Earlier on in the week I talked about Toronto gearing up for its 3rd annual Macaron Day on Thursday, March 20th, 2014. It was my first time participating in this event across the city and here is my experience.
Me and stealdealsplurge decided to hit up a handful of patisseries in the morning to get our share of the free macarons. Our game plan was to hit up 7 different places before I had to go to work in downtown at noon. Unfortunately we didn’t give ourselves enough time (we started at about 10:15am) and we only managed to get to 5 different places before the time came up for me to head to work. Below was our route we took to these 5 patisseries starting from the north of the city and working down to the south.
I managed to find some street parking for free on the smaller side streets near each of the patisseries so that was a relief that it didn’t cause me too much of a hassle. I even met some new food bloggers along the way and my picture was taken at one of the patisseries I visited and posted on Twitter.
Here is my ranking for the 5 macaraons that I received purely based on texture and taste.
5th) Mocha Macaron from Patachou Patisserie
- Not enough filling to go with the very large meringue outer shells
- Too chewy for my liking and the texture was very dry
- Flavour was extremely bland
- Presentation wise it looks great, one of the better looking ones
4th) Nori Wasabi Macaron from La Bomboche
- Great texture and overall it was the best looking macaron of the bunch
- Size was also the biggest of the bunch
- What killed this is the flavour; the wasabi cream was way too strong so the filling seemed like I was literally eating wasabi paste (the ones you get at the sushi restaurants)
- Left a burning sensation in my mouth after from the wasabi filling
- I applaud them though for being the most innovative and taking a risk with the flavour
3rd) Pistachio Macaron from Petite Thuet
- I accidentally squished this macaron in my bag which is why it looks like a hot mess (it looked much better before I ruined it)
- Wish there was just a little bit more filling inside since it was a rather large macaron
- Good flavour and good texture
2nd) Raspberry Macaron from Patisserie La Cigogne
- Very airy and light texture
- The raspberry flavour was very strong and you could immediately taste it when you took a bite
- One of the smallest macarons of the five
- Great balance with the ratio of the meringue shells to the filling
1st) Chocolate Hazelnut Macaron from Rahier Patisserie
- Classic flavour combination for me so immediately I loved the taste
- Has a unique shell since small pieces of hazelnut are mixed into the meringue
- Presentation wise it looks a little flat and was maybe the smallest one of the bunch
- Best tasting one for me personally
Having ranked the Nori Wasabi macaron 4th, the one patisserie I will definitely go back to out of the 5 places is La Bomboche. I could just see how much love they put into making each of their macarons and that added nori wrapped around each of them was a brilliant touch. Though the wasabi flavour was a huge miss for me, I’m confident that their other flavours are extremely decadent and delicious. La Bomboche wins for making the best looking macarons for sure. It looks like a work of art.
After reading some other macaron reviews on the web, I came to the realization that macarons are highly subjective and there seems to be a lot of differing opinions on which one is the best. With so many flavour combination possibilities it isn’t that surprising however that this is the case since we are given so many choices. If my rankings above were based off of looks and presentation, then the list would be placed upside down. But at the end of the day for me when it comes to food, taste will always win. Looking forward to go trick or treating for macarons again next year.
