If you’re searching for the best mince pie in the UK for Christmas 2025, you’re in the right place.
For the second year running, I’ve put my tastebuds on the line and eaten my way through the UK’s biggest supermarket mince pies to find out which one actually deserves a place on your Christmas table.
This year’s competition was bigger, tougher, and more structured than ever. We started with 24 mince pies from across the major UK supermarkets and put them through a straight knockout, head-to-head tournament before a final six-pie showdown.
No panels. No brand bias. No reheating tricks (until the final). Just mince pies, eaten properly, judged consistently, and eliminated ruthlessly.
And yes – we have a clear winner.
Dive straight into the result then read on to see how we got there.
The winner – best Christmas mince pie 2025
The best mince pie in the UK for 2025 is the Waitrose All Butter Mince Pie.
It’s the second year in a row that this pie has taken the top spot in The Kitchen Draw mince pie taste test, beating out 23 other contenders across multiple rounds.
What set it apart wasn’t hype or novelty – it was consistency.
- Full-to-the-brim filling
- Proper buttery pastry that holds together when heated
- Balanced, rich flavour without being overpowering
- No gritty bits, no air gaps, no gimmicks
When tasted side-by-side against the very best of the competition in the final, it was the clear standout.
If you want the safest bet for the best Christmas mince pie in 2025, this is it.
How the 2025 mince pie competition worked
This year’s format was completely different to 2024.
Instead of a single long ranking, the 2025 competition used a head-to-head knockout tournament.
- 24 mince pies entered
- 12 initial head-to-head matchups
- Winners advanced to the quarter / semi-final stage
- 6 pies made it through to the final
- Final round pies were gently heated for 5 minutes before judging
All pies were judged on the same criteria throughout:
- Taste of the filling
- Pastry texture and consistency
- Generosity of filling
- Overall balance
Pies were eaten blind to price considerations, and supermarket “prestige” didn’t count for anything if the pie didn’t deliver.
Round one – head-to-head knockouts
The opening round saw some immediate casualties.
A few highlights (and lowlights):
- M&S Collection All Butter Mince Pies comfortably beat Iceland’s standard mince pies
- Aldi Specially Selected All Butter knocked out Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference, which seriously underperformed (one of my least favourite of all 24)
- Lidl Favorina beat Asda Joyous in a battle of the budgets
- Greggs mince pies were eliminated early – flat, biscuit-like pastry and poor filling generosity. I don’t get the hype
- Mr Kipling’s Signature Collection All Butter Mince Pies were the biggest disappointment of the round, especially given the price (the most expensive per pie!). Their Deep Filled pies were also poor, but managed to sneak past the ASDA Exceptional Luxury Mince Pies.
Honourable mention: Co-op’s Irresistible All Butter Pastry Luxury Mince Pies narrowly missed out on progression and were easily the best pie not to make the quarter finals, and would easily have held their own in the final.
Head-to-Head Results
| Winner | Loser |
|---|---|
| M&S Collection All Butter Mince Pies | Iceland Mince Pies |
| ALDI All Butter Mince Pies | Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference All Butter Mince Pies |
| LIDL Favorina Mince Pies | ASDA Joyous Mince Pies |
| Waitrose No.1 6 Brown Butter Mince Pies with Cognac | Greggs Sweet Mince Pie |
| Tesco Finest All Butter Pastry Mince Pies | Co-op Merry Mince Pies |
| Waitrose All Butter Mince Pies | Morrisons The Best All Butter Deep Filled Mince Pies |
| Morrisons Rich & Fruity Mince Pies | LIDL Deluxe All Butter Mince Pies |
| Mr Kipling Deep Filled Mince Pies | ASDA Exceptional Luxury Mince Pies |
| Sainsbury’s Mince Pies | Tesco Merry Mince Pies |
| Waitrose Mince Pies | Co-op Irresistible All Butter Pastry Luxury Mince Pies |
| Iceland Luxury All Butter Mince Pies | Mr Kipling Signature Collection All Butter Mince Pies |
| M&S Classic All Butter Mince Pies | ALDI Deep Filled Mince Pies |
Quarter/semi finals – where things got serious
With 12 pies left, the margins became much finer.
Some notable turning points:
- Aldi Specially Selected All Butter knocked out M&S Collection on flavour alone
- Waitrose Brown Butter Mince Pies with Cognac redeemed themselves slightly, beating Lidl Favorina thanks to better texture and generosity (the LIDL Favorina filling was far to paste-like!)
- Morrisons Rich and Fruity continued to quietly impress, seeing off Mr Kipling Deep Filled
- Iceland Luxury All Butter surprised by eliminating M&S Classic All Butter on flavour
By the end of this stage, six mince pies remained.
The final six mince pies of 2025
The finalists were:
- Aldi Specially Selected All Butter Mince Pie
- Iceland Luxury All Butter Mince Pie
- Morrisons Rich and Fruity Mince Pie
- Waitrose All Butter Mince Pie
- Waitrose Brown Butter Mince Pie with Cognac
- Waitrose Christmas Mince Pie
Yes – Waitrose had three pies in the final, but that didn’t guarantee a win.
The final tasting (heated)
For the final, all six mince pies were heated for five minutes to reflect how many people actually eat them on Christmas Day.
Each pie was cut open, tested for structure, then tasted back-to-back.
Key observations:
- Aldi Specially Selected struggled to hold its form once heated
- The Waitrose cognac pie was still too alcohol-forward and thin in the pastry
- Morrisons Rich and Fruity delivered great flavour but slightly claggy pastry
- Iceland Luxury was a very solid all-rounder with good structure and taste
- The standard Waitrose mince pie was good, but a bit crumbly once heated
- The standout, once again, was the Waitrose All Butter Mince Pie.
It had the best balance of flavour, texture, and structure, and was the only pie that genuinely improved once heated without falling apart.
How this compares to 2024
If you read last year’s post on the best mince pies in the UK for 2024, you’ll notice a pattern.
The Waitrose All Butter Mince Pie won then, too.
That consistency matters. Plenty of pies look good one year and disappear the next. This one has now delivered back-to-back wins in two very different competition formats.
You can read the full 2024 rankings here: The Ultimate Mince Pie Taste Test: Ranking the Best (and Worst) of 2024 – The Kitchen Draw
Is this the best mince pie for everyone?
Taste is subjective. Always.
If you love heavy boozy mince pies, you might prefer something like the cognac version. If you want maximum fruitiness, Morrisons and Iceland both did well this year.
But if you want the safest, most universally enjoyable Christmas mince pie in the UK for 2025 – one that works cold, heated, on its own, or with custard – the Waitrose All Butter Mince Pie is the one to beat.
Video breakdowns
I filmed the entire competition across three videos:
Final thoughts
Eating 24 mince pies in the name of research is not something I recommend lightly, but it does make one thing very clear.
Most mince pies are fine. A few are genuinely bad (looking at you Mr Kipling). And one – again – is excellent.
If you’re still deciding what to buy this Christmas, hopefully this saves you a bit of trial and error.
And if you disagree with the result? That’s half the fun. Let me know what your pick for the best mince pie of 2025 is.
Merry Christmas 🎄
