A refined box design, gold and navy, with a window showing you half of the contents. Open, and the first look is encouraging. As seems to be the case for many a posher pie, M&S have also chosen a star-on-a-star design, this time a six-pointer, with a snowflake detail too, although there’s quite a lot of variation in positioning of the lids. There’s a texture bonus from the caster sugar sprinkling.
The first bite is yielding, and the pastry is rich in butter, with a decent salty hit.
The mincemeat is very good – M&S likes to add a little more variety to their fillings, and there’s ruby cranberries and citrus-y peel on offer in these, and a personal favourite – glacé cherries! A couple of these with a mug of tea gives a lovely warming boozy hit.
Yet, I have an issue with mini mince pies. Bite-size they may be, and even having the same ingredients as their full-size siblings…yet they’ll always suffer from an adverse filling/casing ratio. You need two for full effect – and that ends up being a bit too dry.
Priced at £2.75 for a box of six.
Packaging – 8
Appearance – 7
Filling – 9
Taste – 6
Overall score 30/40