Let’s get the good news out of the way first:
For the 2018 season, PicknPay’s mince pies are both nicer and cheaper than Woolworths’ offerings. Fact.
I know. I was also surprised (at least on the taste bit).
It’s just that there’s something just a little bit concerning about the packaging.
See, if just below the product description, it said, in a nice curly font:
Our fruit mince pie has been made from spicy fruit mince and a shortcrust butter flavoured sweet pastry.
all would be good. And it does almost say that. It’s the four words in the middle that ruin it for me.
These four:
Our fruit mince pie has been made through closely monitored processing from spicy fruit mince and a shortcrust butter flavoured sweet pastry.
Because sure, I want my food to be under constant scrutiny while it’s being processed, but I don’t really want to think about it: especially not in nice curly font on the front of the box. It makes me think that there’s a good reason that you have to shout it out so loud.
If you’re going to add those four words somewhere as prominent as that, I’m instinctively mentally adding four more of my own underneath:
Our fruit mince pie has been made through closely monitored processing from spicy fruit mince and a shortcrust butter flavoured sweet pastry.
Not like last year.
Was 2017 a really bad year for PicknPay mince pies, then?
I don’t know, but now I’m certainly imagining that it must have been. It’s rather off-putting. Was it glass, poison, workers’ hair, bits of metal or maybe even water buffalo that might have slipped into my Christmas snack while the processing was not being closely monitored? Did someone not read the N and sent out batch upon batch of Mice Pie?
And why doesn’t every PicknPay product have that “through closely monitored processing” line on the front?
Does that mean that their processing is not being closely monitored? Eww.
Actually, I have no idea. Fortunately, the 2018 vintage of PicknPay mince pie is so tasty that I’m almost able to completely overlook the dodgy inference on the front of the box.