Jamie's Christmas Cracker at Boots

Good fresh taste, nice sandwich all the way through. All the right ingredients but the overall taste isn't quite as good as the promise.

The half pork chipolata adds something special. The onion and sage stuffing was added directly to the bread in small bits instead of the sandwich which ended up being a bit over powering.

A additional weird and spicy taste was present but hard to identify, perhaps it was the bread sauce.

The cost was £3.90 a sandwich and it was not part of the excellent boots meal deal so ended up rather expensive in comparison to the other sandwich options.

The packaging was the same as the rest of the Jamie Oliver range with no Christmas twist except the name.

3 taste
5 ingredients
2 price
2 Christmas factor

Overall 12/20 good with some nice innovations but not the best of the bunch.

Upper Crust - Turkey Feast

This is a review of the Upper Crust - Turkey Feast
Location - Glasgow Central Station
Price - 4.39

I had high hopes for the Upper Crust. Walking past the stall in central station, all the baguettes look fresh and tasty. One festive inspired sandwich is on offer - The Turkey Feast. The sandwich has the usual ingredients; Turkey, Bacon, Stuffing and Cranberry and fresh crisp bread.

The price of 4.39 is not too bad considering the shop is based in a train station, where prices are usually high. Upper Crust, do not advertise this seasonal sandwich and no special promotions of packaging is offered, so the rating is really down to Price, Content and Taste.

I liked that the sandwich was not pre-packed and was instead made in-store. The sandwich tasted nice and fresh and used good quality ingredients. The bacon was slightly fatty for my liking but still tasted nice. The main criticism comes from the application of the cranberry sauce, it was all on one side of the sandwich - so you got a heavy hit of cranberry on every second bite. Another bad aspect was the mystery spicy sauce on part of the sandwich which really put me off. This must have been transfer from a sandwich made earlier. It really ruined the experience for me, otherwise would score a lot higher.

Taste - 2
Contents - 3
Price - 3
Christmas Factor - 2

Overall - 10 - This sandwich really could have scored higher if more care and attention was given when they were making it. Great fresh ingredients, good tasting - but mystery spicy sauce was present....

McDonalds Festive Menu

This is a review of the McDonalds Festive - Chicken Celebration Sandwich
Location - St Enoch Center Glasgow
Price - 3.99


A bit of an unusual review, led into McDonalds with the promise of a festive menu. The packaging of the product looks good, the posters advertise Christmas...

However the Chicken Celebration, is anything but festive. The ingredients are; chicken, lettuce, onion, cheese and "festive relish" (spicy sauce). But there are none of the usual Christmas ingredients. The sandwich itself tasted ok, with good quality chicken, however this is NOT a christmas sandwich/meal.

Taste - 2

Contents - 1

Price - 2

Christmas Factor - 1

Overall - 6 - An ok tasting meal, but this is just something off the normal menu with Christmas Packaging.

Burger King Christmas Angus

Advertised as a Christmas Sandwich the Marketing people at Burger King re really pushing the genre with the Christmas Angus plus. Very similar to a normal Angus except with extra crispy onions and a BBQ sauce. Bacon is used instead of turkey and no cranberry sauce to be seen.

On the advert the meal included cheese wrapped in breadcrumbs and dipping sauce instead of fries although when I ordered it seems you have to ask for them specifically so I didn't get them so they aren't included in the review.

I do like the Angus burger so I enjoyed eating it but the lack of Christmas sandwich ingredients and any feeling of Christmas definitely brings the meal down. The extra ingredients of the BBQ sauce and onions were good but didn't make it any better than a normal angus.

The packaging was a specially package for the burger but no hint of a Christmas tree or snowman so it could well have been designed to be used again in six months time.

The price was £6.99 for a medium meal which is pretty high even for Burger King. I coud go to a good gastro pub and get a burger for the same price.

