What happens in Paris stays in Paris

What happens in Paris stays in Paris, must’ve been what Louis-Ernest Ladurée thought, starting the bakery in which the Macaron was founded by his grandson. He couldn’t have been further off: 90 years later the almond cookies are everywhere. There’s pictures of them on everything, and every basic girl that likes Starbucks coffee every now and then will probably happily pay the shocking €2,65 that Ladurée asks for it. I won’t even deny being one of them, so when ‘Smaakaron’ announced opening a store in the city centre of Groningen I obviously wanted to go.

I dragged one of my friends along, and although he was clearly less excited than I was, even he could appreciate the light, airy and super colourful store. The kind owner of the store allowed us to try some of the Macarons they make there. All of them are made by their Brazilian pastry chef, who likes to give a twist to the classical Parisian way of making the Macarons. In 2015, they were chosen as the best Macarons in the Netherlands. So without further ado, here’s what we thought:

• Prune- Coconut: super flavourful, well balanced. As someone said during the meeting: “A lovely nod of subtle, sugary affection.”

• Guava- Mascarpone: This was a tricky one, and we weren’t agreeing on anything about this flavour. One of us thought it was amazing, whereas ‘aggressively sweet’ was what the other thought. You’re going to have to try this one for yourself.

• Lemon- tart: This one is great if you love eating quite sour things, but for us it was a bit much. It was really tangy.

• Strawberry- Cheesecake: Great balance of flavours, nice texture. Just simply good. A crowd pleaser.

• Pistachio- Apricot: pretty nice, however quite an odd combination of flavours.

• Toffee- Sea salt: This one was fantastic. It tastes amazing, the texture is nice and just everything about it is very likeable. We would however appreciate a tiny bit more salt.

• Banana- salted caramel: It’s mostly banana you’re tasting, but it’s really good. We do need more of that salted caramel though, the more salted caramel the better.

• Chocolate- Chili: Okay, we’ll be honest. We were REALLY sceptic about this one. Maybe even scared. But wow this one was good. 10/10 would recommend buying this one, and we’d like to give credits to the pastry chef. We see where you’re going with this and we like it.

• Vanilla: Vanilla is underrated. This one was amazing, sweet and just very vanilla. But in a good way.

• Mango- Lime: The mango flavour was great, but it could have had a little more lime in it. Our suggestion would be giving this one a bit of the tanginess of the lemon tart, it would make both of them perfect.