by Roy T. Reeves, Discover Paris

If you love sweets, look for the round, two-layered, pastel-colored pastries slightly reminiscent of hamburger buns in pastry shops on your next trip to Paris. They appear almost artificial next to the luscious fruit tarts and multi-layered cream and chocolate confections in the shop windows. The uninitiated might even think that they were created specifically for children, so fanciful are their pink, green and yellow hues. These pastries are called macarons, and despite their appearance, they are heavenly in both flavor and texture.

France is indebted to Italy for its introduction to this delicate pastry. It is widely believed that the Venetians discovered the macaron during their seafaring voyages of the Renaissance era, and that the chefs of Catherine de Medici brought the recipe to France at the time of Catherine's marriage to Henri II. The term "macaron" has the same origin as that of the word "macaroni" – both mean "fine dough".

The first macarons were simple cookies, made from almond powder, sugar and egg whites. Many towns throughout France have their own prized tale surrounding this dessert. In Nancy, the granddaughter of Catherine de Medici was supposedly saved from starvation by eating them. In Saint-Jean-de-Luz, the macarons of chef Adam regaled Louis XIV and Marie-Therèse at their wedding celebration in 1660.

It was only at the beginning of the 20th century when the macaron became a "double-decker" affair. Pierre Desfontaines, owner of the famous Ladurée pâtisserie in Paris, got the idea of placing a layer of cream between two single macarons while on a trip to Switzerland. Macarons in the form of a cream-filled cookie are now commonly found in pâtisseries throughout Paris, in flavors as standard as vanilla, chocolate and coffee to those as exotic as rose and tea. But purists can still find the original, almond-flavored pastries in food shops around town.

To determine who makes the best macarons in Paris, two members of our staff happily undertook the task of sampling the sweets around the city. They used Laduréé as the gold standard in this quasi-scientific yet taste bud-titillating survey of the macarons produced by five pastry shops in Paris.

A brief description of what we consider to be a good macaron is necessary in order to establish the ground rules under which they made their investigation. A good macaron should have a light, thin crust that gives way to a soft, chewy cookie that is also light and airy. The cream filling should have the same flavor as the cookie, should be thick but not pasty, and should offer an obvious contrast to the texture of the cookie. If these criteria are met, then the differentiating factor among good macarons is the quality of the flavorings used.

Weight, diameter, texture and of course, flavor, were compared among the macarons of several pâtisseries. The one flavor that all the shops had in common was chocolate, so we paid special attention to that particular flavor for this taste test. With one exception, all the macarons tasted were three inches in diameter.

The Ladurée chocolate macaron, weighing in at 74 grams (19 francs each), had all of the qualities of a good macaron as described above. But one of our staff found the chocolate cream to have a smoky flavor that was slightly overpowering. Still, the overall score for this macaron was 8 out of a total of 10 points.

J. Y. Malitourne in the 7th arrondissement sells several kinds of chocolate macarons – regular chocolate (which we tasted), bitter chocolate, chocolate with bitter orange, chocolate with sea salt and chocolate with pear and walnut. The regular chocolate macaron was the most disappointing of all those tasted at the pâtisseries that we chose to evaluate. It weighed 72 grams, and cost 15 francs. The cookie was floury and the chocolate filling too dense. We gave it a 3/10.

At the acclaimed Maison Kayser of the 5th arrondissement, the dense cream filling of their chocolate macaron is made with dark chocolate. The cookie is also dense, so much so that it is almost indistinguishable from the cream center. A light, tender crust holds everything together. We gave this macaron (70 grams, 21 francs each) a score of 6/10.

On the other side of the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève on rue Mouffetard (5th arrondissement), the Pâtissier du Quartier offers a 3¼ inch chocolate macaron more dense than that offered by Ladurée – the cream is thicker, darker and sweeter. The weight of the pastry (78 grams) corroborates this qualitative assessment. This macaron got a score of 7.5/10 (12 francs each).

The final "contestant" in our macaron contest was the chocolate macaron sold at the Grande Epicérie de Paris in the 7th arrondissement. The thickness of the cookie was approximately equal to that of the cream. The flavor of both the cookie and the cream was light, and the crust was especially light and tender. Weighing in at 74 grams and priced at 13.50 francs each, this macaron was given a score of 9/10. La Grande Epicérie took the prize for the best chocolate macaron sampled in our survey!

Mr. Reeves is owner of Discover Paris!, a New York City and Paris-based company that creates personalized itineraries for people visiting the French capital city.