McDonald’s in Paris Sells Macarons & They’re Better than Ladurée

Until I visited Paris in March 2023, I had never eaten a macaron in my life. I certainly never dreamed my first one would be from McDonald’s! Ladurée, the world’s most famous macaron and practically the symbol of Paris, sure, but not one from the McCafé.

And yet, here’s the story of just how much McMacarons (if you want to call them that) kicked Ladurée’s butt in my side-by-side taste test. *The results of this comparison are my own personal opinions. You may have a totally different experience! 

McDonald’s macarons: How this all began

Long before I’d ever visited Paris (or France in general), I was diagnosed with a life-threatening allergy to almonds (the main ingredient in macarons). Just, out of the blue. I had eaten almonds my entire life up until then, but here I was having to carry an Epipen everywhere I went. And so it goes.

Fast forward twelve years to February 2023 when I was getting my regular allergy testing done ahead of my trip to Morocco. (Where I knew I was going to have a real issue since almonds are in everything you eat, drink, and breathe there.) Shockingly, my skin test revealed no allergy to almonds whatsoever.

Thinking surely that can’t be right, they sent me for blood testing. Shockingly, my blood tests revealed no almond allergy whatsoever! After that came the “Oral Food Challenge” where you actually eat the food you’re allergic to, under supervision, starting with minuscule amounts and working your way up.

Don’t confuse French macarons with macaroons. Macaroons (extra “o”) are drop cookies made with shredded coconut. They look different; taste different, and are pronounced differently. Not the same thing.

My first almonds in 12 years

I started with, I kid you not, 1/8 of an almond and waited half an hour. Then I ate another 1/8 and waited. Then again, and again, and again. A few harrowing hours later, I had eaten 8 whole almonds. EIGHT. WHOLE. ALMONDS. After spending more than a decade terrified to accidentally eat one.

Mind you, when I last had my testing done in 2019, I was still very allergic. And just like that I wasn’t, in much the same way I became deathly allergic to them out of nowhere.

I would finally taste a macaron

Armed with this new freedom, I vowed that on my upcoming trip to Paris I would finally try some of those delicious colorful cookies everyone’s been raving about all this time. By the time I visited Paris in March 2023, I had already been to France at least 5 times. And I have never once had a macaron.

I polled my Instagram followers about where I should get macarons in Paris / where has the best ones. For obvious reasons, Ladurée came up a lot, mostly since it’s the most well-known. Obviously, I was going to get some from here, the most iconic macaron shop in Paris.

But then I was told that McDonald’s in Paris sells macarons, mostly as a joke, from an Instagram friend who wasn’t at all aware of my love of fast food. Immediately I knew what I had to do. Yeah yeah Ladurée is famous… pretty green box… bla bla. But McMacarons? Hilarious. (It would indeed be hilarious. Read on.)

Getting McDonald’s Macarons in Paris

I ended up with a 24-hour layover in Paris on the way home from Morocco, and I literally dedicated a significant portion of that time to taste testing macarons. I regret nothing. (I’d already been to Paris multiple times and done all the other, less ridiculous things.)

After arriving and checking into my hotel (the Hotel le Compostelle, if you’re interested), I headed out to visit a few WWII museums and then over to a McDonald’s restaurant for lunch. I ordered myself a Royal Cheese extra value meal and a box of six macarons for dessert, which I would eat next to the Eiffel Tower because I’m McFancy.

And… I just can’t. Instead of the fancy macaron sleeve (which they obviously had), they put them in a hamburger box. A hamburger box! This was actually the most McDonald’s way my first macaron experience could have gone. And for that, I’m grateful.

After lunch and a little more sightseeing, I went back to my hotel room to dedicate the rest of my night to this massively important taste test between my McDonald’s macarons and the sleeve of Ladurée macarons I’d picked up earlier. Here’s how that went.

Comparing McDonald’s macarons Vs. Ladurée

For my first ever macaron experience, I compared Paris’s most iconic brand of macarons (Ladurée) with what was surely Paris’s most ironic brand of macarons (McDonald’s). Here’s how they stacked up.

Note: This was not a blind taste test since I was doing this alone in my hotel room and that would have taken a level of preparation I’m just not into.

