Let the "feastivites" begin; six new flavour mince pies land at Asda for Christmas 2023

Christmas and mince pie fanatics (which includes us at That's Christmas!) have something to look forward to, as Asda is launching a 17-strong mince pie range, with 6 new flavours, for Christmas 2023.

Flavours will include Brown Butter and Spiced Rum, Frangipane and Amaretto, Chocolate and Cherry Crumble and a vegan OMV! Crumble Topped Mince Pie.

It's Asda's prediction that it will sell 26 million mince pies this year, after selling 24 million last year.

Hero products in the range, including the Extra Special Brown Butter & Rum Mince Pies, are produced by a specialist family owned and operated bakery based in Lazonby, Cumbria which has been producing high quality, delicious baked goods since 1946.

Available as part of Asda’s 2023 Christmas range, mince pies land this week instore and online.

With under 100 days to go before Christmas Day itself, it’s never too early to start stocking up on the nation’s favourite Christmas treat. (And, at least here at That's Christmas to sample them before Christmas Day itself!) 

As a nation, we love mince pies, and this year Asda has gone really big. Throughout the season Asda predicts to sell 4.4 million packs of mince pies, that's actually over 26 million individual mince pies.

From this week, Asda's offering a truly stunning 17-strong mince pie offering for the festive season, with six new flavours, catering to all mince pie lovers out there, whatever your preferences might be.

This summer Asda announced its first ever Christmas signature flavour, Brown Butter and Spiced Dark Rum, created by the Asda Innovation Team. The flavour will be across hero products throughout the festive range, from mince pies to pigs in blankets. 

Jonathan Moore, Senior Director of Food Innovation and Trends, says: “We noticed an abundance of brown butter used globally by top pastry chefs, accompanied by the growth in the use of dark rum by mixologists across the globe, and this instantly recognisable flavour of warming spices was the perfect pairing for the brown butter. 

He went on to say: "By combining these two key flavours, this year’s Christmas signature flavour was born!” 

Taking the reins of the range are the Extra Special Brown Butter & Rum Mince Pies (6PK, £2.35). The all-butter short crust pastry is enriched with brown butter for a unique and tasty nutty flavour and filled with a spiced vine fruit and citrus peel mincemeat, topped with a Jamaican rum and sweet dusting for a real festive treat.

For those who dare to be different at Christmas, the Extra Special Chocolate & Cherry Crumble Mince Pies (6PK, £2.75) made with rich chocolate flavour, all-butter short crust pastry, filled with sweet cherry jam and mincemeat, and topped with chocolate crumble will be a favourite. 

Customers can also enjoy the Extra Special Frangipane & Amaretto Mince Pies (6PK, £2.75) made with all-butter pastry and filled with Amaretto-infused vine fruit and citrus peel mincemeat, topped with a delicious all-butter frangipane, finished with flaked almonds and a sweet dusting.

The Asda Extra Special Mini Mince Pies (9PK, £2.75) with vine fruits, Valencian orange oil, spices, rich ruby port and cognac, are perfect for a light dessert or Christmas party.

For those who like to stick to the classics, the Extra Special Deep Fill Mince Pies (6PK, £2.75) are impressively filled to the very brim with mincemeat in an all-butter short crust pastry, along with the Asda Mince Pies (6PK, £1.45).

Asda’s own-brand vegan range, OMV!, will be launching its first ever festive offering this Christmas. Available from tomorrow, Monday 2nd October, the OMV! Crumble Topped Mince Pies (4PK, £2) have a fruit-packed vegan mincemeat filling and are topped with cinnamon and ginger spiced crumble for a modern twist on a festive classic. (I'm not a vegan, but with the cinnamon and ginger spiced crumble, I think I'll be popping over to our nearest Asda branch to buy some of those.)

