This week, Value For Moneytest five varities of mince pies

Ditty's Luxury Brandy Sweetmince Pies, €7.50 for six, €1.25 per pie

Highs:From Northern Ireland, these are made to a very high quality and score extra points for being nicely presented. The pastry is lovely and light and offsets the heaviness of the mince. The fruity centre isn't entirely mush and it is not excessively sweet.

Lows:The pastry is a bit on the crumbly side and these are prone to falling apart while being removed from the foil casing. Given the name, we were expecting way more of a brandy kick to these. We were mildly disappointed to note that it was made with just 1 per cent brandy. The price was a bit off-putting too, and we're not sure we got the luxury we were promised. We were surprised to see four separate E numbers listed among the pastry ingredients.

Verdict:Very nice, but pricey

Star rating: **** 

Marks & Spencer Luxury Deep- Filled Mince Pies, €3.79 for six, €0.63 per pie

Highs:Dusted with sugar and made with an unconscionable amount of butter, these are the pies Homer Simpson would go for, although whether or not that is a recommendation is questionable. There is a pretty little star on the pastry topping and a hefty alcohol kick thanks to the addition of brandy and port. This product has the nicest and most natural of the ingredient lists, with no additives, E numbers or dodgy oils in sight.

Lows:The pastry is very heavy, the dusting of sugar is, we think, entirely unnecessary and we were more than just a little horrified to learn that a single pie accounted for a third of our daily allowance of saturated fat and just under a third of our sugar allowance.

Verdict:Don't eat too many of them

Star rating: **** 

Matt Reilly Mini Christmas Mince Pies, €3.89 for 10, €0.39 per pie

Highs:These Irish-made mince pies were sourced in our local Spar, so they are likely to be more widely available than most of the competition. Pie for pie, they worked out substantially cheaper than the rest. They were also the only product not to come in individual foil cases, which should cut down on the packaging. We also found the fruit mix to be quite pleasant.

Lows:While they are not as mini as the packaging might suggest, there was a whole lot of air in the middle of each of these and an awful lot of pretty awful pastry. They have a sharp, almost bitter aftertaste and the ingredients showed that hydrogenated vegetable oil were in the mix, which is one thing we would tend to go a long way to avoid.

Verdict:Easy to find, not so easy to eat

Star rating: ** 

Teatime Express Deep-Filled Mince Pies, 2.99 for six, €0.50 per pie

Highs:These are another Irish-made product which taste absolutely fine if a little dull. The shortcrust pastry was nice and light and made for a welcome change from the gluey-textured vileness to be found elsewhere. There is a lot of fruit in each pie, although it still plays second fiddle to the pastry.

Lows:While the pastry is light it is also a little on the cardboardy side and a bit tasteless. In fact, the whole affair was a bit bland and unmemorable. We struggled to get any of the seasonal, spicy flavours we were expecting from a product of this nature and the only flavour that lingered to any degree was the sugar.

Verdict:Too sweet

Star rating: **

Village Bakery Organic Mince Pies, €5.20 for six, €0.87 per pie

Highs:We are always well disposed to organic products, particularly when it comes to such a heavily processed product as mince pies. These were made in a wheat- and dairy-free bakery so will be ideal for people with certain allergies. There is a lot of fruit and the filling, with all its citrusy and spicy flavours, might well have been the nicest of the lot.

Lows:There was an absolutely ridiculous amount of sugar sprinkled on the top of each pie, which made them incredibly and unnecessarily sweet. The pastry was very stodgy and it practically glued our mouth shut. It also fell apart too readily - although that might not have been such a bad thing as it meant we were given better access to the fruit without it looking like we'd dumped the pastry topping to get at the centre.

Verdict:Very disappointing

Start rating: **