The festive season is filled with great food, but with so many options it’s next to impossible to know where to get the best bits.

We don’t want you to waste your money, so we’ve bravely stepped into the breach to taste test the main players from some of the big stores.

In coming weeks we’ll be giving our unbiased verdicts on Christmas puddings, Panettone and some festive fizz.

Up first, our panel turned their attention to mince pies.

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Tesco Finest Deep Filled All Butter Pastry Mince Pies, £2.50 (for 6)

The Tesco offering got decent feedback but our testers felt they were just kind of, you know, *average*. While one tester felt they were the best overall, another thought there was a little too much sugar on top. If there was a consensus, it was that this was a reasonable middle ground.

Average score: 6.5/10

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Aldi Specially Selected Crumbly All Butter Mince Pies, £1.49 (for 6)

Aldi scored highly largely on the quality of the mince. While they didn’t look enormously different from most of the others and the pastry wasn’t especially noteworthy (though was fine), just like a fable our testers loved what was inside. It was ‘syrupy’, ‘thick’, ‘tangy’ and ‘juicy’. Hard to beat.

Average score: 8/10

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Lidl Snowy Lodge Luxury Mini Mince Pies, £1.79 (for 12)

Lidl have come up with a slightly different approach – dainty little pies that look like they would go wonderfully with a glass of prosecco. The presentation won points with our motley crew of testers but they nearly all said they were too dry. One attributed that to insufficient filling and ‘average’ pastry.

Average score 5/10

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Waitrose Heston Spiced Shortcrust Mince Pies, £3.50 (for 6)

Heston always does something a bit different, and his mince pies certainly fall into that category. Our taste testers were savage about the small orange biscuity disc’s appearance, with half of them going as far as to say it resembled a pork pie.

While it’s a long way from a classic mince pie, it got positive comments on its taste – ‘really tastes like Christmas’, one reviewer wrote. Nearly everyone mentioned the cinnamon, which was either great or too much depending on how much you like the spice.

Average score: 5.5/10

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Marks and Spencer Collection Handcrafted Cranberry and Clementine Mini Mince Pie Selection, £2.50 (for 6)

Marks and Spencer came up with a very different selection – little bitsized pies and clementines, some with gold tops, others with candied peel and some very grandma-looking little mince pies. Our testers felt they tasted home-made, although for some this wasn’t good. ‘Too much glaze and too rich’, wrote one before offering a miserly 3/10.

Average score: 6/10

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Morrisons Signature All Butter Deep Filled Mince Pies, £1.79 (for 6)

Moderate to good reviews for the Morrisons offerings. They’re another classic mince pie that our testers generally felt ‘tasted nice and like a mince pie should’. A good allrounder.

Average score: 7/10

THE WINNER: Aldi, by some stretch. And cheapest too.