McDonald’s macarons Vs. Ladurée: Flavors

I’ll start with the first decision I had to make—which flavors to get. Actually, I really only had to make a “decision” at one of them.

Ladurée macaron flavors

Ladurée sells tons of flavors of macarons. As of the publishing of this post they have 15 different flavor options listed on their website. (But when I bought mine at the store, there were many more, an overwhelming number of flavors actually.) Some of the flavors I had two months ago aren’t even options anymore, so I gather that they rotate flavors quite often.

Ladurée macarons come in “regular” flavors like chocolate, vanilla, caramel, raspberry, coffee, etc. But also in what I’ll call “irregular” flavors like rose, passion fruit, strawberry candy, Christmas brioche, and whatever Marie-Antoinette Tea is (it’s bright blue). Regardless of which you choose, it was nice having a huge array of flavors to choose from.

Also read: Day Trip to Giverny: How to Easily Tour Monet’s House and Gardens

I was more than a little disappointed with the lack of flavor of options for McDonald’s macarons, but whatever. Like Ladurée, they must change flavors every so often. (But cranberry? Gross. Why? I’m pretty sure they don’t even have cranberries in France.)

McDonald’s macarons Vs. Ladurée: Packaging & presentation

This is definitely the funniest aspect of this macaron comparison and the one where I don’t think the gap could get any wider.

Ladurée macarons packaging & presentation

After letting the Ladurée sales associate know I was going to buy macarons, she asked me to choose which color box I wanted—pink or green. I chose green. But just the fact that she asked this entirely inconsequential question stunned me. That definitely set the stage for how extra this whole experience was going to be.

However, it’s worth noting that the sales associate was not covered in grease stains nor was she screaming at her coworkers in the back during our interaction. She spoke only in polite sugary tones. Ladurée certainly wins for customer service. I would visit Ladurée again just for this.

As I chose my six not-at-all-adventurous macaron flavors, each one was gently placed into the tissue-lined box. And I mean gently. As I stood there, equal parts “This is ridiculous” and “Be cool; try to act like you belong here.”

Six macarons later, she presented the open box to me to, I kid you not, confirm that the color arrangement was to my liking. I think my response was, “Uhh… yeah?”

She wrapped the macarons in tissue paper and put a Ladurée sticker on it to keep it sealed; put the lid on the fancy box; put the box in a fancy bag; threw in a booklet that contains a flavor guide, the “story of the Ladurée macaron,” and various other informations; and then demanded my first born child I paid.

McDonalds macarons packaging & presentation

Umm, it was McDonalds. It went exactly how you thought it would go. This was during Paris’s sanitation strikes so I was greeted with a pile of garbage outside the entrance nearly my own height. Inside, it was crowded, dirty, noisy, with just a general sense of cluster-f*ckery.

I placed my order on the giant digital menu screen and was happy to see they did indeed sell macarons! I saw in the display case that they also came in a macaron sleeve and was mildly impressed by McDonald’s for a whole 3 seconds. They were not presented to me to approve the color arrangement.

Remembering that I speak only English, I had to frantically look up what my order number was in French so I would know when mine was shouted out. The whole thing was chaos. I then walked the couple of blocks over to the Eiffel Tower to eat my McLunch.

It was only after I opened my bag that I realized they put my McDonald’s macarons, not in a macaron sleeve, but in a hamburger box! I sat on that Parisian park bench and cackled to myself, making a note to never travel solo again so that someone would always be there to witness things like this.

McDonald’s macarons Vs. Ladurée: Appearance

This is where things started to get interesting. Turns out, it isn’t all about packaging and *gasp* color arrangement.

Both McDonald’s macarons and Ladurée’s looked like they were supposed to—like macarons—so no surprises there. The major thing to note here is that the Ladurée macarons were significantly thinner the McDonald’s macarons! McDonald’s macarons were consistently bigger. (And, while we’re at it, I loved that they looked like tiny hamburgers.)

McDonald’s macarons Vs. Ladurée: Texture

The texture of McDonald’s macarons versus that of Ladurée’s was pretty different as well, and noticeable as soon as you pick them up.