Asda customers can also shop the Free From Frangipane Mince Pies (4PK, £2.25), and enjoy sweet pastry filled with rich brandy mincemeat, topped with frangipane and delicate flaked almonds. As we have pointed out, Asda worked closely with a family-run bakery based in Cumbria to produce some of the hero products in the range, including the standout Brown Butter & Rum Mince Pies. The business, established in 1946, has been producing high quality, delicious baked goods for the past 75 years. The pies are made from scratch in small batches and finished by hand.

John Hines, supplier spokesman, says: “Each year it's a joy to work with Asda on creating our mince pies and to feed the nation with their favourite festive bakes. “We are always looking to see how we can incorporate new, exciting flavours to give our mince pies the wow-factor and experiment with different tastes and popular products.”

He finished by saying: “We’re wishing everyone a very happy Christmas!”

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Buying Christmas gifts online? Here are some tips

A new investigation conducted by Which? has uncovered that, over the past year, as many as four million Amazon shoppers may have been offered an incentive in exchange for leaving a five-star review on the site. 

Nick Drewe, who is a retail expert and Founder of online platform Wethrift, discusses exactly how the practice has become commonplace amongst brands and sellers on the site, as well as guidance for consumers on how to spot if a positive write-up for a product is genuine or potentially fake. 

“Review incentivisation, using bribes of vouchers, free products, or refunding the cost of an item - is nothing new among ecommerce sites. Yet, the findings revealed in this recently published Which? study indicates that, worryingly, it is occurring in even higher levels than before. 

This is across different brands and sellers using Amazon to market their products, and stay one step ahead of their competition in an entirely unethical manner. This practice, in turn, could be misleading millions of consumers each year into purchasing items they falsely believe are being honestly reviewed and recommended by like-minded consumers. 

“Many businesses will use the ratings they boast on Amazon as an incentive to persuade shoppers into believing their products are far superior to their competitors. What’s more,  when browsing for items they're looking to purchase, many shoppers will naturally gravitate towards those with the highest number of five-star ratings, in order to ensure they're receiving the best quality product, regardless of how much extra it may be costing them price-wise. 

“Whilst it can be hard to identify if a review is genuine or if one has been incentivised by a business into leaving a not entirely accurate review, there are certain things savvy shoppers can look out for online that may indicate they have been falsified: 

Does the reviewer have a strong historical profile history?

If a particular review has caught your attention and you're questioning whether or not everything included within it can be trusted, be sure to delve into the profile history of the individual who has left the write-up. This is to see if their previous reviews on a site, the tone of voice they’ve used and their general purchasing habits seem to correlate. 

Have they only given other products similarly high “gold star” reviews, or have they also documented their more negative or average responses to purchases made? As this would make them seem more genuine in their answers.

Also, please take note of the location of the person who left the review, are they posting from a country or region that doesn’t seem to geographically fit with the item under discussion? If so, it might be an indication that all is not what it might seem to be.

Have a large influx of positive reviews occurred over a short period of time?

If a certain product seems to have experienced a huge amount of 4 or 5-star reviews over an extremely short period of time, despite the fact the item isn't new to the market, then this may indicate a brand or seller is trying to use fake reviews as a way to hide previous low scores. 

Do reviews on the product have a lot of spelling or grammatical errors?

Some brands may outsource the writing of falsified or faked reviews to people in developing countries, so if a product seems to have a lot of reviews with poor spelling, grammatical errors or seem to be unusually descriptive or nonsensical in parts, consider the fact they may have been posted by someone who doesn’t speak English as a first language. 

Are you seeing a lot of similar phrases/words being repeated across different reviews of the same product?

If you are seeing phrases such as, “The best product”, “Great product”, “It saved my life” or, “The best on the market”, being posted more than seems normal on the reviews for a product, this could be a sign that review incentivisation is taking place. 

These are the kinds of reviews that will be lacking in thorough description, and may even read as though the poster clearly hasn’t tested out or used the product themselves.

There may also be phrases that indicate a little too much of an overreaction to receiving certain products. Reading a review about a floor mop or a brand of washing detergent, where the poster describes the purchase as ‘incredible’, ‘a miracle’ or uses a lot of exclamation points and smiley faces, will naturally seem inauthentic to readers, and lead one to conclude the reviews are faked. 

