asda (22 points)

Across the board the premium mince pies have been infused with alcohol and have a deeper level of taste and spice in comparison to their cheaper opponents.  

If you have a sweeter tooth and like a soft pastry that holds together perhaps opt for one of the more budget-friendly mince pies.

If you’ve tried any of these mince pies, let us know if you agree with the judges in the comments below.