The Ladurée macarons seemed “lighter” and more delicate than the McDonald’s ones. The dainty little things collapsed between my fingers from just trying to pick them up. The McDonald’s macarons were not so easily crushed.

McDonald’s macarons Vs. Ladurée: Nutrition

I would hope that this wouldn’t really matter to you since you’re eating macarons in the first place, but in case it does, here’s how McDonald’s macarons compare with those from Ladurée from a nutritional standpoint.

McDonald’s macarons nutrition facts

Do note that on the McDonald’s website they list this nutritional info in terms of an entire box of six macarons. (You have to divide the amounts by 6 to get the per-cookie ratio.)

Ladurée macaron nutrition facts

On the contrary, Ladurée makes their nutrition facts pretty hard to sniff out. I couldn’t find a dedicated page for this information, but you can find it if you click on (some of) the gift box options. (Like this one.) Under the photo, click on “Ingredients” for a nutritional breakdown.

However, it’s worth noting that they list their nutrition facts in terms of 100g of macaron, but the box of 8 is actually 114 grams, so each of those measurements above is actually higher.

McDonald’s macarons Vs. Ladurée: Taste

Here we are at the most important and most shocking portion of the McDonald’s macarons Vs. Ladurée review comparison. And McDonald’s won it, hands down.

In all six cases, the I felt the flavor of the Ladurée macarons was overwhelming, just way too much. Most of them I couldn’t even finish because they were downright gross.

And in all three cases, I thought the McDonald’s macarons were delicious and flavored the appropriate amount. Even the cranberry was good! (France clearly doesn’t know what a cranberry is.)

Flavor breakdown

I’d really hoped to be able to get the same flavors at both places for a more accurate comparison, but I guess two is better than none. Regardless, here’s my super technical flavor analysis, according to the Notes app on my phone:

Lemon/Citron (Both): I found Ladurée’s lemon to be aggressive and bitter; McDonald’s was a lighter, more tolerable lemon flavor. McDonald’s lemon macaron was my overall favorite. McD’s wins.

Cranberry (McDonald’s): Actually super delicious! I thought it would be weird (I am not a fan of cranberries in the least bit), but it actually tasted more like raspberry and therefore was very good. (I told you they don’t know what cranberries are.)

Chocolate brownie (McDonald’s): Tasted and felt like biting into a real brownie (given its chewy texture). The flavor was just right.

Hazelnut (Ladurée): I felt there was way too much flavor, overpowering. Just no. (And I love hazelnut things!)

Pistachio (Ladurée): I didn’t think this one was terrible, but I just didn’t like it. (And I love pistachio things!)

For both Ladurée salted caramel and chocolate I have: “Gross.”

Raspberry (Ladurée): This was the only one I found tolerable! But still not as much as McDonald’s “cranberry.”

McDonald’s macarons Vs. Ladurée Scoreboard:
Ladurée: 16 (1 point for tolerable raspberry)
McDonald’s: 1000

McDonald’s macarons Vs. Ladurée: Cost

I really don’t think I need to tell you who won in this category. I feel like the shiny green box with branded tissue wrapping and sticker + ribbon-laced bag speaks for itself, no?

McDonald’s macarons Vs. Ladurée: The winner

I think you can tell from my highly official scoreboard that McDonald’s macarons are the clear winner here. Even though they mostly split the categories, the categories weren’t weighted equally. Simply put, when I return to Paris, it will be McDonald’s macarons I buy again, not Ladurée.

Obviously, I care more about how the macarons taste than what kind of packaging they come in. Yeah, the fancy presentation at Ladurée is, shall we say, un petit plaisir, but I didn’t need all that. The store and staff were pleasant experiences though. Confirming that the color arrangement was satisfactory was just plain uncomfortable. (Like do people ever say “No, please put the blue one next to the green one.”???)

And yeah, maybe it would’ve been nice if my McDonald’s macarons weren’t tossed into a burger box with grease stains, but at least they didn’t taste “gross” or cost 4x as much as they did.

When the better tasting macarons actually cost the least, ba da ba ba ba, I’m loving it.

Have you ever had McDonald’s macarons?
Let me know about your experience in the comments!

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