Monday, September 26, 2022

Summer Flavors, Fall Weather


Watermelon & Peach Macarons

It's officially fall, so today's post is a summer-specific product. (Being late is very on-brand for me.) I never found the time to write it up, so I'm doing it now, before I get knee-deep into my beloved Fall/Halloween nonsense that will ultimately roll over into November and possibly December. (Again, very on-brand.)  

If you're not following, What's Good at Trader Joe's, you're missing out. Not only are their captions on social media hilarious and give me life, but if you shop at Trader Joe's, they go through practically every item they have to offer and let you know which ones are worth checking out. They try everything, so you don't have to! (New slogan?) Sometimes, even when they say something might not be that great, it can still pique your interest. Which was the case with these macarons. 

While the What's Good at Trader Joe's rating for these was fairly low, I had a lot of fun with the Trader Joe's watermelon jerky, and watermelon spread. None of these products are things I NEED or really loved, but they were certainly unique, yummy enough, and a lot of fun. So, how could I NOT try it in macaron-form to complete my weird watermelon Trader Joe's trifecta

 

Trader Joe's has come a long way from their older, semi-vintage-looking designs. Before every box looked like it walked out of the past, and not always in the best ways. This looks colorful, bright, and dare I say, trendy? They make one of the macarons look like a little bitten peach, and the other has seed-shaped flair-lines. It's super cute, so cute that I might have to keep it. 

Inside are frozen macarons, half of the box are watermelon, and half the box are peach. I feel like I have probably seen a peach-flavored macaron before, but watermelon? That's definitely unique. 

In the What's Good at Trader Joe's post, they mentioned that they didn't think the thaw time listed on the box was accurate, so I ignored it entirely and thawed them my way. I took the box from the freezer, and put it in the fridge while I was at work, by the time I got home I took them out of the fridge and put them on the counter to warm up while I cooked dinner. Come dessert time they were room-temp and in the end I found the cookie-texture was pretty great. Not on par with freshly baked macarons, but slightly better than other frozen brands I've tried. So definitely ignore the box and thaw as you see fit.  


Watermelon Macaron: Green shells with a pink filling. The shells are light and crispy, with a chewy interior. From what I can tell, the shells themselves are normal, almond-y, macarons, just dyed different colors. All the flavoring comes from the filling. For this one, the flavoring is so distinct you recognize it right away. It tastes a lot like that watermelon spread I got from Trader Joe's last time, mixed with Trolli watermelon slices, sans sour sanding sugar. A mixture of realistic, and artificial. It's a very interesting item. Almost like a gummy candy, but in macaron-form. Nothing I would ever think to ask for, but you know what? It's definitely interesting. The first one I wasn't so sure about, but by the third the watermelon flavoring grew on me. I like it, but I don't love it. But I would definitely eat it again, so there's that. 


Peach Macaron: Two-toned shells, one dusty pink, the other a peachy-orange, with a pale pink-ish filling. Interestingly enough, the fillings are practically the same color, but they definitely taste different. 

Again the shells doesn't seem to be flavored at all, all the peachiness is in the filling. This one took a few chews before it really shone through the almond cookie portions, but once it did, it was bright, jammy, and fruity. Not unlike a peach-based jam, although I find myself comparing this to apricot jam more-so in my head. It's very summery and fresh. I really liked it as a companion to the watermelon too. Although I definitely wouldn't want to actually combine them. It actually reminds me a bit of Italian Rainbow cookies. With their almond and apricot flavors. Are there rainbow cookie macarons? (I googled it and it WAS a thing back in 2020.)  


The peach flavor is probably the more plateable of the two, meaning this flavor would appeal to a wider audience than the watermelon, but both are really interesting and fairly well executed. Especially for something that came from the freezer aisle. I don't think I would ever buy a full box of only watermelon, but I might buy a full box of only peach, so I  guess that makes it my favorite by default.
 
Even though neither of these flavors completely won me over, I hope to see it return next year because I would definitely buy it again to share with friends. Did you give this a try? What's a macaron flavor that doesn't exist, but should? Let me know in the comments!  


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