Price: £1.45 for a box of 6 (16/11/2024)
These are the standard, no frills mince pies from British supermarket chain Iceland. The packaging describes them as ‘pastry cases filled with mincemeat, topped with a pastry lid and a sprinkling of sugar.
They are of average size and adhere to the conventional design and shape for packaged supermarket pies of their ilk. They are decorated with a six pointed star on top. Their appearance suggests that these will be middle-of-the-road mince pies.
Cold Taste Test
The pastry is decent. It’s about what you would expect at this price point. It has a good texture with a bit of crispiness to it, but not much butter flavour. The mincemeat is smooth and sweet, with few large pieces. It’s a nice enough flavour, but far from the best that I have sampled. There’s nothing to make it stand out from the crowd.
Hot Taste Test
The instructions list microwave heating as an option, so that’s what I did in this instance. Remember to remove the foil tray if you’re doing the same. When I opened up the heated pie, the warm mincemeat emitted a pleasing aroma of festive spices. The flavour was more or less unchanged and the pastry retained its consistency. There’s nothing special about them – just standard mince pies performing much as you would expect.
Verdict
Overall, these are very reasonable mince pies at a price that represents decent value for money. As mince pies go, they are respectably mid-table when compared to their rivals on the market. An average mince pie at a below average price.
It should be noted that they are far from average when it comes to calorie or fat content. At 403 kcal per 100g, these have the highest calorie count of any pie that I have tested this far, and at 16g per 100g they have the joint highest fat rating. Therefore, they should probably be avoided by anyone looking to lose weight.
Nutrition
Typical values (per 100g):
- Energy: 403 kcal
- Fat: 16 g
- Saturates: 6.1 g
- Carbohydrate: 59.7 g
- Of which sugars: 31.4 g
- Fibre : 2.8 g
- Protein: 3.6 g
- Salt: 0.3 g