Before you ask, “Doesn’t she mean macaroon? Why use a pretentious French word?” Because the term macaron correctly–and very specifically–refers only to the gerbet, or Parisian macaroon.

In its purest form, the macaron is a confection composed of finely ground almonds, egg whites, and sugar. The word is a derivation of the Venetian macarone, meaning “fine paste.” The recipe traveled through France and varied regionally, but the ingredients and the basic construction remained consistent. A layer of buttercream, ganache, or jam was spread between two meringue disks.

The inventor of this treat was Pierre Desfontaines, a distant cousin of Louis Ernest Ladurée, founder of the eponymous pâtisserie. In the early 20th century the house of Ladurée introduced the world to what are today considered the classic macaron flavors–vanilla, chocolate, coffee, and almond.

In the mid-nineties Ladurée raised the bar with the help of a consultant, Pierre Hermé, a pastry master who added compelling flavor combinations, such as lime-basil and violet-cassis, to the shop’s offerings. Among Ladurée’s newer creations, a caramel version prepared with beurre salé has been especially esteemed. Every season Parisians fervently await the shop’s innovations.

Hermé, who now has seven boutiques in Tokyo, six in Paris, and one in London, says the macaron itself is merely a medium for new flavors: rose-lychee-raspberry, say, and wasabi-grapefruit. According to Hermé, the craze began about five years ago in Paris and was jump-started by Clémence Boulouque’s Au Pays des Macarons and Stéphane Glacier’s Un Amour de Macaron, now published Stateside as Macaroon Swoon. In the fall of 2008 Hermé released a volume of his own, and the Frenchman hopes to open his own store in America. Meanwhile, macaron shops proliferate here and abroad.

Having undertaken perhaps the most broad-ranging macaron tasting and analysis ever, I narrowed the field to 29 excellent purveyors. Those that ship and whose products arrive consistently fresh and attractively presented are noted with a star. Macarons concocted with egg whites precooked, Italian style, yield a crunchier texture and are more likely to arrive intact. The French-style meringue is more temperamental and often best eaten soon after it’s made, if not on the premises. Funnily enough, quality among those selected here is fairly consistent, from Paris to San Francisco.

Note: Bakeries marked with an asterisk ship their products fresh and beautifully presented.

Almondine

T 718.797.5026 | 85 Water St. almondinebakery.com

Made in Dumbo, Brooklyn, these confections are basic and homey-looking. The chocolate macaron has a center of rich ganache and an ever-so-slender sheet of bittersweet chocolate. The peanut butter is addictive, very American.

Bouchon Bakery*

T 212.823.9366 | 10 Columbus Circle, New York bouchonbakery.com

Thomas Keller’s dedication to precision triumphs at this Upper West Side shop. Consistency of shell–brittle bite giving way to cloudlike moist-ness–is reliable. Fillings are velvety and come as close to the Parisian standard as any American attempt. Standout: astringent yuzu with dark chocolate ganache.

La Boulange

T 415.440.0356 | 2325 Pine St. laboulangebakery.com

In 2007 this San Francisco chain added ganache to some of its cookies to create a depth of flavor. This approach works especially well with one whose middle features a dark, burned style of caramel accompanied by white chocolate.

Carette

T 33.1/47.27.98.85 | 4 Pl. du Trocadero

One of the oldest, most beloved salons in Paris, Carette quietly serves spot-on, melt-in-your-mouth macarons. The store launches new collections every season, just like the flashier purveyors, and offers a caramel au beurre salé flavor that rivals Ladurée’s.

Dalloyau

T 33.1/42.99.90.00 | 101 Rue du Faubourg St.-Honoré, Paris dalloyau.fr

Trust the old guard to deliver a dependable macaron. This centuries-old company–run by a family whose ancestors served Louis XIV at Versailles–remains the best of its type. One of the founder’s in-house descendants accurately described the cookies as “ten seconds of pleasure” and her “first sweet emotion.” These err on the fragile side but are flavorful; the hazelnut is particularly potent.

