Monday, June 25, 2012

[atlanta macarons] review: cacao, buckhead

This is a continuing series of reviews on Atlanta's macarons. You can find the other reviews here.

Located off Peachtree St. in the same shopping strip as Fellini's, Cacao's Buckhead location has the same interior care as their Virginia Highlands location. A soft blue wallpaper on the walls with white accents pretty much sums up my dream decor. I also love how the open counter plan allows customers to view all of the offerings freely. While they're known for their chocolates, my eyes went immediately to this giant display of macarons.

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Price: $2.00 per macaron

The macaron breakdown:

Vanilla
one of the lightest vanillas I've ever tasted. A really well done vanilla macaron and perfect for those who don’t like the almond syrup flavoring in Laduree’s vanilla macarons.
Pistachio cherry
I hated this flavor the most. I could see where they were trying to go with the pistachio by giving it a twist with the cherry jelly, but this just didn’t work properly. The texture is offputting, and the jelly just didn’t mix well with the cookie. For some reason, I had a pretzel aftertaste.
Raspberry
Not enough sugar in the jelly, but too much sugar in the cookie.
Lavender
One of the more adventurous flavors, and a twist on the famous rose flavor. However, I don’t know if lavender is a good choice as a main flavor. It tastes good as an accent, but I have yet to see it executed well as the prominent flavor.
Tiramisu
Just when I was losing hope on Cacao’s macarons, tiramisu arrived. This flavor is SO GOOD. Something about the cookie didn’t crumble correctly (too hard), but regardless, it’s excellent. Hands down their best flavor.
Lemon
good, but nothing extraordinary.
Dark chocolate
PERFECTION. And this is coming from someone who avoids dark chocolate like carpenter jeans. I want to say that this is the best chocolate macaron I've ever had. Laduree's chocolate always felt a bit too sweet and creamy, and while they use a lighter chocolate, I definitely think that Cacao got this one right by going for a darker flavor. Smoky and understated.

Final verdict: while there were some misses, there were a few definite hits. Cacao is known for its chocolate, and all of their chocolate based macarons are superb. Forgo the other flavors and go for their chocolate and tiramisu.

Cacao Buckhead
2817 Peachtree Rd., NE
Atlanta, GA 30305
(404) 467-4670



6 comments:

  1. Ahh... This has made me soo hungry! The salted caramel hot chocolate sounds bloody amazing & I love those little numbered squares of chocolate! Nice little review too, it's great that you were honest & didn't just say they were all amazing like so many others do :)

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  2. Oh how you feed my food obsessions at weird hours of the night. The tiramisu macaroon sounds amazing!

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  3. I'm so close to ATL and go often, I will DEF. be checking this place out!

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  5. omg yes...the macaroon tower. can I have some please? X
    :D

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