Ahh. The macaron. Just imagine that in my hideous imitation of a French accent.
In college, there was this gorgeous dessert truck where people would buy macarons (and then post them all over social media. Cuz they're gorgeous). For some reason, I never developed a taste for them. The almond shell with a cream filling didn't really do much for me. Which is why I found it weird that I stood one day in my local coffee shop pondering plopping down $2 for one teeny tiny macaron.
Of course I didn't end up plopping down $2 for one measly macaron. I went for the steal! $4.99 for a dozen of frozen TJ's macarons! They claim to be authentically French.
Yeahhhhhh long list of ingredients I know. But I'm not popping macarons in my mouth everyday.
6 chocolate. 6 vanilla. Even while frozen, they still look pretty. Look at those little feet.
These are quite petite-sized, a little bit bigger than a quarter (which is apparently how they're supposed to be anyway). The box says to defrost them for about 30 minutes before eating, which means I can defrost however many I choose to consume and stick the rest back in the freezer. I'm no macaron connoisseur, but these definitely satisfied my macaron craving. The shells have that smooth look and distinct almond taste with a slight flaky crunch (not like a potato chip crunch though). The vanilla and chocolate flavoring comes through mostly in the filling, not so much from the cookie shell. I loved the chocolate ones - perfectly chocolatey with the right amount of sweetness. Andrew liked the vanilla ones, so it worked out for us. The vanilla ones were a little sweeter than the chocolate, but still not bad at all. The amount of filling was okay, but it was less than the apparently recommended 2:1 cookie to filling ratio.
Like I said, I'm not too discerning about what makes a good macaron. But this wasn't a terrible macaron either! They were better than the Costco ones I tried (and those weren't bad either). Perhaps once I can actually make a decent macaron myself, I'll nitpick a little more. But if you're like me and can turn a blind eye to whatever faults or inauthenticities that Trader Jacque might have, I say go for it. Repurchase!
TL;DR: Trader Jacques' Chocolate and French Vanilla Macarons. Classically French enough for me. 8 out of 10.
Excellent read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing some research on that. I will learn a lot of new stuff right here! Best of luck for the next! Please visit my themacaroncompany.co.nz. Best Vegan Macarons NZ service provider.
ReplyDelete