Are the majority of product reviews overwhelmingly positive?

It’s virtually impossible for absolutely everyone to have the same positive experience and love a product so much that they want to give it five stars, so if a product has an overwhelmingly large number of these kinds of reviews, this could suggest some foul play might be in hand.

Some brands and sellers, despite this being against Amazon’s guidelines, will actively seek out and communicate with genuine customers who left 1-3 star reviews on their products, and offer them bribes or incentives in order to boost their scores. So the brand’s average rating will rise. When it comes to this tip, just remember the saying, “If something seems too good to be true, then it probably is.”

Also, we at That's Christmas look out for large number of 1 star reviews on a product.

We'd like to thank https://www.wethrift.com for their help in putting this article together.

(Image courtesy of Adam448 from Pixabay)

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Mathmos 60th Anniversary Limited Edition Astro Lava Lamps? Perfect for Christmas giving

Our dear friends at Mathmos have a very important anniversary to mark. It's their 60th!

And to celebrate their 60th anniversary, they have carefully selected five collaborators to create bespoke special limited-edition Astro lava lamps. One of their collaborators is Job Smeets, who is pictured here and with his lamp, down below. (Images courtesy of Job Smeets/Mathmos.)

Each collaboration will drop weekly every Thursday from 28th September (that's today!) at midday. Each lamp will be £130, including delivery. They are a strictly limited edition of 600 for each collaboration worldwide and all are specially numbered with a unique security sticker.

We believe that Mathmos Lava Lamps will make absolutely perfect Christmas gifts for the important and beloved people in your life, so why not visit https://mathmos.com/lava-lamps/all-lava-lamps to learn more?

Even if you miss out on their 60th anniversary lamps, there's dozens of other truly stunning designs to choose from, including the original design that launched the lighting revolution in 1963.

There's a stunning room projector and a candle powered Lava Lamp so even those who are living off grid and don't have mains power can still live the cool life with a Lava Lamp to illuminate their boudoir this Christmas and for the rest of their lives!

Looking for the perfect Christmas gift for the love of your life? Ecocamel ORB SPA's Soft Water Technology is the answer

It's an amazing showerhead like no other, Ecocamel’s latest showerhead is a true revolution in showerhead technology.

The ORB SPA contains special built-in Aircore Technology, innovative soft water technology and a stunning massaging unit, that transforms shower experiences for the better.

The ORB SPA will be able to guarantee a powerful shower, yet at the same time using less water than your normal showers. As a result, the recipient of your guest will use less energy and water, thus saving money. And we're all keen on saving money whilst also doing our bit for the planet, right?

The ORB SPA also has these other incredible benefits such:

Deep cleansing

Increasing blood flow and lotion absorbance

Exfoliates and hydrates

Stimulates skin cells

Suitable for all skin types

The Aircore Technology lets air be drawn in via the air intakes, mixing with water and, by increasing the water pressure, the power of your shower is given a significant boost.

Complete with a wonderful state-of-the-art Interspray system, its angled nozzles create a wider spray pattern which results in more coverage.

The Orbit is also hypoallergenic and extremely hygienic with special wipe clean rubber nodules, thus making it perfect for family and guests all to use.

The head comes with two brushes that benefit both skin and hair. The larger one allows the water to wash away impurities released by the massage from the fibres of the head and the smaller surface can be used on the face and for more delicate areas of the body.

Not only can the massaging unit be used in shower, it can also be removed and used as part of your daily beauty and skincare routines, should you wish.

Jane Lewis, nurse and MD of the Skin to Love Clinic said: "When I was first introduced to the concept of the ORB SPA, I saw the benefits straight away. The water softening is great if you have irritable skin and the exfoliating effects are extremely convenient, allowing you to apply your creams straight out of the shower."

The Ecocamel’s ORB SPA is available from £83 and comes with free P&P plus a 30 Day Money Back Guarantee.

https://ecocamel.co.uk/pages/soft-water-shower-head