Christmas Sandwiches - Sainsbury's

Sainsbury's is the cheapest Christmas sandwich I encountered so far, and also they provide just a turkey and stuffing option - but I don't think I'm up to trying all the variants. Here's what it tastes like:

-Instead of a layer of mayo and slices of stuffing the two are mashed into some kind of herby special sauce
-The turkey slices are generous, tasty and not dry, but with the tell tale moist round edge of a shaped turkey loaf
-Token green is lettuce - unlike all the other contenders which have some kind fancy leaf- wilty, redundant
-Don't like the combo of the sweet cranberry and herby special sauce. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it leaves an unpleasant bitter chemical taste at the back of my tongue
-There's bacon, a nice amount

Overall it's not horribly awful, I think I prefer it to Cafe Nero, but I wouldn't have it again

5/10

Christmas sandwiches - Pret a Manger

This is the series where I try all the bg chains' Christmas sandwiches and decide which one is best (this year). Some of the places have more than one festive offering, but I'm only trying the turkey with all the trimmings, to give enveryone a fair chance. In the inteserst of full disclosure, I like Pret a lot. Before our office move half way across London there was a Pret next door and sometimes I would go in there two or three times a day. But now that this is no longer the case, the spell has been broken and I'm on the prowl for coffee once again.
Anyway, here's the breakdon of the Pret A Manger Christmas Sandwich:
-Every sandwich sold ensures a 25p donation to a homeless charity which is a very nice deed, you could also buy one of the sadwiches and give it to a homeless person, then they would have the sandwich and the money
-There is a lot of cranberry in this sandwich, it's very sweet
-There are thick generous slices of stuffing, which taste dusty because of the dried herbs
-A lot of mayo, which together with the cranberry obliterate the turkey (not a bad thing). Mayo is the best thing about a leftovers sandwiches anyway.
-Nice soft granary bread
-There was unexpected crunchiness right in the middle, I dug around to find little shards of fried onion which was a pleasant surprise.
-Masses of spinach, it's green and fresh, but flavourless

Overall 7/10

Christmas sandwiches - Starbucks

Going to Starbucks for food is like asking your boyfriend to give you a haircut. Yes, it will be a hair cut in the most literal sense of the term, but at the same time quite a lot removed from what you had in mind, and not very nice.
I used to love Starbucks Frappuccinos, I remember I was about 13 or 14 and my friend took me and we shared one as an extravagant treat. But as you get older your palate changes and you don't want all your food and drinks to be Willy Wonka level sweet. It's very sweet, and heavy (they do finally sell salads, or Bistro Boxes, but haven't tried one yet).
The only indication that these sandwiches are the Christmas selection is the word Feast in the title, I got two because I was extra hungry today and because they seem to have the exact same ingredients. Also, I got both of these toasted, so the packaging was removed and the photos make it look like I fished them out of a bin.
Turkey Feast Panini
-The overwhelming sensation here is not a flavor but a texture, mushy. Dry heating it makes the filling steam the bread from the inside and since the slice of turkey included is so flavorless there isn't much to experience.
-There's bacon in it, but I can't taste it.
-After a few chews the slight scent of sage from the slice of stuffing begins to come through. There is also mayonnaise, some kind of green leaf and a little bit of cranberry sauce, the combination of which must have made the sandwich so wet, but not much flavor therein.
-The distribution of ingredients is not very good, but since they don't taste of anything that's not a bad thing.

Turkey Feast Sandwich
-OK, this is interesting, the sandwich has exactly the same filling as the panini but the combination is a lot more successful. Maybe it's the victory of the granary bread over the white panini bun. The mushiness of the inside of this sandwich is actually quite pleasant
-The strongest flavor in this sandwich is the cranberry, it's not too sweet and quite tart.
-The spinach is wilty and not nice, a little bitter and stringy
-There is a lot of bacon in this sandwich, but I couldn't taste any of it. I found this so intriguing that I lifted out a piece to try on it's own, and it was tasteless. Normally bacon is plesant, crisp and salty, this was pale, soft and had no discernible salt on it, so wierd.

Overall, 5/10. The only reason it wasn't lower is because you have the option to toast or not to toast

Christmas sandwiches - Cafe Nero

Another reminder, in case anyone has forgotten, I love Christmas. Not so much the Jesus part of it, but the chintzy kitsch is right up my street.
Here's a thing I've been doing for a few years now, and now that I'm taking this blog further away from cooking from cookbooks and more towards random things that pop in my head, I think it's appropriate to write about it. I go and get Christmas sandwiches from all the different sandwich places and rate them. Rate them in my head, there's no point to this, it's stupid.
My favorite all time seasonal sandwich would have to be Eat's venison baguette, but I haven't seen it for a few years, last year's winner was M&S for some reason that I now don't remember. But today I'm starting with Cafe Nero.
I'm not a big fan of food at Cafe Nero, maybe my opinion is coloured by a fierce loyalty to Pret a Manger, or maybe it's because I've never had a local branch, but our new office is very close to one so it's the first thing on my map.

Cafe Nero Turkey, Cranberry and Stuffing (horrible photo, I had already started to eat it before I took it)
-It's very dry, there doesn't seem to be a good ratio of meat to sauce.
-The stuffing is in little cubes as opposed to slices, not a bad thing, but a little curious
-There is a very small amount of cranberry sauce, not nearly enough, especially since the sauce is plesantly tart and not too sweet, with whole cranberries in it
-There is a nice piece of radiccio in the sandwich, much better than the ubiquitous handful of rocket.
-The bread seems to be from some kind of seeded loaf, which I like.

Final score: 6/10 It would be a good sandwich if it wasn't so overwhelmingly dry