2024 supermarket mince pies ranked by taste & value for money

We’re big fans of mince pies at TopCashback. After all, who doesn’t love a good mince pie?

But if you know anything about us, you’ll also know that we’re passionate about saving people money. This is why we’re such strong believers that doing your festive food shop on a budget doesn’t have to mean missing out on all the tasty stuff.

This festive season, we set ourselves the mission of crowning the best supermarket mince pie, weighing up taste and value for money.

We enlisted a team of 10 TopCashback elves to test the standard mince pie option from 10 different supermarkets, avoiding luxury mince pies like Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference, Tesco Finest, Waitrose No.1 and Aldi Specially Selected.

Here’s a quick rundown if you can’t wait to find out who came out on top. For a full rundown of appearance, flavour and consistency, you’ll want to keep reading.

How we ranked the supermarket mince pies

Our mince pie taste-testing super group was made up of 10 TopCashback colleagues, from a range of different departments.

To keep things clear and simple, we taste-tested 10 standard supermarket Christmas mince pies. We didn’t include free-from, vegan or luxury mince pies.

The results

But enough of the boring stuff – which mince pie was best? Well, our results might surprise you… We’ve started from worst to best to build up the festive suspense, but we won’t blame you if you skip ahead to the end if you want to be a Scrooge about it.

Please note: When we ran this taste test, Tesco's Merry Mince Pies were priced at £1.50 per box of six. They've since been Aldi-price-matched to £1.25. This would usually affect the final score for the mince pie, but we've decided to keep them in last place because our testers disliked them so much. Even at this lower price, they still wouldn't recommend them.

#10 Tesco Merry Mince Pies

We’re kicking things off with our lowest-scoring mince pie, and many of our taste testers were pretty passionate about this one.

Despite scoring well for appearance (particular mentions go to the ‘cute’ double star and the ‘nice mix of dark and light crust’), many of our testers were off-put by the flavour of this mince pie.

A few tasters noted a ‘weird aftertaste’, with one person thinking the pastry was the culprit (if you eat one of these, Katie’s advice is: ‘don’t leave the edge until last!’). There were a few complaints about the pastry.

According to our testers, it was very dry and not buttery enough, which made it hard to swallow. One of our tasters found that the pastry was so thick, they couldn’t really taste the filling properly.

For those who could taste the Tesco mince pie’s filling, this wasn’t necessarily a good thing. One of our tasters noted that the mincemeat was ‘very sour, with a hard consistency’.

We did ask them to be brutally honest after all, but either way, not a great start. Don’t worry, it gets better from here.

#9 Waitrose Mince Pies

The lack of a star on top of this pie left an immediately underwhelming impression for many of our tasters, leaving the mince pie looking pretty plain. Despite the ‘basic appearance’, there was a ‘nice bit of sugar on top’, and one taster thought it ‘looked expensive’.

But appearance isn’t everything, and the main issues with the Waitrose mince pie were in the consistency of the filling. A few tasters picked up on the pie tasting ‘too wet’ and ‘a little claggy’, while one taster reckoned the filling tasted more like a puree than mincemeat.

After M&S, this mince pie from Waitrose is the most expensive of the bunch. One of our testers described it as just ‘an average mince pie’, which isn’t ideal when you’re paying £1.95 for a pack of six!

#8 Iceland Mince Pies

Of our 10 testers, only two people had mainly positive things to say about this pie, whereas four were neither here nor there, and four others didn’t enjoy it.

Abbie thought the Iceland mince pie looked great and tasted ‘fruity and light’, and Sean found it had ‘good taste’ and was ‘full of flavour’.

Karen also noted that this pie had a ‘generous ratio of filling to pastry’, but despite this, she still found the pastry ‘bland’ and the filling ‘not very nice’.

Other testers came to a similar conclusion to Karen, with complaints about the pie tasting ‘cheap’ and ‘plain’, with mincemeat that was too runny. One person thought Iceland’s mince pie ‘just tasted of raisins’.

