hey macaron-a

Filed Under Mamas Rock, Places | January 31, 2012

When it comes to baked goods we carry no cultural allegiance.  French, Dutch, German, Canadian, or Italian…we eat them all. So when we were tipped to a new pastry destination in Coal Harbour a bit off the beaten path, we thought it was high time we got our macaron on at Soirette.

Soirette is the second child of mum, biomedical engineer, and Le Cordon Bleu-trained pastry Chef Shobna Kannusamy. After Shobna had her first child she evidently wasn’t busy enough, so she gave birth to a patisserie.  Her tiny little jewel box of a shop is filled with delicate macarons that look too pretty to be eaten, and with aromas of exotic teas.

We snacked on a flight of macarons paired with a tea that is sure to become a staple in our house (with a name like Pink Champagne, what’s not to love?).  Each macaron we tried was packed with luscious flavour, but we’d have to say the Lemon and Caramel Fleur De Sel were our favourites.  We appreciated how carefully the shop’s products have been chosen: from locally sourced ingredients, to the large selection of organic teas (Shobna and her husband tasted over 400 teas to get the balance right), to the custom-designed greeting cards printed on sustainable paper, it’s just delightful. We are also delighted that they are having their grand opening celebration this Saturday, February 4th and they have a fantastic Valentine’s tasting menu for the love birds including a heart shaped Strawberry Champagne macaron.  Awwwww.

For the stroller set, the bathroom is enormous, which makes diaper changes easy and mum breaks doable.  However, the shop itself is quite small so if your mums’ group is looking for a snack break, we’d recommend grabbing a few for the road. Coupled with a fabulous cup of tea, it’s the perfect fuel for a seawall walk. Just be allergy aware: macarons are always made with almond flour so if you are nut allergic,  macarons are sadly not for you.

Love a macaron?  We’re also big fans of the little ‘hamburger cookies’ (as our tiny tester dubbed them) from French Made Baking, Thierry, and  The Urban Tea Merchant.  If you have any macaron destinations to add to our mashup feel free to comment below this article on our site and share the macaron love!

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