Friday, July 13, 2012

Macaron Taste Off: Bottega Louie vs. Towne



UPDATE: I went back and tired the lychee, per suggestion of the commenter below, and can attest that it is fantastic! I also got the pistachio and strawberry. The pistachio was mild but nice. The strawberry was the opposite, intense. Maybe a little too intense but still good. And I got the PB&J again. It is still amaaaaaazing.

Before I went to Towne on Wednesday ("went to Towne" ha! it's a pun!), my friend Katie and I picked up some macarons at Bottega Louie so we could compare them to the ones at Towne. First, Towne's shells were perfection! So light and airy! And creating a macaron that was at least 50% larger. I didn't even realize how dense the BL macarons were until I tried Towne's. So they win on the cookie shell aspect. However, Towne lost points for having a low filling-shell ratio. BL macarons are half filing, half shell in every bite. I would estimate Towne is more 30-70. But the filing-shell ratio didn't bother me as much as the inconsistent flavors. I think every flavor BL produces is fantastic (with the exception of matcha, but I'm not going to quibble over one bad flavor out of the 20 I've tried over the years). Of the 3 Towne macarons I tried, though, only one was a stand out. (PB&J. It was exceptional!) The other 2 (key lime and salted chocolate) were too sweet, almost cloying. Katie and I didn't even finish them.

So the defending champ edged out the promising new comer, but as Towne fine tunes their recipes, I think it has a good chance of over taking the original. The shell, the hardest part to make, is wonderful, and I'm sure the flavors will come. Plus, being 10 cents cheaper, 50% bigger, and 3 blocks closer to my apartment than the BL macarons makes me willing to try more until the filing recipe is perfected!

PS: A review of my whole dinner at Towne is coming up later today!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Make sure you try the Lychee, that one was amazing when I had it.