Essence Bakery Cafe*

T 480.966.2745 | 825 W. University Dr. essencebakery.com

Eugenia Theodosopoulos’s cookies come in regular and extra-large sizes–and both are irresistible. Though based in Tempe, Arizona, Theodosopoulos learned the technique of making macarons at Lenôtre in Paris. Her fillings are intense and lavishly piped. The caramel is like the best French custard.

Floriole Bakery*

T 773.252.0095 | 1220 W. Webster, Chicago floriole.com

A friend raved about a perfect galette she’d found at a Chicago farmers’ market. Floriole, the source of that galette, has also mastered macarons in the Windy City. Sandra and Mathieu Holl turn out faultless caramel-apple, chocolate-orange, and pear-ginger varieties.

Jin Patisserie

T 310.399.8801 | 1202 Abbot Kinney Blvd. jinpatisserie.com

Kristy Choo runs this secret spot in Venice, California, and she’s drawn to “anything that has a hint of sourness combined with sweetness.” Her vanilla-plum macaron hides homemade red plum compote at its core.

Kee’s Chocolates

T 212.334.3284 | 80 Thompson St., New York keeschocolates.com

At this SoHo chocolatier, the same ingenuity that brought sesame to a truffle puts a dark chocolate–and–sesame ganache between two black-sesame meringues, leaving intimations of almond on your tongue. Sample the peach-ginger and rose-lychee confections.

L.A. Burdick*

T 603.756.2882 | 47 Main St., Walpole burdickchocolate.com

Based in New Hampshire, this operation does quite a bit of mail-order business, and its carefully packed macarons deserve praise for arriving completely intact. They are more arid than some, perhaps the downside to their being shippable. As compensation, only natural brighteners, like beet juice, are used. Bonus points go to the coffee- and pistachio-perfumed examples.

Ladurée

T 33.1/40.75.08.75 | 75 Av. des Champs-Elysées, Paris laduree.fr

This is the benchmark. First this Rococo-style shrine to choux pastry gave us the sweet tooth’s answer to the tea sandwich. Then Ladurée applied the laws of fashion–each season Left and Right Bank dwellers line up at the nearest hub to sample the latest in macaron style. Of-the-moment flavors impress, but the perennial lemon, raspberry, and caramel au beurre salé still rule.

Macaroon Café

T 212.564.3525 | 161 W. 36th St. macaroncafe.com

Cécile Cannone’s Manhattan shop uses Toblerone, foie gras, and pumpkin. Yes, all three, but not in one cookie. There’s even a Big Mac: chocolate ganache (for the burger), a strawberry slice (tomato), and a mint leaf (lettuce), and there are sesame seeds on top.

Macarons et Chocolat

T 33.1/42.57.68.08 | 57 Rue Damrémont, Paris

Arnaud Larher received a best-of-Paris award for his macarons and now has a store to tout them. Experimental ingredients (lily of the valley, for starters) vie with classic ones. The pistachio-cherry flavor is lauded by chocolate guru David Lebovitz.

Madeleine Patisserie/La Maison du Macaron

T 212.243.2757 | 132 W. 23rd St., New York

“This is like a French Fig Newton,” enthused one taster, and he was right. Pascal Goupil’s expression of fig is an intense one, as is that of the apple, red wine with black pepper, and cranberry-strawberry macarons.

Mad Mac*

madmacnyc.com

More than three years ago Paris native Florian Bellanger defected from Fauchon and cofounded an online company in America specializing in madeleines and macarons. Bellanger’s cookies are crunchy on the outside and tender inside. Flavors include U.S.-bred originals (cinnamon, for instance); the white chocolate–and–sesame creation is particularly memorable.

La Maison du Chocolat

T 212.744.7117 | 1018 Madison Ave., New York lamaisonduchocolat.com

This global stalwart uses a luxuriant chocolate blend in a ganache that, impressively, never overwhelms its casing. It harmonizes with vanilla, raspberry, coffee, or caramel. The meringue itself has more gravitas than most.

