How we judge mince pies
Where our verdicts come from, how sure we are of each one, and what we never claim.
Every verdict on this site is our own opinion. We haven’t tasted every pie ourselves, and a verdict never says we have. We form each one by reading everything we’ve collected about that exact pie, then saying plainly what we make of it.
What a verdict draws on
Three kinds of evidence, all about the named product rather than the shop’s whole range:
- Published tastings. Good Food and Good Housekeeping tested many of this season’s pies, and we use their notes, scores and awards. We also use single tastings from The Irish News, The London Economic, AOL / Express, Mince Pie Reviews and equinoxx.info where they cover a pie.
- Customer reviews. Written reviews on retailers’ own sites, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Iceland and Abel & Cole, and on smaller bakers’ sites.
- Star ratings. The average a retailer shows for a pie, with the number of ratings behind it.
Each product page lists the publications and seller pages it draws on in its Sources section. Awards appear beside the pie because they’re facts about it.
How sure we are
A verdict is only as confident as the evidence allows, and the wording shows it.
- Plenty to go on. A published tasting, or a clear picture from many reviews. We say it straight.
- Some to go on. A handful of reviews that mostly agree. The wording is a little less absolute.
- Not much yet. One or two reviews, or a thin or old sample. We say so with words like “early signs” or “going by what little there is”.
Where the evidence disagrees, the verdict says the pie is uneven or divisive rather than picking a side. Pies with no evidence at all show “No verdict yet”.
Older seasons
Some feedback comes from earlier Christmases, going back several years for a few pies. We treat it as exactly that. A verdict built on it says the pie was like this in past seasons and that this year’s recipe may differ. A 2026 listing doesn’t tell us when a recipe last changed.
What we never do
- Claim to have tasted, eaten or warmed a pie we haven’t.
- Turn a verdict into a score, a star rating or a ranking. We don’t average Good Housekeeping’s marks, a retailer’s stars and a handful of comments into one number.
- Spread a verdict on one pie across the rest of a range. A shop’s amaretto pie and its standard pie get separate verdicts, or none.
Product facts
Ingredients, nutrition and prices come from seller listings and labels, each with the date we checked it. Missing information stays missing. We show a per-pie figure only when the label names one pie as the portion.
The shortlist
The mince pies we recommend lists every pie our verdict comes down in favour of, grouped by how much we have to go on. It isn’t ranked, and it isn’t a taste test.