Macarons from Yauatcha (Soho, London)

I have blogged before about macarons and my attempts to make them. It’s fun to do and you feel a sense of pride about having mastered something complex, but you are then usually left facing a mountain of the things, all in the same flavour. Given just how rich the filling typically is, they are also not the sort of thing that you would sit down and eat a lot of in one go. But I am sure that has not stopped many from trying.

For this reason, it is still fun to buy macarons, as you can then choose from the exciting flavours on offer. I have had the excellent dim sum at Yauatcha in central London before, and on Thursday picked up a selection of their macarons. The main draw for me was the flavours they offer – in addition to the French classics such as coffee and vanilla, they also have matcha (green tea), earl grey and an intriguing black sesame. If I have one niggle from my recent visit, it is that they didn’t have quite the same range as I have seen in the past. It might have been due to me passing rather late in the day, so I’ll check back in the near future for the promised ginger, violet or yuzu…

I took a box of fourteen. I have so far worked my way through the matcha (with very grassy notes), raspberry (fruity) and black sesame. This last one was excellent. The filling was a black sesame paste and white chocolate ganache, with a pronounced but not overwhelming sesame flavour. It was clearly black sesame too – not toasted white sesame. Almost like poppy seeds. This was innovative and delicious, and so far, my clear favourite.