Taste - 4
Contents - 2
Price - 1
Christmas factor - 1

Overall - 8/20 - Not a real Christmas sandwich

RS McColl/Urban Eat

RS McColl isn't a normal place Sandwich shop but as they stock the Urban Eat Turkey Feast Christmas sandwiches it is fair game for this blog. It took a while to find the sandwich as the Christmas packaging was subtle but after closer inspection their is definitely a Red Christmas tree hidden on the packaging. No mention of Christmas or the ingredients aside from Turkey but this was enough of a clue for eagle eyed me.

The ingredients are all pretty standard Turkey, onion and sage stuffing, cranberry and vegetable spread. Not much time or thought has gone into making this sandwich special. The taste is reflected by this, the sandwich isn't bad but doesn't have any positive stand out features. The bread felt a little stale, the turkey tasteless. The stuffing wasn't too over powering and the cranberry sauce was okay but not consistently spread across the whole sandwich.

The price was £2.99 for the Christmas Sandwich, this was a bit steep and even the shop assistant scanned it twice as she didn't believe it initially. No meal deal, no donation to charity.


After finishing i felt that empty guilty feeling like i had cheated on a real Christmas sandwich with a cheap replica. Won't be rushing back to RS McColls at lunchtime any time soon.

1 - Taste
2 - Ingredients
2 - Christmas
1 -  Price

Overall

7/20 - unimaginative sandwich 

Boots Shapers

This is a review of the Boots Shapers -  Turkey, Stuffing and Cranberry Sandwich

Location - St Enoch Center, Glasgow

The Shapers brand is Boots version of a healthy eating range. The sandwich is billed as 345 calories, so I thought it would make an interesting review to see how it compares with the full fat sandwiches. Boots make a great effort with the marketing of Christmas, but this sandwich packaging was a bit dull for boots.

The best thing about the Sandwich - it is part of the meal deal. If you combine this with a Smoothie (1.60) and Brownie (1.10), Boots will only charge you 59p for the sandwich - 3.29 total.

At 59p in the meal deal, I would say the sandwich is almost value for money. I cannot complain about the main contents - Turkey (tasty), Cranberry (nice and sweet), Stuffing (ok - not really enough to taste), Spinach (green). But the bread they wrapped it in - horrible - it was cardboard and the seeds within the bread were very bitter. My suggestion to save calories further - lose the bread - eat the contents.

Taste - 0.5

Contents - 2

Price - 4

Christmas Factor - 2

Overall - 8.5 - The Chocolate brownie in the meal deal was good. Sandwich - rubbish. 

Philpotts

This is a review of the Philpotts - Big Christmas Sandwich
Location - Bothwell Street, Glasgow

Philpotts is rare sight on the high street, with only 2 shops in Scotland. It caters for the premium end of the market, so I was expecting PRET/EAT prices. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the price of the Christmas sandwich, at only 3.40.

The Sandwich is made to order, but in keeping with the spirit of this Blog, I did not exclude any ingredients. The sandwich includes - turkey, stuffing, cranberry, roast veg (parsnip, carrot, onion) and Cumberland Sausage. The ingredients were fresh and tasty and worked well together. I was disappointed with the turkey - it was sliced and was very similar to the sliced turkey you would get in the supermarket. There is no real Christmassy experience in store or in the marketing of the product, it really is just about the taste here.

Taste - 4
Contents - 5
Price - 3
Christmas Factor - 1

Overall - 13 - Great sandwich! The first sandwich to have roast veg and sausage in it, so far. Let down by the lack of taste in the sliced turkey.

Pret A Manger

The Pret Christmas Sandwich is a bit of an institution in UK culture so i was a bit nervous reviewing it and trying to keep myself neutral. They invented (or perhaps just populised) alot of the good things which are now associated with the sandwich, nice package, donations to charity, Christmas feeling. However I had to just concentrate on the sandwich like it was any other in the list.  So here goes:

No ingredients on pack but seems like turkey, stuffing, cranberry, mayo, crunchy onions sticks.

