Today's contender for the 2018 Best Christmas Mince Pie is... 

🎉  🎊 FORTNUM & MASON  🎊  🎉  ( £10.95 for 6 😮) Cup of tea at the ready!

Pastry: Firstly, they survived a busy tube journey home! It tastes excellent! Great colour, quite tall, finished with a caster sugar top (oh well). Came out of the case well though I was tentatively easing it off, I'm a bit scared of this one. A buttery bottom which led to a lesser known problem of GREASY FINGERS...nothing the back of my jeans can't fix.

Filling: You can smell the booze before you even take a bite - I mistook it for a hint of coconut but the filling is nothing but traditional. A smooth paste instead of the whole fruit we're used to, what's nice is that the nuts are more prominent here. 

Presentation: The design is nice with the signature branding and they're all quite consistent. I wasn't too impressed when one of the tops came off revealing an odd air gap between filling and top but it's deliberate! I've been approaching this one all wrong. They sell a butter with the serving suggestion of "...Rum Butter eased gently under the lid". Cringe. Its quite filling and I only managed one and a half pies, this isn't usually a problem! It's definitely got top tier ingredients with flavours that carry a serious 'Christmas of old days' vibe. 

Rightly so...it stands apart from everything we've seen so far BUT CAN I RECOMMEND IT?

No. £10.95 for 6 mince pies? A bit steep for me.

Summary: Get down M&S 👍

NEXT TIME: We get back to basics...

Adam Cooke

Photographer / Pie Tester

Current Leaders

1st: M&S - Collection 

2nd: Pret A Manger

3rd: ASDA - Extra Special

Independants

1st: The Nightingale Patisserie