The two most famous macarons shops in Paris are probably Ladurée and Pierre Hermé and I find myself firmly standing on the Pierre Hermé side of the great divide. But, a good macaron is a good macaron and this girl doesn't discriminate so when I was gifted a box of Ladurée macarons from a weekend in New York, I definitely did not complain.
Although Ladurée has a storefront in New York City, they actually make all of their macarons in Paris and then ship them over. Talk about a commitment to quality! And it would probably explain the hefty markup. After paying for the name, the airfare, and then the crushed macarons in the process, you'll end up paying a pretty penny for these beauties.
So are they worth it?
Well that would really depend on you.
My boyfriend brought me back a good assortment of flavors: pistachio, coffee, vanilla, raspberry, strawberry candy, salted caramel, black current violet just to name a few and I have made my way through a considerable number of them.
While the macarons are definitely very pretty and colorful with well-formed feet and full shells (talk about technique), the flavors are a bit...lacking for better words. My favorite flavor by far was the strawberry candy because it tasted unique but as for the other flavors, they were definitely a lot more muted than the Pierre Hermé.
I really don't think I would buy another Ladurée macaron just for myself to fix a craving, but the brand name and the experience is definitely a novelty, so it is a good gift idea. And with such a price tag, it'd better be a gift for an extremely expensive person.
864 Madison Ave
New York, NY
Ladurée SoHo
398 W Broadway
New York, NY