The outer pastry case was a redeeming factor for some, with some enjoying the ‘light buttery pastry’. Another taster thought the pie had a ‘lovely consistency’ overall but this sadly wasn’t enough to redeem its lack of flavour.

#7 Morrisons Rich & Fruity Mince Pies

Morrisons is in at #7, and while there weren’t many particularly bad scores for this one, the overall verdict for this mince pie seems to be that it was just ‘okay’.

The overall look of the pastry was a strong point, with Steve admiring its ‘amazing appearance with a great decorative finish and browning to the crust’. But despite this being a ‘good looking pie’, many of our testers found it to be a pretty dull tasting experience.

While some thought the mincemeat filling was ‘overly sweet’, others found it to taste ‘a little bland and boring’. One taster noted a ‘soggy’ consistency, and others identified a ‘slightly odd taste’.

Not much to write home about with this one, it seems, although it definitely had a warmer reception than the pies we’ve already covered.

#6 Lidl Favorina Mince Pies

Perhaps the definition of a middle-grounder, these mince pies from Lidl weren’t particularly memorable for our tasters.

It scored pretty well overall for appearance, with everyone liking the festive holly decoration on the top. The tasters generally liked the look and taste of the pastry too, with one person noting the ‘nice browning on the edges’ and the thick pastry top, and another enjoying the firm crust.

However, despite ticking a lot of people’s boxes for looks, opinions on the taste were more varied. One taster told us they were a little disappointed by this mince pie, considering its appearance, and another thought the flavour needed to be stronger.

On the other hand, one taster thought the pie tasted expensive, and another appreciated the decent amount of whole fruit inside.

When it came to consistency, while there was a good amount of fruity filling, Rhi found the base to be a little soggy and the pieces fell apart too easily for Sean.

#5 Asda Yummy Mince Pies

This quirky sparkling star mince pie from Asda was a hit with some of our testers but fell short for others.

Half of our testers enjoyed this one, particularly the appearance and consistency of the pastry, while three identified both positive and negative aspects.

The general consensus was that there was a good ratio of filling to pastry and the pastry itself tasted nice.

Katie noted that the filling tasted stronger than the other pies she’d tried that day, but this balanced well with the quantity of pastry. Karen described a ‘nice amount of spice’, although Steve thought it wasn’t quite sweet enough.

Two of our tasters in particular didn’t enjoy the taste, scoring it a 3/10 and 4/10 for flavour. One said the mincemeat ‘had no taste’, while another thought the pie tasted cheap, with an overly sweet yet bland flavour.

#4 Co-op Merry Mince Pies

We’re getting towards the end now, so all of the pies we’re yet to cover were well-liked by the majority of our taste testers.

The Co-op Merry Mince Pie was referred to as ‘generally a really good mince pie’ that had a ‘great design and taste’. The ‘really nice shortcrust pastry’ was a big hit with Rhi, and four of our other testers admired its butteriness.

While some of the previous pies in this article didn’t have a huge amount of filling, this one had just the right amount of fruit, with a ‘nice spice’ too.

Looks-wise, some marked it down for being a bit ‘basic’. It didn’t score too highly out of 10 for appearance, with 80% of our group rating it a six, seven or eight.

One of our testers was particularly enamoured with the Co-op mince pie. Not only did he think it was a nice-tasting traditional mince pie, but as he’s a Co-op member, he could get a pack of six for £1.20 (that’s the cheapest price for shop-bought mince pies we’ve seen this year).

This was also the highest-scoring vegan mince pie out of the 10. In fact, TopCashback co-founder Olly Ragg is vegan and a big fan of these mince pies. After buying a pack at his local Co-op, Olly had eaten three of them by the time he got home: 'Ignoring the fact that's about 650 calories scoffed on a quick drive home, I thought they were very nice. They tasted like mince pies to me!'.

