Marina Bay Sands has been my new hangout place. The shops are populating, the Infinity Pool at the Sky Park is my favourite chill-out spot now and of course, there is SweetSpot, the patissierie that sells lovely cakes, pastries, macarons and pralines!

Little is known about the background of Sweet Spot, except that the pastry chef is a young 28-year-old Venezuelan. SweetSpot also works with the Celebrity Chef restaurants such as Guy Savoy to produce bread according to their menu.

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I squealed in delight when I saw the Ladurée store sign in Milan. It was by accident and boy am I glad that I was so observant that day.

My French colleague once shared with me his fond memories of having Ladurée macarons when he was a child. He said macarons are available at different parts of the world but none tasted as good and as authentic as Ladurée. Well, I may not be at the original store at Avenue des Champs-Elysées in Paris but having a bite of Ladurée in Milan was close enough.

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It has been a while since I reviewed macarons but well, all is gonna change because I hit macaron jackpot in the month of July! I tried macarons from PAUL, Laduree (arguably the best macarons in the world) and Sweetspot in that one month.

I stumbled upon reknowned French patisserie PAUL while transiting at Dubai Airport. Tired and in need of some refreshments, we were about to settle for Burger King before we saw the letter “PAUL” at Terminal 3.

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My heart skipped a beat.. the moment I was at the little bakery in Tokyo’s Hotel New Otani and I came face to face with the legendary Pierre Hermé lovelies.

I don’t know whether Pierre Hermé makes the best macarons – my French colleague who grew up with Laduree has never heard of this name. But Pierre Hermé has a book on macarons, so he must be pretty good!

The three flavours that I tried were: Pistachio, Rose and Vanilla.

The macarons looked polished and exquisite. And that thick amount of ganache could drive people out of control.

Pistachio: The surface of the shell crumbled at first touch but the inner layer was sturdy. The pistachio ganache was a tad hard, probably because the macaron was in the fridge for a while. However, the filling melted into the mouth together together with the macaron shell, leaving a memorable impression of a sweet but very light pistachio taste.

Rose: Miss Jazzy’s gonna scream because this is probably the best Rose macaron ever! The ganache tasted like butter cream with rose flavour. There was the lightness of rose, yet weight and fragrance of butter. Very intriguing but fascinating combination of taste and texture.

Vanilla: The ganache tasted like a very good vanilla ice-cream! This was so addictive that I felt like grabbing another..

Final verdict (out of 5 points):

Miss Glitzy: (Ok, it’s off the charts!)

Pierre Hermé has 7 outlets in Tokyo and 6 in Paris. They also have an online shop.

This is for real: Starbucks sells Macarons!

Miss Glitzy spotted this at a Starbucks outlet in Tokyo. There were 3 flavours (Caramel, Maroon and Apple Cinnamon) available at that store and each individually packaged like a cookie.

Each macaron was huge – with a diameter of 4.5cm with artificially polished surface. Each macaron costs 220 yen (about S$3.40).

First impression – it is expensive, since the Pierre Hermé macaron, albeit a lot smaller, only costs 230 yen each. Next, in terms of appearance, the Starbucks macaron was reminiscent of the Icing Room one.

However, a bite of the Apple & Cinnamon macaron proved to be a pleasant surprise. The shell was crumbly, slightly chewy and sweet. The apple cinnamon paste was sour so it balanced out the sweetness of the macaron shell. The cinnamon in the filling added some spicy fragrance to the macaron, which was very unique.

Please don’t ask what “maroon” flavour means – due to language difficulties, Miss Glitzy was unable to get an answer from the barista.

PS: Stay tuned for the review on Pierre Hermé macarons!

Final verdict (out of 5 points):

Miss Glitzy:

Tucked in the heart of the vibrant night scene, Nectarie is the place to go if you want some desserts after dance and booze.

There is an assortment of 7 macaron flavours to choose from and each costs only $1.17 (including service charge and GST). Miss Glitzy bought 4 macarons for the taste test.

The macarons are small and dainty, but the surface of the shell didn’t look very polished. However for only $1.17 per piece, the macarons were nicely packed in a Chinese takeaway box whichwas quite a novelty. The unique packaging is already worth the money and it makes a cute and affordable gift!

Teh Tarik: The shell crumbles easily but the macaron retains acceptable level of chewiness. The Teh Tarik macaron didn’t taste that local but this was probably the first tea flavoured macaron we have tasted that actually kinda worked. The tea flavour in the after taste was somewhat refreshing.

Lavender: This was the prettiest of the lot. The macaron shell was a pale lilac colour with bits of lavender on the shell. As there was no rose macaron, we bought this for the taste test instead. The shell tasted crumbly and dry, somewhat different from the Teh Tarik. There was no strong lavender flavour and the chocolate filling appeared measley.

Chocolate: The texture of this chocolate macaron was very different from the Lavender – it was very moist and chewy. If you were to taste this without opening your eyes, you might mistake it for a brownie.

Green tea: The green tea macaron was obviously smaller than the rest and the chocolate ganache looked really generous. There was not much quality control in making the macarons. The green tea flavour was quite dull and Miss Jazzy wanted to rinse off the dull after taste!

The M Connoisseurs applaud Nectarie for its affordable macarons and unique packaging. Quality wise, the macarons were rather average.

Final verdict (out of 5 points):

Miss Glitzy:
Miss Jazzy:

Nectarie le’Dessert Patisserie
3C River Valley road
#01-05 The Cannery, Clark Quay
Tel: 6305 7628

Hello everybirdy!

We are the Obolo Ms! We are belly belly excited because The M Connoisseurs are going to try us and award us cupcake points. We have been good and we are  high quality macarons. We need to do our best to make Master proud.

Miss Geri Beri bought us from Master’s house at Joo Chiat. There were so many of us.. 12 flavours in all. And all of us cost $2 each. But only the 3 of us were selected. What an honour!

Oops, we got too excited that we forgot to introduce ourselves individually.

Bittersweet Chocolate: I taste like your life – bittersweet with a little luxury. Miss Glitzy likes my polished shell with chocolate speckles. You can tell that appearance is so important to her – that’s so shallow! But that Miss Jazzy thinks I taste like a brownie. If I am a brownie, I am the high-class brownie.

Chocolat-Passion: My name is spelt like that – Chocolat without the “e”. I have yellow shell that’s infused with Passionfruit flavour and I’m filled with generous milk-chocolate ganache. If you are into exotic flavours, pick me! Miss Geri Beri loves me but that shallow Miss Glitzy thinks I’m too sour!

Rose: My name is so short and simple but everyone loves me. They love my white rose-flavoured buttercream that’s so thick that I look extremely seductive. Miss Jazzy loves me but she loves all Rose macarons, I think. Miss Glitzy said I emit some light fragrance. Of course, I need to have some killer charm to compensate my simple and common name.

Final verdict (out of 5 points):

Miss Glitzy:
Miss Jazzy:
Miss Geri Beri:

Obolo
452 Joo Chiat Road
Singapore 427665
Tel: 6348 9791