Good interesting first taste, the double onion from the stuffing and crunchy bits was a bit over powering to the rest of the ingredients.  Nice soft bread, good mix of  & cranberry. Good bread, turkey was hard to taste and cranberry sporadically throughout sandwich in blobs instead of smooth. Not as much content as other sandwiches, i didn't feel the sandwich was enough on its own for lunch.

Started off good but didn't enjoy eating it as i got to nearer the end. Ended up feeling like a chore to finish it.

Pret are giving 5p for all sandwich (not just the Christmas one) in the shop to homeless charity which is a great gesture. Hoping to raise £300K.

Nice Christmas packaging which is used on all Pret sandwiches during Christmas, no specific design for the turkey one which makes it hard to find.  Cost £3.50 was no meal deal

3 - Taste
3 - Ingredient
4 - Christmas
2 -  Price

Overall

12/20 - A tasty sandwich but didn't quite live up to the hype. Mid level sandwich, need to raise the bar to be the best.

WH Smith/ Foo-go turkey lunch

Took a bit of searching but we eventually found a WH Smith Christmas Sandwich. Only to be found at train stations and presumadly airports the WH Smith Christmas sandwich is provided by Foo-go.

The reputation of travel food meant that expectation was pretty low for this sandwich but it was surprisingly tasty. Good mix of ingredients and enough to fill anyone up but pretty standard for a Christmas sandwich, turkey, sage and onion stuffing, cranberry etc. The turkey was butter basted so it was very tasty.

The packaging was very Christmassy with a funky packaging and really stood out on the shelf.

The price was £3.85 which was very expensive, no meals deals and no donation to Charity.

4.5 Taste
4   Content
1   Price
3   Christmas factor

Overall

12.5/20 - A good sandwich, let down by lack of imagination in ingredients, expensive price and no availability in high st shop.

Marks and Spencer - Turkey Feast

Marks and Spencer - Argyle Street

Turkey Feast - 3pounds, with 5p to charity (not part of any meal deal)

535 Calories; 19g of fat (6.5 saturated) - This is what Christmas is all about, not caring about the quantity of food you eat at one sitting.

This sandwich has all the right ingredients - turkey, pork and chestnut stuffing, spiced cranberry chutney and smoked bacon. All the flavours work well together, you can taste that the turkey was marinated before cooking, giving it more of a home made taste which is rare for something mass production. The bacon was not too fatty however the abundance of mayonnaise gave the sandwich a slightly greasy taste.

Packaging of the sandwich was of good quality, with a festive design - the best I have found so far this year.


Taste - 4
Contents - 4
Price - 3
Christmas Factor - 4

Overall - 15 A great sandwich with premium ingredients, only slightly let down by too much mayonnaise.

Greggs

Greggs - St Enoch Centre

This is a review of the Greggs Christmas Sandwich - "Christmas Sandwich"

The lack of Christmas sparkle about the packaging made me think this would be an unpleasant lunchtime experience - I was wrong!

The sandwich has some good quality fillings - turkey, stuffing, bacon and cranberry. I was impressed that no single flavour was overpowering and they were well balanced. I liked that the bacon was crisp and slightly salty which worked well with the moist turkey and sweet cranberry. My only criticism is that the bacon contained a lot of fat in some pieces. More ingredients may exist but Greggs did not add an ingredients list or nutritional value to the sandwich.

The price was reasonable at 2.45 and can also be bought as part of the meal deal. No charity donation included in the purchase.

Taste - 4
Contents - 4
Price - 4
Christmas Factor - 2

Overall - 14/20 - Very Good! Great tasting, good value sandwich only let down by a lack of imagination around the end product and marketing.

Sainsbury - Turkey Fest

Nice first taste with the cranberry taste coming through strongly. Good ratio of ingredients with each bit being roughly the same size although the sage & onion mayonnaise was a bit overpowering. Although the smoked bacon was virtually redundant. Nice touch with Cranberry stuffing which worked well.

