This year, Häagen-Dazs celebrates the French Open Tennis Tournament, commonly known as the Roland Garros Tournament (after the name of the stadium where the event takes place). They celebrate by launching a limited edition Rolland Garros macaron ice cream sandwiches to celebrate the Grand Slam event played annually in France in May and June.
Rolland Garros limited macarons come in five flavors packaged like small tennis balls inside a plastic box. Flavors include Banoffee, pralines & cream, vanilla, macadamia nut brittle and lemon sorbet. The box of 5 retails at €10 and is sold exclusively at Häagen-Dazs’ flagship store on the Champs-Élysées from May 15 to June 15. Last week, while in Paris, a huge advertisement featuring the new Häagen-Dazs' Special Edition Roland Garros Ice Cream macarons enticed me to go try it. Why not, I was there and always on the lookout to try something new to share with you…
Inside the shop is an interesting setup inspired by a tennis court. The brown sand, a long glass tunnel box and ice cream macarons that look like small tennis balls. The boxes of five tennis balls are only sold at the counter to go...
Macaron is a sweet meringue-based confection made with eggs, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder or ground almond, and food colorings. The macaron is commonly filled with ganache, buttercream or jam filling sandwiched between two biscuits. The name is derived from the Italian word macarone, maccarone or maccherone, the Italian meringue. The confection is characterized by smooth, squared top, ruffled circumference, and flat base. It is mildly moist and easily melts in the mouth.
Side note: The macaroon is often mistaken as the macaron; many have adopted the French spelling of macaron to distinguish the two items in the English language. However, this has caused confusion over the correct spelling. Some recipes exclude the use of macaroon to refer to this French confection while others think that they are synonymous.
Let’s talk about the five flavours in each box:
- Macaron glace Banoffee: Macaron fourre de creme glacee a la banane avec sauce au caramel et morceaux de biscuit
- Macaron glace Lemon Sorbet: Macaron fourre de sorbet citron
- Macaron glace Macademia Nut Brittle: Macaron fourre de creme glacee a la vanille avec confiseries aux noix de macadamia
- Macaron glace Vanile: Macaron fourre de creme glacee vanille
- Macaron glace Pralines & Cream: Macaron fourre de creme glacee a la vanille avec sauce au caramel et noix de pecan caramelisees
My personal opinion:
- These tiny spheres are smaller than a bite, each costing €2. A bit expensive for what you get
- They are too sweet and taste pure Pate d'Amande which covers the ice cream flavor
- The pieces are heavy and too milky
- They explode into little tiny bites in the mouth. You get an unpleasant feeling of dryness while eating them, as if they were not too fresh
I wasn't impressed. It's more of a marketing campaign than a fine piece of delicacy. If you want to say: “I tried them”, hurry up you still have two days before the promotion ends.
