[Paris] Acide Macaron

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Acide Macaron

Add: 10 Rue du Bac, Paris 75007
Tel: 01 42 61 60 61
Hours: [Tue-Sun] 11am~8pm
Website: acidemacaron.com
Price: [patisserie] €6~6.50 [macaron] €1.40
Visited on: Nov 2014

I visited Acide Salon de Thé a few months back, and while I enjoyed the pastries and the pretty teaware, it’s too far across town for frequent revisits. Needless to say, I was happy to discover that Jonathan Blot (chef/owner of Acide Macaron, ex-Plaza Athénée and Jules Vernes) opened a boutique on rue du Bac, right near my neighborhood.

Inside the boutique, it’s a burst of colors. Just look at these rows of macarons…I can’t say I’m a fan of neon-colored food, but they definitely caught my attention.

Mini macarons :)

Over on the patisserie side, the colors are much more sober in shades of cream and brown.

Though I didn’t end up getting one of these, the “donuts” are a cute idea – instead of being real donuts, these are actually pâte à choux piped in a ring form, then filled with a salted caramel cream.

This picture doesn’t do its job in showing how big this take-out bag is…you will have to see it for yourself on your visit.

Here are the purchases of the day. Cheesecake Cassis (€6.20), composed of cream cheese mousse, crushed wild black currants, and shortcrust pastry. This is much lighter than the typical cheesecake as the cream cheese has been made into an airy mousse. I personally still prefer the denser, richer sort of cheesecake, but don’t mind this for a change. The shortcrust pastry base has a pretty strong speculoos flavor, combining well with the acidity of wild black currants and the soothing cream cheese mousse.

Montblanc (€6.40), mousse of glazed marron with vanilla, griotte cherries, meringue, and sweet tart shell. This, again, is very light compared to the traditional montblanc you will find in a typical French pastry shop. The texture is less dense, the flavor is less sweet and less pronounced in chestnut-iness, and no rum as far so I could taste. I enjoyed this very much, and only wished that there’s more chestnut flavor in the mousse (though that would most probably add sweetness as well since the mousse is likely made from sweet chestnut cream and paste).

Tarte Chocolat (€6.40),  green tea shortcrust pastry, caramel, and chocolate mousse. The green tea flavor wasn’t very obvious, and the chocolate mousse was ok. Not too special.

Now, the macarons. Acide offers a wide range of macaron flavors, including the classic ones and the more innovative ones. The sizes are smaller than the typical macarons you will find in other pastry shops, but the price is lower as well (€1.40 each). Here are a few I picked : Guillaume (poppy flower and coconut milk), Eduard (pistachio and orange blossom), Julien (strawberry and pepper), Renata (green tea and jasmine), Jonathan (yuzu).

I have heard very good reviews about Acide’s macarons from fellow pâtissiers, though I personally didn’t find these too impressive. The flavors sound exciting on paper, but the actual tastes were just alright. Not bad, but not wow.

While the macarons from Acide aren’t my personal favorite, I did enjoy the other pastries from the shop. The flavors tend to be light, and the presentation creative – it’s a good place to drop by regularly for inspirations. By the way, the sizes of the individual pastries at Acide are quite generous and are perfect for sharing among two people.