J. Chanceux Macarons

By grace.g.yang · January 8, 2010
Under: Desserts,My Life,Soho,Things to do in NYC

Before the holidays, I was wandering around Soho in search of a winter coat. I found a winter jacket AND randomly walked into J. Chanceux Macarons. The macaron shop is in the same spot as Green Apple Organic Ice Cream Factory:

To be honest, I actually went in search of some ice cream. I’ve read a lot of great reviews about the fresh ingredients Green Apple Ice Cream Factory uses and was in the mood to try something out. Unfortunately, the owner is in Asia for the next couple of months and the flavors I wanted to try weren’t available. However, I found out that the extra space in Green Apple is being used by J. Chanceux Macarons. J. Chanceux is owned by a lovely woman named Vivian – she is very passionate about macarons and uses fresh ingredients for her macaron flavoring.

The macarons are beautifully displayed by the front window:

Vivian bakes all of the macarons in the store – here are some freshly baked mango macarons waiting to be placed behind the counter:

The macarons are mini and cost $1 each (if you buy 6). They come in a very cute package:

I went with dark chocolate, bergamot, mango, espresso, passion fruit, and caramel. The innards of the espresso macaron:

The macarons were all very delicious but my favorites were definitely the espresso and passion fruit. It’s hard to come by passion fruit in New York (although my friend swears it’s readily available in East Harlem during the summers), and biting into the passion fruit reminded me of the time my brother and I ate 20 passion fruits (each) in a hotel in Taipei while my dad watched in amazement (and possibly horror). I think passion fruit can sometimes taste very artificial, but the macarons from J. Chanceux tasted exactly like the tart and tangy passion fruit I know and love. The espresso macaron was also very flavorful (especially the buttercream filling). J. Chanceux creates larger macarons for special orders (I think there’s a minimum of 75 per order) and they’ve been very busy during the holiday season. If you find yourself shopping in Soho, definitely check out J. Chanceux Macarons!