These unique-looking mince pies from Sainsbury’s caused quite a stir among our testing team, with the Christmas tree design inciting a cacophony of oohs and ahhs as they were passed around.

This is a good-looking mince pie with a ‘nice even colour’ that holds together well and doesn’t crumble.

This was the seventh mince pie our team tried and one tester said it was their favourite tasting experience so far. It ticked all the boxes for Steve too, with its ‘good flavour, great appearance and texture’, while both Shell and Rhi liked that the pastry top wasn’t sunk inside the casing.

With nice mixed spices and generously filled with vine fruits, this pie was rated second overall out of all 10 pies for flavour. There was also a ‘good balance of pastry to filling’ according to Katie.

Our testers didn’t have many negative things to say about this mince pie. The only less-than-positive notes were that one person found it too dry, another said the pastry overpowered the overall taste, and a third person thought it was a ‘little gritty’.

This isn’t just any mince pie, and our testers could certainly taste the difference. A fair few of our participants guessed these mince pies were from M&S.

And they were a big hit, with six out of 10 testers giving it full marks (that’s 10/10 for appearance, taste, consistency, and overall score). In fact, Marks and Spencers’ pie scored first out of all the mince pies for flavour, appearance and consistency.

Everybody loved the proper pie top, with a few tasters saying it was like eating a mince pie with a biscuit on top. Raters told us that this pie had ‘easily the best crust’, which had a ‘shortbread quality’. Others thought the ‘consistency was excellent’, with lots of dried fruits and just the right amount of sweetness.

In fact, Sean described it as ‘the perfect mince pie’, and Fran agreed it was her favourite.

However, as tasty as they are, at £2.75 a box, we have to take their priciness into consideration. We wouldn’t be a money-saving website if we put the most expensive pie at the top of the list. But we really can’t deny just how delicious these mince pies were.

If you’re after the best supermarket mince pie and don’t mind what you pay for it, M&S is king.

Despite the popularity of our M&S mince pie, we are, after all, a money-saving website. With that in mind, if you’re looking for great-tasting sweet treats at a more affordable price, you might want to go for a box of Aldi’s mince pies.

While Aldi and Lidl come out on top for the cheapest box price (at £1.25 for six mince pies), Aldi far surpassed Lidl in terms of taste.

Coming second overall for appearance (after M&S) and third for taste (after M&S and Sainsbury’s), this is a fantastic all-rounder.

Our tasters enjoyed the decorative snowflake and many noted the nice colour on the pastry. There was a decent amount of filling too, giving it a ‘good texture’ and ‘solid composition’.

As for the taste, some enjoyed the ‘strong aftertaste of fruits’. But while being the cheapest of the lot, this pie wasn’t a top taste scorer for everyone. Katie thought the pastry top was too thick and Shell found the whole thing a bit dry, with not enough filling.

Despite the nice appearance, Steve was ‘really let down by lack of flavour’ and another tester noted the ‘flavour didn’t match the nice appearance.’

Our final verdict on the best mince pies for 2024

Whether you have yours with a cup of tea or a mug of mulled wine, stocking up on mince pies for Christmas is an essential part of the festive season.

While you might be thinking all mince pies surely taste pretty much the same – our team of testers would have to disagree.

But maybe we can’t have it all. It was clear from our taste-testing team that M&S was the clear winner, but when you take into consideration the premium price, this won’t be a top pick for anyone on a budget.

If you want a good all-rounder that looks good, tastes good and doesn’t cost a pretty penny, Aldi’s Holly Lane mince pies are a smart option. This is especially true if you’re stocking up for a Christmas party or have lots of mouths to feed.

If you’re willing to spend a bit more, Sainsbury’s offer some delicious mince pies, or for the cream of the crop, it has to be M&S. Taste tester Steve had the best money-saving tip of the day… ‘I shall have Sainsbury's mince pies in my house this Christmas, and a hidden box of M&S for when I’m feeling extra special.’