Soirette Macarons & Tea - Vancouver, BC

Macarons are sweeping across the city and these two Piglets have had trouble deciding which place has the best, especially when everyone has their own opinions. Solution? The Piglets are going on a macaron tasting frenzy and trying macarons from everywhere possible!  Let's start this crazy train... Macaron Mania Part 1!

Located in the downtown core but not in the main hustle and bustle area is this little shop called Soirette Macarons and Tea headed by Shobna, former executive pastry chef for the Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver. On this day, she was hovering behind the counter, ensuring that customers were taken care of. What she offers is exactly what's in the name - macarons and tea.  The macarons here are made in house (there's even a small window to peek into the back), dye-free and with natural ingredients so what you see is what you get.

12 pack (variety chosen) - $22

You can also get them in singles ($2) or a 6 pack ($11.50) but we decided to try a wider range of flavors. Love the lovely packaging it came in! It would look great if given as a gift. Anyways,the standouts out of the bunch were:

Matcha

Nice deep matcha taste without being overwhelmingly so.

Pink Peppercorn

This is seemingly plain with your first taste and you chew, taste, swallow... And then it hits... SPICE! It's a little tingle right in the back of your throat! Nice!

Rocher

It's tastes like the Ferrero Rocher chocolate! I also like the bronze color on top to differentiate it from other chocolate flavors.

Soirette's macarons have very subtle flavors so would require a milder tea or other liquid to accompany them. Some of the flavors that were perhaps too subtle were Violet and Pistachio - they seemed to be just plain sweet. On the other hand, the lemon was just too much - so much so that it left a bit of an aftertaste.

Another thing we noticed was that the macarons had air bubbles in the cookie portion and if tapped lightly, you could hear they were hollow. Not sure if that's good or bad but they still had a delicate crispy outer shell, a slightly chewy but light interior cookie with a touch of ganache-like filling.


Overall, Soirette has the widest variety of flavors, more so than any other dessert places the Piglets have hit so far, and the majority of them were quite good. The size of the macarons are smaller than other places but it's not bad for the price if you're looking for a wide variety, perhaps for a tea party or other gathering.


The Piglets also tried the Mango Tart Tea and an Americano whilst waiting for time to expire - if there's 20 minutes left on the meter, we will sit there for that full 20 minutes!  Ha!  Anyways, Mr. Piglet said his Americano was quite good, better than some of the other macaron places we have visited. My tea was also delicious as there was a deep mango flavor in hot tea form, great for a rainy Vancouver day.


Pros:

• Very wide varieties of flavors - at least 14 on the day we visited
• Cheaper so you can try more flavors - $2 or less
• More in stock so less likely you'll be caught by the sold out sign
• Good coffee and tea - broad variety of tea available and can also be purchased by weight
• Attentive and friendly service - they watched over someone's dog outside in the rain while the customer was inside purchasing!
• Beautiful interior - limited seating but you don't really need to sit down

Cons:

• Perhaps some flavors would be too subtle - depends on your palate so this could be a plus if you prefer the lighter notes
• Small size - "dainty" portions as Mr. Piglet put it
• Limited operating hours