J'aime les macarons, Christchurch

I have definitely caught a little bit of macaron fever from the blogosphere (who knew these things were contagious?) and have been eagerly trying macarons wherever I see them - they're still rare enough in New Zealand that there aren't too many options. J'aime les macarons was, so far as I know, first on the scene in NZ, and is based in Christchurch. Recently some other options have been popping up - but so far as I can tell J'aime les macarons (which means "I love macarons" in French) is the premium option. So with a weekend in Christchurch I had to make the pilgrimmage to the lovely wee shop on Normans Road. Amanda,who runs the shop, is super friendly and we had a big old gossip about food and the exciting Feast of Canterbury, which starts on Wednesday.

Eventually I chose a box of 6 - hard to choose, with nine alluring-sounding flavours on offer - and it was packaged up nice and neatly for me. They are a nice size - a little bit bigger than the others I've bought, but still a nice, dainty treat size. And of course, super pretty. 

The box is perfect for my six and it's really hard to wait to eat them - I want to tear into them immediately. I managed to hold off for more than 24 hours, though, how's that for restraint?

So the important thing - how was the eating? Well, for starters, as you can see from the photos, each macaron has a plentiful and inviting filling of either buttercream or ganache - helps whet the appetite and meant that each one was packed with flavour. The flavours we tried were:

Pistachio - this was tasty, with pistachio in both the shell and the filling. The buttercream was lovely, though I didn't find the pistachio flavour particularly strong.

Passionfruit - from my limited macaron experience I've developed a preference for passionfruit to be delivered via buttercream, not ganache. Obviously I was doing it wrong, though, because this was great, with the tang of the passionfruit cutting through the rich chocolate.

Coconut - it was definitely coconutty, reminded me of the macaroon, the macaron's oft-mistaken-for distant relative. Probably my least favourite of the bunch but still completely enjoyable.

Pear and ginger - this had a little square of crystallised ginger hidden in the middle, yum! The pear flavour didn't really shine through for me but I love ginger so this was a definite win.

Salted butter caramel - this tied for gold in my metaphorical macaron medal ceremony - the flavour was rich, bitter, salty, everything you could want, and the chewy shell completed the combo.

Bitter chocolate - now, I may have mentioned this before, but I'm more of a milk chocolate kind of gal, and milk chocolate was actually one of the flavours on offer in the shop but Mr Cake chose this one and I figured with so many other fantastic options I couldn't really go with the milk choc as well. Hmm, well, if this one was anything to go by I'm officially regretting that decision - it was almost enough to convert me to the dark side. ;-) The centre was so rich, so truffle-y, soooo good - the only thing that would have made it better would have been if it was milk chocolate (though Mr Cake disagrees).

So, I guess I love J'aime les macarons - I'm a bit sad to be back in Wellington, too far away to nip back into the shop so I can sample the milk chocolate one. You can get them mail order off the website but having a whole box of those fabulous things seems more than a little dangerous, especially hot on the heels of all the eating I've done during Wellington on a Plate - maybe it's time for me to exercise a little restraint. ;-)




J'aime les macarons is located at 9F Normans Road, Strowan, Christchurch, ph 03 355 0597