Best mince pies for Christmas 2012 Heston wins our mince pie test again but is closely followed by the budget supermarkets. Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year and along with the usual traditions such as advent calendars, mulled wine and carol singing, the annual Lovemoney mince pie test has now become a favourite in my festive diary. It's an annual tradition at Lovemoney HQ to try out mince pies from all the leading brands and report back to you the best for quality, taste and value for money. This means we're doing the hard work for you - taste testing 14 different pies ourselves so you'll be better informed when heading out to the shops. This year Heston Blumenthal's pies for Waitrose won for a second year running, but pies from the likes of Morrisons, Aldi and Lidl weren't far behind the premium brand. Previous tests Last year the premium brands dominated the top spots with Heston's puff pastry pies voted number one. These were priced at 3.29 for a pack of six and the most expensive tested. Second place went to Marks & Spencer, another luxury brand, with a box of six pies set at 2.69 a pack. At the other end of the scale the budget pies, from Asda, Tesco and Lidl scored poorly. Interestingly, these results varied wildly from 2010 when budget pies from Asda and Lidl came out in top while Marks and Spencer and Waitrose were further down the list. The