Not surprisingly, when you eat pastries all day every day, there’s a certain ennui that sets in. I have a list of, I believe, 39 exceptional pieces, which is less than 10% of everything I’ve ever tasted here in Paris. And even among that group there are only maybe 10-15 I think are consistently and unimpeachably amazing. So not only will the next pastry I eat be unlikely to thrill me – it will be hard pressed to merely amuse yours truly. That’s why I appreciate the shops who at least attempt to offer us something new and to make it interesting.

Café Pouchkine can always be depended upon for originality, as their Russian spin lends itself to nothing but. Un Dimanche a Paris is wonderful for trying new things: poppy flower macarons, salty hazelnut butter in their feuilletage, raspberry & tarragon tartes, etc. And then there’s Hugo & Victor, where Huges Pouget works year-round to create magic from many flavors underutilized by most others: fig, kaffir lime, sugar [yes, sugar as a flavor in itself], verbena, etc.. So I was happy when H&V reinitiated their red fruit macaron lineup from last year and saw fit to include wild blueberry, red currant and cherry pieces. Not particularly a fan of Ladurée’s cherry mac, I was hoping for a lot here. So how did H&V’s macaron cerise hold up?

Honestly, I was pretty bummed about it. And given the extent to which I generally effuse over H&V’s pastries, you should know how painful it is for me to say that. Even if I think their macaron mangue is the greatest macaron in the city, this little cherry guy was not in the same ballpark. Yes, the feet of the shell and the internal structure thereof foretell what the taste confirms – that the Italian meringue is a delight – but it’s that cherry crème within that failed to bring a smile to my face. The force of the cherry is so . . . muted. In fact, it was so tame the first time I had it, that I just wrote it off to having eat the mac while it was still a little too cool; macarons never taste right when they’re chilly. So when I repurchased it for these photos I made sure they were thoroughly at room temperature, before digging in. But it was the same issue all over again – a conspicuously mild flavor.

There are a couple other macarons in the H&V lineup that are fairly conservative in their flavoring, while the majority are fairly bold yet well-balanced. Maybe Monsieur Pouget is pushng the flavor as far as it will naturally go. Or maybe this is just his current vision for the piece. He proudly told me a month or so ago about how much he’d evolved his Hugo Vanille pastry from the year before, so perhaps we can expect the same from some of the macs – a new spin, come next year.

So, no, I can’t say I’d include a macaron cerise in your assortment. What I would opt for are the following macs: myrtille, vanilla, combawa, caramel and the ever amazing mangue. They’re all wonderful, and I think H&V has more great macs than any other shop . . . except Ladurée, queen of the macarons.

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