Kaffee und Kuchen

December is upon us so it’s time to step up the evaluation. There is such a cornucopia of different mincemeat-in-pastry combinations available, and we need to get to the bottom of which particular one is the tastiest. I have thus far surveyed a selection picked by no more sensible design that just whatever I can get my hands on easily. So as we hit the run up to xmas itself, I have chosen to go for a themed round of the evaluation: big chain coffee shop mince pies.

I say chosen, but in reality this was not premeditated. There happen to be both a Costa and Starbuck’s coffee shop in the arcade next to Belsize Park station. Bingo. In the former I purchased a mince tart (£1.50), and in the latter I snapped up their last all butter luxury mince pie (£1.45). Faced with a somewhat arduous and cramped commute on the London Underground, the packaging for these pies was crucial. Costa jumped into an early lead with a superior paper bag that had a flat base and was tall enough to be folded over without cramping the pie within. In contrast Starbuck’s was a miserly small affair (admittedly with snowflake pictures on to capture the current mood of the country), and offered such scant protection that I opted to place it in inside the voluminous Costa bag.

Both pies made it safely home without any pastry disintegration

Today’s pies were washed down with a cup of tea as a post work snack. Perhaps because they are designed to be sold individually, both pies were rather larger than I am accustomed to and have probably spoilt my dinner. This would not really be a problem if you just eat one, so I shan’t deduct any marks.

They both look rather festive

The first pie past my lips was Costa. Or should I say “tart on my tongue” (hmmmmmm probably not) – because this mincemeat creation is the first that I have tried not explicitly billed as a pie. A quick glance at the photo will confirm the tart format, with a shallow pastry case and lack of complete roof. Naturally I was excited by this gimmick, and also appreciated its attractive presentation with xmas tree pastry cut-out. Costa was tart by name, and tart by nature. The filling had a bit of a tang to it, and lovely big juicy sultanas. The most exotic aspect though was the chopped almonds on top. Nuts in a mince pie/tart? I give it the thumbs up.

My first impression of Starbuck’s was that it was too big. Or at least too big for the second mince pie in the sitting. This was a classic example of the ‘deep-fill’ genre of pie. I detected an interesting flavour in the depths of the filling, possibly cinnamon. This was quite tasty, but as quirky additions to a standard recipe go, it couldn’t compete with almonds. Presentation-wise I liked the dusting with icing sugar.

In the final analysis, I was moderately impressed with the contenders for the coffee shop crown (apologies to Nero fans – I didn’t walk past one today). Both had rather nothingy pastry and had opted to try to impress with the filling. And in this arena it was the Costa that came out on top.