Essence Macaron
825 W University Dr., Tempe, AZ 85281
Web: Essence Macaron
Phone: 602.374.3739
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"Though the macaron might seem too fancy and foreign right now to actually take the place of the everyman cupcake, it's only a few lucky bites away from becoming a phenomenon."

Sweet? Definitely. Addictive? Absolutely. But is the Macaron really about to become the next cupcake? Maybe, maybe not. Dating back a century, the macaron is an almond-based French confection that inspired a high-profile Parisian culinary rivalry back in 2002, began to take off in the United States several years ago, and these days is being described as the cupcake of 2010 - a highly portable dessert that pastry shops can customize in numerous ways and sell profitably for low prices. We're not going to repeat what's in the linked articles, and we're honestly not sure whether anyone in Western New York is actually serving macarons, but after a gift arrived in the mail from a family member (thanks, Beth!), we thought that cookie fans around here might want to learn a little about the sugar world's next rising star before it really hits the mainstream.

One Key Point. Macarons are not macaroons. As contrasted with the thick coconut macaroon, the macaron is a set of two cookies made from ground almonds, sugar, and egg whites, held together by a sweet core of gel- or paste-like filling. This sandwich-style innovation is attributed to Paris-based cafe Ladurée, which along with other French pastry shops experimented with different flavors of macaron cookies and fillings until you have what these photos show: an array of colors representing different flavors and textures. Though the Parisian competition to enhance and evolve the concept was well documented in that New York Times article years ago, resulting in new shapes and seasonal varieties at numerous cafes, Ladurée is still considered to be amongst the best of the many companies producing the dessert.

So Where Do You Get Them Outside of France? The macarons shown here came from Essence Macaron in Arizona, which has been praised as one of the best places to order macarons by mail in the United States. The small ones shown here are around $1.50 each, while considerably larger ones go for $5 or thereabouts a piece; prices differ at other places we haven't tried ourselves. Unfortunately, unless you're visiting a store in person, you'll find that the shipping is almost as expensive as the cookies, so the prices double - this is just one reason that it would be nice to have a place to get them locally.

What Types of Macarons Are There? Inside the box we received were eight different versions, and we really liked four of them. French Chocolate added a strong dark chocolate ganache filling to chewy chocolate cookies, while Mint Chocolate had softer, less chewy cookies, offset by a mild green mint cream. Espresso was unmistakably flavored with coffee and cocoa, using a mix of sweet buttercream and rum as accents, and Hazelnut screamed with the sometimes gentle flavor, as both the cookies and the ganache inside included ground hazelnuts, offset by some milk chocolate in the filling. The cookies are never hard, and the fillings are never runny. To the extent that they look like Oreo cookies, put that thought out of your mind: these are softer, fresher, and way more interesting in both texture and flavor. We're fans of Oreos, by the way.

Essence's four other flavors weren't as compelling to us. Both the Caramel Cream and the Organic Vanilla Bean had fairly plain flavors that disappeared quickly from our tongues, while Pumpkin Spice - normally a favorite in desserts and drinks - was so light in pumpkin and spice that it would have been hard to pick out of a lineup. The last of the flavors, Raspberry-Rose, polarized us: described as a "very feminine Macaron," it was actually a flop with our female, who disliked the rose petal oil in the cookie, contrasting with our male's view of the dessert as lightly fruity and interestingly delicate. Essence also offers a ninth flavor, Pink Grapefruit, which we haven't sampled.

Thanks to the work of Parisian confectioners and the increasingly numerous macaron makers in the United States, there are actually far too many flavor variants these days for any one person to have sampled them all. And it's obvious why so many chefs are iterating on this formula: macarons offer the chef an opportunity for creative expression - both in look and taste - plus a nice little profit that can become lucrative in volume. Surely, local cupcake places such as Zillycakes, Village Desserts, and Delish understand this formula already, and though the macaron might seem too fancy and foreign right now to actually take the place of the everyman cupcake, it's only a few lucky bites away from becoming a phenomenon. Once you've tasted a macaron, you'll realize that it is in fact the type of dessert that could inspire the next wave of little dessert shops - or find its way into the last wave of them. Here's hoping that someone makes these little treats available around here soon.