I just want to slap people when they say Ladurée or Pierre Hermé make the best macarons in Paris. And I’d be just as irritated if they said Gerard Mulot or Carette – Jean Paul Hévin or Sadaharu Aoki. Yes, I think Ladurée has more really good ones than most others, at any given point in time, but they also carry 2x-3x as many flavors as smaller shops. The reality is that there are hundreds of pâtisseries making macarons in the city, and dozens of them make consistently exceptional work. Yet, at best, any given shop might have two or three that rival their competitors. So until they all join forces into some kind of delectable macaron conglomerate, we all need to run to at least a few shops to get a fully world-class assortment.

Hugo & Victor is, in my not-so-humble opinion, home to what might well be the finest all-round single macaron in Paris. They have a number of truly delicious ones – from their Macaron Myrtille to their Combawa and Vanille – but it’s the Macaron Mangue that stands out as the most perfect realization of macarons’ potential. To put it in perspective, when I drafted my Top 38 Best Pastries in Paris list, I put Jacques Genin’s Éclair au Chocolat at the #4 position – a pastry so magnificent I use it as irrefutable proof that Monsieur Genin actually invented the éclair. Hugo & Victor’s Macaron Mangue? It’s at the #3 spot. It is literally part magic.

Hold the macaron delicately in your fingers. Feel the smooth surface and sweet crinkle of the feet. Close your eyes, as bring it to your nose and inhale. Now open them. You’re in the Andalusian countryside. A vision-quest has commenced, merely from the scent! Your mystical guide, Ramón, smiles at you from below the mango tree, where he stands slicing some jamón ibérico he’s invited you to enjoy with him and his lovely fiancée Hélena, whose family has cultivated this land for untold generations. But, before you enjoy your idyllic picnic with this lovely couple, they want you to delight in your Macaron Mangue. The succulent fruit at its heart once flourished in this same grove, but, at the mercy of Champion de France Hugues Pouget, it’s been rendered into something otherworldly. You take a bite. The light chew of the Italian meringue would be enough to delight you 1,000 times over, but you’re almost instantly awash in not only the magnificence of the of mango but the intoxicatingly transcendent mélange of black pepper, vanilla, cinnamon, clove, star anise, and nutmeg. The fruit and spices echo back and forth off of one another in the most mind-bendingly symphonic ricochet of tones and nuances you could never have otherwise imagined. It’s not like seeing a new color for the first time. It’s like discovering a rainbow – an entire spectrum of experience – to which mankind had not yet been privy.

Hyperbole aside, it truly is silly how delicious these macarons are. Less talented chefs would overdo the mango notes, but Hugues keeps it feeling extremely natural. Those tones of the fruit balance so nicely against the spices, which work as an amazing little team. The first time you have one of these macs, you can tell they’ve been spiced, but it’s not 100% clear which ones have been used. Successive bites and frantic gluttonous repeat purchases reveal the clove and the nutmeg and on-and-on. Perhaps the most striking thing about these, and what really sets them apart, is how vital every flavor and texture here seems to be. Most macarons come off as some version of flavored cremeux, ganache, etc. sandwiched between two meringue halves, whereas every waft and morsel of these Macarons Mangue is integral. I used to just buy a big tube of them from H&V and walk back to my apartment, nibbling away and going, “Oh my God…Wow…Oh my God…Wow…Really?…Wow…”

Especially if you’ve already enjoyed the macarons of Pierre Hermé and Ladurée, start venturing further afield. I love Monsieur Hermé’s Mogador and Infiniment Vanille, as well as Ladurée’s Fleur d’Oranger and Rose, but those and more can be topped by the finest pieces at some of the lesser-known shops. Even if H&V’s Macaron Mangue doesn’t quite live up to the hype I’ve just provided (though it should), shops like ACIDE, Un Dimanche à Paris, Art Macaron, Pain de Sucre and more have stellar pieces you’d be a triflin’ fool to miss.

So, yes, H&V’s Macaron Mangue is an absolute must-have. Not only will I give it my highest praise of saying that you should buy an entire box of it alone, but I’ll top that and suggest you call a few days ahead and order enough for three boxes – one for you, one for a friend, and another for you when you realize you ate the first box in 5 minutes and have yet to see the friend who should still be getting box #2. There’s a reason this flavor was often sold out when I’d get to the shop in the early afternoon. Even if all the others were in the case, the Macaron Mangue might have been completely snapped-up.

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