Macaroon Tasting, Paris

So in preparation for our Paris trip I did a lot of research into best food around the city. This helped us stumble on some great and super affordable restaurants like Bistro Victories, and it also brought to my attention the competition between Laduree, Carette and Pierre Herme for best macaroon in Paris. Also in love of a good competition( and many many macarons) we decided to stage a bit of taste test as we tried them all. 

Now this is probably the least scientific taste test in the world. We tried different flavours on different days under different conditions but hey, we tried them and ended up agreeing unanimously on a favourite.

Laduree

Laduree is probably the most iconic macaron shop in Paris. The huge store on Champs d’Elysses always has a crazy line and the macarons are now availble all over the world. This was the first store we tried first as we stumbled across an empty one in Saint Germaine. I tried the pistachio while my friends tried lemon and salted caramel. These were amazing but probably my least favourite of the trip as they felt drier and had less filling than Carette and Pierre Herme. 

Carette

These were the second macarons we tried. We went to the store at the top of Trocadero, it might just look like a bistro but if you walk to the back ( asking the hostess for "a emporter") you can find a full patisserie. Here I got rose and my friends got raspberry and cherry. We also picked up a fraiser (type of strawberry cake) which was to die for. Once we sat down with our macarons we all melted at the flavour. These were perfect. The outside crunchy but the inside melt in your mouth and there was wayyy more cream filling than Laduree. We all agreed in the end that these were the best all round macarons of the trip!

Pierre Herme

The last stop was Pierre Herme which we found in Le Marais. Pierre Herme had by far the most fun and innovative flavours- I already want to go back to try more. I ended up getting the pistachio apricot, my friend got the "celeste" which is passionfruit, strawberry and rhubarb and beautiful and my other friend got the rose. For me these were a really close call with Carette, they were definitely better than Laduree and more melt in the mouth but didn’t have the perfect crunch Carette had. Based on texture Carette wins but I would still highly recommend Pierre Herme for their flavours. 

If these any macaron place missing? Or another pastry we should taste test?