Pierre Hermé Macarons

Yesterday, I officially turned 1 as a Swede. Yep folks, that is correct.. I have been a Swede for a whole year so to celebrate the grand occasion, Emma and I partook in a little over indulgence of macarons.. direct from Paris. We grabbed the Pierre Hermé 2012 Jardin Collection which consisted of a few hits and misses for our palates.. I am not a big fan of the soapy ones, however the French seem to like that "I swore, therefore I need to wash my mouth out with soap" flavour. It is not that they were bad as such, it just wasn't really a flavour I like. I like mine fruity and fresh.. much like me! I am a little fruity and fresh!

We started off with JARDIN MARIN, which is green tea, chanterelle mushroom & lemon and actually very nice indeed.

Next up was JARDIN PARFUMÉ which is rose & jasmine and well.. soapy mouth.. actually I think Emma might have likened this one to shampoo.

Moving away from soapy and right into one I didn't have high hopes of liking, mainly coz I don't overly enjoy saffron and sure enough it wasn't to my taste, but it was to Nemo's! JARDIN DU PARADIS is aniseed & saffron.

I was excited to have this next one, Emma and I first tried it in London when it was released. JARDIN D'ÉDEN which is vanilla & basil and really quite nice.. even nicer the second time around actually. Perfect for a less sweet macaron.

This one here, as it turned out became the favourite of the lot. JARDIN D'ÉTÉ which is lemon & caramelized fennel and quite bluntly really frakkin yum! It had a lovely tartness to add to the sweetness and I could see myself eating many of those if given the chance.. luckily for my ever expanding waistline, we don't splurge and have these couriered to us much, but I can see myself just grabbing a box of those (if available) each time we do splurge it for those special occasions.

Next up.. JARDIN SAUVAGE which is chocolate & lime.. I am not a huge fan of the chocolate macarons to start with. This one because of the lime actually had a rather boozy feel to it. It went down at least and we moved on to more! Just over half way now!

This one, another non fave, for that same soapy reason. They are still nice don't get me wrong, they just aren't ones I would chose to eat again. JARDIN ORIENTAL is orange blossom, rose & ginger.

JARDIN D'ANTAN  is violet & aniseed and umm.. a little meh.

Now this one.. had a little kick! JARDIN ENCHANTÉ is lime, raspberry & espelette pepper and rather enjoyable indeed. I did like it, not as much as the favourite but it was pretty close.

And lastly we have.. JARDIN SECRET which is rose, vanilla & clove and I was a little disappointed to end on a soapy note. Seriously Frenchies, what is it with the soapy flavours?

Oh but wait! There's more! You see, it was a 12 pack and the Jardins collection only has 10! so they doubled up on the last 2, so we swapped them out with a couple from the Paris collection (we got the duo pack of the Paris & London collections) that we also bought...

We tried the liquorice and violet, which was... ok.

And again.. the actual last one for the evening.. we have crème brûlée! Which was I was expecting.. rather nommy! Lovely to finish on and then relax on the couch in a macaron coma! Best first birthday ever!

Tonight, we shall head around to the parental and enjoy some sliders and then munch on a few more of the macarons.. and over the weekend there shall be no more macarons and I can honestly say.. it is just lovely to be able to splurge in life and enjoy mouthfuls of delight.. even if some are soapy.