Macaron Magnifique is a macaron company that produces a series of different flavored macarons, and can deliver them throughout the United States, as well as Canada. If you’re a macaron lover, this definitely caught your eye, and you’re likely wondering if it’s worth taking them up on their offer.
Overview
If you’ve ever had a macaron in Paris then you’ll know what all the fuss is about. They say they’re trying to capture that experience and introduce it to an American audience. It’s not like we need one more sweet treat in a saturated marketplace, but these are gluten-free and are made with almond flour so if you’re going to have something sweet you may as well have something that tastes great without weighing you down too much.
The Claim
Lauren Rae Levy, the woman behind this, says that she’s teamed up with a Parisian chef to create these macarons and she says that they’re made in the USA. It’s also being claimed that each macaron is hand made by master pastry chefs.
The Hype
The hype is that this is a product offered from a “celebrity stylist” and so they’ve been showing up in places like the Oscars and the Grammys. There’s also hype behind them being so French, as Americans regard French pastries and baked goods with a certain aura of excellence.
The Cost
You don’t really want to bargain shop on something like a Parisian macaron, it’s the experience that you’re after here, and you’ll want to pay to play and pony up the dough to get the best tasting macaron you can. They have an offer where you can sample the different flavors they have for $40 delivered to your door. That’s about $3 per macaron, and it appears they’ve gone with a baker’s dozen. It would have been better if they would have just upped it to 14 so you would get two macarons in each flavor.
The Commitment
You aren’t under any obligation to buy future shipments of macarons on a subscription or member basis. These are being sold straight up, without a lot of fine print attached to them. Since they’re shipped right to you all that you really need to do is open and enjoy.
Evaluation
The concept behind Macaron Magnifique is a simple yet powerful one. How can you re-create an experience that you’ve had yourself and share it with others. If these were mass produced and stored for a long time, it would be a different story. But they are hand making these and using premium ingredients, taking care to make them gluten-free. That entails certain costs that you just can’t get around, like the cost of labor to get someone to make these each day, and the cost of the ingredients. We can see how these are priced well, the business owners still want to make a profit so that they can keep the business going.
That being said, it would be really nice if they had just a one-off sample of 7 macarons for $15 shipped to your door. That way you’re getting them at a reduced price, and if they’re as good as they say they are you’d definitely be ordering more at the full price. It would be easy enough not to accept multiple orders from the same household. Maybe they would just break even by selling them at this price point, but it’s a future-focused strategy of spreading the word more broadly. If people really like them, they are sure to tell their friends about them, and what’s the harm of giving people a discount on their first order?
Grocery stores give away tons of free samples to those that come in to buy food from the deli and bakery, because they know that if you try it you’ll be more likely to buy it because you know exactly what you’re getting.
Final Macaron Magnifique Review
We’re giving the macarons from Macaron Magnifique our Solid Try rating, as they’re doing a good job of replicating the experience, and it’s far cheaper than a flight to Paris. It would be nice if they would let you have a sample at a reduced cost, just to get you hooked and let you see what they’re all about. But their trial offer is at the same price you pay per macaron to get an assorted box of 26.
Our Recommendation
Even at the price of the trial offer this is still not a bad deal, and if you’re a fan of French pastries and bakery creations, or even a fan of macarons specifically, you owe it to yourself to try this so you aren’t left wondering how good they are. Maybe in the future the price on the trial offer will come down a bit, so you might want to wait it out or just take the plunge and see how they taste for yourself.
