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