Melt

T 44.20/ 77.27.5030 | 59 Ledbury Rd., London meltchocolates.com

The selection at this Notting Hill spot is heavily edited. There are only two gerbets to choose from; both are born of beautifully bitter chocolate. The difference is in the ganache: One is for purists, the other has a touch of black currant or, depending on the proprietor’s whim, raspberry.

Michel Patisserie*

T 703.608.0255 | michelpatisserie.com

Michel Giaon’s macarons, made in Arlington, Virginia, and sold online only, were a pleasant surprise. I was skeptical of passion fruit, but the milk-chocolate ganache acts as a nice foil. Fresh mint also worked; the cream curbed any herbaceous tendencies. The biscuits’ slight dryness makes them ideal for shipping.

Miette

T 415.837.0300 | Ferry Building Marketplace, Shop 10 miettecakes.com

This San Francisco institution started out as a stall at the farmers’ market in Berkeley and later moved to the Ferry Building. The founders like to use fresh local ingredients in specials that change seasonally. No dyes are used, so the cookies have an earthy palette and flecks of freshly ground almonds.

The Parlour at Sketch

T 44.87/07.77.4488 | 9 Conduit St. sketch.uk.com

French chef Pierre Gagnaire runs the show at this London eatery, so the macarons in his tearoom are la vraie chose. Most of the airy–if a bit fragile–morsels have a piece of something or other tucked in the center. The lemon macaron, for example, hides a smidgen of the preserved fruit.

Pâtisserie Sadaharu Aoki Paris

T 33.1/45.44.4890 | 35 Rue de Vaugirard sadaharuaoki.com

The macarons here are “traditional in recipe and modern in the Japanese touch,” according to chef Sadaharu Aoki. Among the 20-plus kinds offered are salted cherry flower, yuzu, chocolate, and newcomers like sansho (Japanese pepper).

Paulette*

T 310.275.0023 | 9466 Charleville Blvd., Beverly Hills paulettemacarons.com

More than two years ago owner Paulette Koumetz and French pastry chef Christophe Michalak opened the world’s first macaron “concept” store in Los Angeles. Most of the cookies have a white chocolate–based ganache, while the New Orleans praline relies on a paste made from grilled ground hazelnuts.

Payard*

T 212.759.1600 | 714 Madison Ave. payard.com

François Payard’s offerings here in New York are, as far as execution goes, the perfect bookend to those found at Ladurée. The classic flavors are flawless.

Pierre Hermé

T 33.1/43.54.4477 | 72 Rue Bonaparte, Paris pierreherme.com

When asked which of his macarons he adores most, Hermé responds, “It’s like asking me my favorite child.” The pastry master pairs white truffle with hazelnut, and vanilla with olive. One of our favorites is the caramel with fleur de sel.

Pistacia Vera*

T 614.220.9070 | 541 S. Third St. pistaciavera.com

Pastry chef and co-owner of this Columbus, Ohio, oasis, Spencer Budros prefers the Italian meringue for a surface that “takes nothing to bite through.” He advocates contrasting the barely-there effect with a lingering filling. The caramel-pecan and chocolate-bergamot flavors are knockouts.

Rush Patisserie*

T 214.749.4040 | 1201 Eldorado Ave. rushpatisserie.com

This three-year-old Dallas bakery makes consistently perfect coconut, Champagne, and raspberry cookies, along with other flavors that will fulfill your craving and give you a fair idea of how these snacks should be prepared.

Sucré*

T 504.520.8311 | 3025 Magazine St., New Orleans shopsucre.com

Tariq Hanna puts a New Orleans spin on his creations; take the Magnolia, which features Louisiana pecans and a hint of liqueur derived from the same nut.

Yauatcha

T 44.20/74.94.8888 | 15–17 Broadwick St., London

After sampling dim sum at this teahouse run by Alan Yau, move on to his revamped macarons. Don’t be daunted by the violet-fig option–the flower mellows the fruit’s sugar–and consider the lemon-cashew a palate cleanser.

A Macaron Moment

By Charlotte Druckman, Photographs by Xavier Young