No money donated from its sale which is a bit behind other high street efforts but good Christmas packaging

Slightly calorific, with orange danger colour for all the markers but at 450 calories it's not too bad.

Okay price £2.70 on it's own but £3 with meal deal with a selection of drink and a snack.

3 Taste
4 Content
3 Price
2 Christmas factor

Overall - 12/20 - a good sandwich, good ingredients and ratio.  A solid effort.

 

Boots - Turkey Feast

Very subtle Christmas packages, easily missed on the shelf but had all the right ingredients to be good.

First taste has an overwhelming taste of smoked bacon which overcame all the other flavors. The turkey was tasteless even though there was a lot and their was not enough moisture /cranberry sauce (barely there).

Good price with meal deal, £3 including any drink and any snack or £2.60 on it's own. No charity donation.

Poor Christmas factor, without strong cranberry taste it just felt like a standard turkey and bacon sandwich. Just a poor standard year long sandwich, not worth the 11 month wait.

Score

2 Taste
2 Contents
4 Price
1 Christmas factor

Overall - 9/20 Disappointing Christmas sandwich, a bit boring and dry.

CO-OP

CO-OP - Union Street, Glasgow

This is the review of the CO-OP festive sandwich.

Has CO-OP cancelled Christmas this year? The first thing I noticed is that the Sandwich was not part of the meal deal! I followed the instructions on the picture in store and bought the sandwich, brownie and This Water and was charged 4.95 rather than £3. The sandwich alone costs £2.50 (10p to charity and is a nice touch) not too expensive but I don't think you are getting value. I will explain.

1) the sandwich wrapper was so cheap horrible looking, very cheap and flimsy. Not Christmassy!
2) the pork stuffing was very greasy and overpowered the taste.
3) the turkey was full of gristle, chewy and lacking in flavour. I did come across some bones, but that could be from the stuffing.
4) I had more cranberry sauce on the crust of my sandwich than inside it
5) seemed thrown together without any care.

Good points?
No British turkeys were killed in the making of it, only Brazilian ones (already plucked - cost saving?).
The malted bread was of good quality.
In theory all the ingredients were there, turkey, stuffing, cranberry.

Score

Taste - 1
Contents - 3
Price - 2
Christmas Factor - 1

Overall - 7/20 Cheap, but not value for money. Could do much better!

EAT

Eat - Sauchiehall Street

This is the review of the EAT Christmas sandwich "The Works"

First up, the Christmas sandwich packaging does not stand out amongst the other offerings on the shelves. EAT keep the packing decoration to a minimum which is not in keeping with the season. However the sandwich is well constructed and the ingredients well placed within the bread.

EAT gives the full Christmas lunch experience - Turkey, Ham, Stuffing, Cranberry and Salad leaves. The granary bread is of great quality too. The taste of the ham slightly overpowers the rest of the contents but the meat is of good quality and not cheap and fatty.

The only downside is the price - £4.20 - which is very pricey for a packaged sandwich. Although 25p is given to the homeless.

Taste - 4
Contents - 5
Price - 1
Christmas Factor - 3

Overall 13/20
A great tasting, quality sandwich let down by the price and boring packaging.

Eat

First Christmas Sandwich of this year is the Eat 'Full Christmas' sandwich.

Review

A great tasting sandwich, well presented with good ingredients. The first taste maybe lacked that certain ideal Christmas taste I was looking for to bring back memories of past christmas dinners. The £4.25 price tag is a bit steep but they are donating 25p of that to a homelss charity which is a good touch.

Taste                      4.5
Contents                4
Price                      2
Christmas Factor    3

Total score -          13.5/20
Overall very good but perhaps lacked a Christmas spark to make it truely great.

Turkey,
Smoked ham,
Pork sage & onion stuffing
Cranberry sauce,
Reduced fat mayo
Salad
Black pepper