Price: £2.00 for a box of 4 (01/11/2024)
These mince pies are part of TESCO’s freeFROM range, which is aimed at people with dietary intolerances and allergies. Therefore, these pies are gluten, wheat and milk free, which should make them safe for most people to consume. They are also classified as vegan. The blurb on the rear of the packet describes them as ‘crisp pastry filled with spiced mincemeat made with sultanas, raisins & currants’.
You do have to pay a bit of a premium for the freeFROM pies. At £2 for a pack of four, they work out at 50p per pie, which is double the cost of the standard Tesco ‘Merry’ Mince Pies. that come in a pack of six for £1.50. I guess it’s a price worth paying if you aren’t able to tolerate gluten, wheat or dairy products.
Cold Taste Test
The flavour of the pastry isn’t too bad considering there’s no butter involved. I’d say they have managed to mimic a hint of butter flavour with their recipe, so some credit is due there. The pastry texture isn’t great though. It’s not quite as bad as the OMV! Merrily Vegan Mince Pies, but it’s definitely not crisp or crumbly. If anything it brings to mind the sensation of biting into cardboard. It just doesn’t stand up to comparisons with the pastry from any of the non-vegan or non-freeFROM pies that I have reviewed.
The mincemeat, on the other hand, is pretty decent and does a good job of distracting you from the substandard pastry so that the overall effect is of a reasonable, fairly average mince pie.
Hot Taste Test
The instructions say to oven heat them, and that could potentially improve the pasty somewhat (although I have my doubts in this case). However, we’ve been microwave heating all the pies for our reviews so far so, in the interests of consistency, I did the same with one of these. The pastry did soften a bit, but was still too floury and starchy for my liking. The warm mincemeat was still just as pleasing and again compensated for the pastry to a degree.
Verdict
I wouldn’t recommend these TESCO freeFROM mince pies to anyone who doesn’t have the specific dietary requirements for which they cater. Quite simply, they can’t compete with the vast array of mince pies that have butter in their pastry. Therefore, they sit towards the bottom end of my ranking. However, competing with regular mince pies obviously isn’t their raison d’être.
They exist to provide an option for those of us who are unable to stomach regular mince pies, and they perform that function to a satisfactory standard. Indeed, I found them preferable to the two other varieties of vegan mince pie that I have previously reviewed. I’m happy to report that these TESCO freeFROM mince pies will provide people with gluten, wheat or milk intolerance an authentic tasting mince pie experience this Christmas. I wouldn’t like to think of anyone missing out on that.
Nutrition
Typical values (per 100g):
- Energy: 396 kcal
- Fat: 15.5 g
- Saturates: 5.4 g
- Carbohydrate: 59.2 g
- Of which sugars: 28 g
- Fibre : 4.1 g
- Protein: 2.9 g
- Salt: 0.17 g