Mince Pies (Birds of Derby) By @SpectreUK

I love mince pie season. The variety of mince pies on the market is astounding. There are deep pan mince pies, sugar coated ones, or icing topped, great big ones to little tiny ones. Mince pies to heat up and have with custard, cream, or with a dollop of vanilla ice cream on the side. There is such a plethora of different types of mince pies, I can't list them allI, because I'm still finding different ones out there in the shops.

Personally I like to wash my mince pies down with a couple of shots of spiced rum with lemonade. It has to be 7UP, although other lemonades are available, they just don't have the correct lemony taste to bring out all the flavours of the rum, or Southern Comfort, or Pink Schnapps, depending on what's in reach.

Cinabar works in Derby sometimes. She loves to visit Birds, which was founded in 1919. She bought back their mince pies for me to try. They are cute and pretty small mince pies. Just on biting in I felt like I was eating a really high class quality mince pie. Sugar coated, the pastry had a very soft and crumbly buttery flavour, which was really gorgeous. Some of the nicest pastry I have tried, the pastry really was heaven, buttery and light.

Although shallow, there was a good amount of filling for the size of the mince pie. The mince filling was really tasty, sweet, with some spices, and plenty of citrus. Birds' mince pies tasted handmade, but really well handmade with love, rather than a mass produced mince pie by some machine. I'd certainly recommend a visit to Birds if you're passing by Derby, or know someone who goes there.