12 December 2011

Mince Pie Ice Cream (Tesco Finest) [By @Cinabar]



From the people that brought you mince pie crisps… we now have mince pie ice cream! This isn't ice cream made specially to serve with mince pies, oh no this is mince pie flavoured! It is an unusual idea this year to have new and interesting mince pie flavoured goodies, but one I'm lapping up.
I hastily opened the tub, and inside was a light cream coloured ice cream filled with all sorts of interesting bits and goodies. I could see bits of pastry mixed into the tub, and other intriguing items like specs of cinnamon and other spices.
I scooped some into a bowl, and gave it a first try. The base flavour of the ice cream is not really as expected at all. Mince pies have a rich current taste, but the main element here was citrus, with a slightly tart lemon edge. There were plenty of warming spices mixed in, and the cloves and cinnamon did go some way to warming it up, but it couldn't cover the lemon taste. I know mince pies contain lemon, and they have a hint of sour, but the strong currant flavour was missing from this ice cream. I liked the texture from the pastry bits mixed in, and the creamy taste had nice hints of butter and biscuit which certainly fulfilled the pastry aspect of the mince pies.
The ice cream was absolutely lovely, and the citrus base taste worked well with the spices and Christmas flavour. The pastry aspect added a lovely texture and buttery bursts, and I thoroughly enjoyed the tub. I have bought a second tub to put away for Christmas as I liked it so much. Ultimately though if you judge this as 'mince pie' flavour it was just slightly lacking the rich dark currant and raisin flavour you'd expect. It’s actually more of a refreshing ice cream, and would be well suited to the summer months!
By Cinabar

6 comments:

S.Emerald said...

I've never had mince pie before. For a hot second, I thought that it contained meat, but I guess I was thinking of minced meat instead. Lol, it looks good though:)

Jeremai Smith said...

It's not so new; Sainsbury's had mince pie ice cream last year... not that I was able to find any. I've got a tub of this Tesco version in the freezer I'm looking forward to trying.

Heidi said...

I saw mince pie flavoured crisps in Tesco - I would love to see a review on those!

Jeremai Smith said...

Heidi, scroll down the page... the mince pie crisps review is 7 articles below the mince pie ice cream!

Heidi said...

Doh - I am a donut, thanks!

Sakkarin said...

I bought a tub of this a couple of days ago on impulse, as they had reduced it to 2 quid.

It is about the most disappointing ice cream I've ever tried. Very little in it that reminded me of pie filling, the tiniest black flecks in it did not taste of fruit. The tub said "Rich Buttery Pastry Pieces", but again, I was expecting small lumps of something biscuity, similar to Ben & Jerry's Appley Ever After, which has "Chunks of Pie Crust". However it tasted as if someone had just processed a lump of pastry (and not pleasant pastry at that) into the mix, which left a sort of slightly rancid floury aftertaste in your mouth.

The overall verdict - the closest to anything vaguely tasting like mince pie is that there was a sort of christmassy spiciness in the background, but only slight. Complete FAIL.