Macarons aren’t the most common tea time sweet around here, but the toothsome confections are the most delightful little snacks you could wish for – pleasing the eye with their bright colours as well as your senses with their differing textures. The ones we tasted ranged from absolutely delectable to downright horrible! Unfortunately Gerard Mendis’ Chocolatier seemed to be out of macarons so we couldn’t taste any of theirs, but we managed to get a variety of flavours and thus had lots of differing opinions – but we both decided that Kingsbury had the best!

Delifrance (Odel, Alexandra Place, Colombo 07)

Price - Rs.800+ service charge
Value For money - average
Taste – 3.5
Overall – While tastier than some other macarons we ate, it wasn’t too convenient that we had to buy five at once. I really doubt I’d buy it again purely because I didn’t like all the flavours in it. There was Mint, Chocolate, Vanilla, Coffee and Strawberry. We agreed that the Mint and Chocolate were the best, the Vanilla was nice but the other too weren’t appetising at all. Texture wise three were soft and two were crunchy.

The Kingsbury (48 Janadhipathi Mawatha, Colombo 01)

Price – Rs.100
Value For money – High
Taste – 4.5
Overall – We were at first disappointed because we wanted to try Blueberry and Orange but they were only on display, however we managed to snag Raspberry and Chocolate. They were both frozen so the Raspberry was only slightly crunchy but it tasted amazing! Packed with filling, it was the yummiest macaron we encountered! The chocolate was of a perfect texture, crunchy on top then succumbing to a soft middle, with a lovely nutty flavour that should be present in all macarons. They were also bigger than the ones from Delifrance. It was definitely our pick!

The Fab (474, Galle Road, Colombo 03)

Price – Rs.40
Value for money – average
Taste – ***
Overall – This one was massive, and though it was far too crunchy and the cream didn’t taste of anything, for 40 bucks it was quite decent. We liked everything about it except the filling, but it was a bit misshapen and definitely could be better.

Sponge (347, Galle Road, Colombo 3)

Price – 130 for 2
Value for money – Low
Taste – *
Overall - We were initially disappointed by the size difference in the two macarons, plus the bigger one had just a smear of filling. That disappointment was relieved by nothing. It was tasteless, sans even the mandatory nuttiness, and way too sweet. Someone there needs to actually look at a macaron recipe.

Mitsi’s Coffee Shop (34A, Bagatalle Road, Colombo 03)

Price – 240 for 2 (Rs.120 each)
Value for money – High
Taste – *****
Overall – The only reason this wasn’t our pick was because the textures of both macarons were soft. The chocolate was a soft gooey mess, absolutely delectable. The Cheese tasted a bit like Lime and while it wasn’t suited to my palate I could tell that it was incredible, it was also nice and crunchy. We’d definitely go back here.

By Marissa van Eyck and Sindhu Ratnaranjan