Macaroons in Paris

Here's one short list of recs. My colleagues have brought them home safe and sound and each one was delicious. Not cheap per piece; here's a price list for Gerard Mulot, considered less expensive.

The best macarons I've had were from Laduree. There was a thread a few months ago and Kim in Paris had some great recs for macarons.

Just fyi, they're not macaroons, which are made with coconut... macarons are very different.

I much prefer Herme to Laduree - more interesting and intense flavours and more chewy. Laduree ones seem mostly sugar with some flavour.

And good macarons are too fragile to carry by air (or long distances at all), unless you're extremely careful with them and keep them in a separate bag.

Macaroons are coconut cookies; macarons are those french merinque cookies with filling. You can get macarons frozen at Trader Joes in the US -- either chocolate and vanilla boxes or mixed fruit boxes which while not as good as fresh macarons at most any good bakery in Paris, will be a lot better probably than what you have when you bring a box home. Macarons don't travel well and get stale quickly even if they don't get broken. I have tried to carefully bring them home as gifts and always been disappointed. The ones that were not shattered, were kind of gummy and stale. If you do bring them home, plan to eat them immediately.

In my experience, the best macaron is the one I am eating at the moment! I did make the mistake of buying six macarons at Laduree and carrying them around all day. They were pretty smashed up by the time I got back to my apartment, so I learned to eat them as soon as I bought them. Trader Joe's macarons are good substitutes when you can't get to Paris.

Pierre Herme's are the best and has the most interesting flavors. Why not bring a container from home if you want to transport them?

The problem of transport has nothing to do with the box. They just don't travel well.

The line for Laudree at CDG is always impressively long.

I prefer Gerard Mulot macarons because he does not use outlandish food coloring. They are all natural and very tasty.

Janettravels44 is right - American macaroons and French macarons are totally different things - and the French ones are the best! Macarons are best when fresh (1-3 days old) so if you're taking some home as gifts, buy a box of them right before you leave Paris and "gift" them right after you're home. I almost hate to tell you my favorite macaron place in Paris, since then it will be overrun. But I love to share Paris info so .... La Carette (on the Trocadero and in Plc des Vosges). My fave is the salted caramel macaron and their chocolat chaud with whipped cream is incredible! Second place for macarons to Laduree. The Trader Joe ones are adequate (especially the lemon and apricot) but nowhere near as good as "the real thing."

There's no comparison to the fresh macarons in Paris. I like Hermes. The flavors are so intense. Fantastic Wow factor.

But you can get them mail order from Cambridge, MA from Burdick chocolates. They are called Luxembourges in their catalog. You still should eat them pretty soon on arrival. Customer service is very good. Once there was a snow storm back East so there was a delay in delivery. FedEx was grounded. Macarons arrived a bit stale. They were replaced immediately at no extra charge.

I would not go to the trouble and expense to bring home macarons as gifts. Your friends will just have to go to Paris themselves.

However, salt caramels from Henri LeRoux will travel very well. They will be equally impressive as gifts. Also, try some individually wrapped bite-size pieces of nougat. They come in cellophane bags perfect as gifts. There are plain, chocolate covered, orange flavored, loads of options. I brought half a suitcase full. Checked the bag. Everything arrived home fine.

I loved the chocolate macarons from Pierre Herme - light, fluffy, not too sweet. However, they are very delicate and I don't think they would travel very well. If you must bring some home, maybe a tin or some tupperware would work. Yum...