Mince pies are a must-have treat over the festive season, packed with delicious mincemeat encased in shortcrust pastry and often topped with a festive design.

Some have alcohol for taste in them, whilst others keep it nice and simple with just dried fruits.

With so many on the market, it can be hard to know which ones to go for.

To help make your decision easier, Express.co.uk tested supermarket mince pies from Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Tesco as well as by Amazon to discover the most delicious.

To make this a fair test, we tasted the cheapest variety the stores had to offer, all under the £2 mark, bar Amazon’s which were £2.90.

1. Sainsbury’s

Our taste testers loved the design of this mince pie, with the top of the pie covered in pastry, and topped with a Christmas tree.

This was different to the other supermarket designs this year, but this ended up being a little too much pastry, taking away from the mincemeat taste.

It was much less sweet than the other mince pies, which some people may prefer though.

These mince pies retail for £1.70 in Sainsbury’s stores for six mince pies in a festive box.

2. Asda

These mince pies from Asda retail for £1.50 for six pies, in a red festive box, but didn’t take the top spot for our taste testers.

We found them to have a good mincemeat-to-pastry ratio compared to other varieties, and they had a good amount of sweetness.

However, they were slightly stodgy and took a while to chew which is why they didn’t take the top spot.

3. Tesco

Available for £1.50 for six pies, the same price as Asda, Tesco mince pies scored very low in all aspects of our taste test.

We found them to have a lot more spice than others, which some may like, but we found them to be too overpowering.

They had a good texture but were very claggy and took a while to chew and swallow which was annoying.

4. Morrisons

The cheapest pies of the taste test were from Morrisons, available for just £1.45 for six mince pies.

Although the box is the least aesthetic of all the ones we tested, Morrisons took the top spot for us in terms of taste, texture and pastry-to-mincemeat ratio.

Taste testers said they were very sweet with a nice texture and would be perfect with a dollop of cream to balance flavours.

5. Amazon

Available for £2.90 a box, taste testers found the by Amazon mince pies to be well-presented in a slightly festive box.

The mince pies looked tasty with thick pastry and a snowflake on top. They had a good ratio of filling but were slightly too strong on the alcohol front.

They contain French brandy and ruby port, along with festive spices, which were slightly too strong for our taste testers but others may love this aspect of a mince pie.