Price: £2.75 for a box of 6 (04/11/2024)
This is Marks and Spencer’s standard mince pie offering, sitting just below their M&S Collection Mince Pies in their 2024 range. It’s slightly more affordable than that premium version, but at £2.75 a box it’s still considerably more expensive than the standard own-brand mince pies at most other UK supermarkets.
The description on the packaging advertises them as “our classic deep filled spiced mincemeat encased in a crisp all butter shortcrust pastry”. They are an average size, and share the same star-shaped hole in the lid as their siblings in the M&S Collection range to allow the escape of steam during cooking. They have an attractive holly leaf pattern on top.
Cold Taste Test
The M&S Classic Mince Pies are encased in a very good, thick and crisp pastry with a nice buttery flavour. It’s undoubtedly one of the better supermarket mince pie pastries, with about as good a consistency as you can hope for in this type of product. The mincemeat too is of a high quality. It’s sweet, rich and fruity and really set my mouth watering for more. Overall, they’re an extremely tasty creation.
Hot Taste Test
The pastry survived a short blast in the microwave without losing much of its crisp consistency and still crumbled nicely between the teeth. Mincemeat invariably responds well to being heated up. And this v was no exception. I can confirm that these M&S Classic Mince Pies are just as tasty hot as they are cold.
Verdict
I was very impressed by the M&S Classic Mince Pies. Their price tag places them midway between most store brand standard mince pies and the premium versions, but in quality they’re probably closer to the premium pies, so they just about justify their price. I’d happily buy them again, and in fact I’d probably choose them ahead of the M&S Collection Mince Pies given that they are more than £1 cheaper. My only quibble is that they could perhaps have slightly more filling packed into them.
Nutrition
Typical values (per 100g):
- Energy: 397 kcal
- Fat: 14.3 g
- Saturates: 9.8 g
- Carbohydrate: 62.4 g
- Of which sugars: 38.9 g
- Fibre : 2.5 g
- Protein: 3.4 g
- Salt: 0.38 g