The Great Macaron Color and Flavor Guide

Is there anything more delightful than opening a box to find neat rows of colorful confections inside? The elegant French macaron is a blank canvas for flavor and color. Between the fillings and airy-yet-chewy shells, there are seemingly endless combinations. With so many flavors and colors of French macarons available—you may find it difficult to choose what to buy or carry. But don’t worry. You’ve got a golden ticket to our tour of the delectable world of macaron flavors and colors. In this article, we’ll cover:

The essential structure of macarons, and the subtleties of flavor development
What the most popular macaron flavors are, from classic to playful modern twists
Why artificial flavoring is totally unnecessary (and what we use instead)

By the end, you’ll know all about the different flavors and colors of French macarons.

ANATOMY OF A FRENCH MACARON

BASE: ALMOND MERINGUE SHELLS

No matter what flavor or color they may be, all French macarons share the same simple foundation: two airy, round cookies (called “shells”) with a smooth surface sitting on top of a ruffled bottom edge (called “feet”). The shell batter is simple: egg whites whipped with sugar into a fluffy meringue, then carefully combined with almond flour. No wheat flour is used, making authentic French macarons naturally gluten-free. Shells can be flavored with vanilla bean seeds or fine powders like freeze-dried fruit or ground espresso. Some of the almond flour may be swapped out for another nut flour to create a pistachio or hazelnut macaron. Most of today’s eye-popping macaron colors are from artificial food dyes, but Parisian macarons traditionally came in a range of subtle pastels.

FILLINGS: BUTTERCREAM, JAM, OR GANACHE

Most of the flavor differentiation in macarons comes from the fillings, which are usually either rich (e.g., chocolate ganache or salted caramel) or intense (e.g., sharp lemon curd or raspberry preserves) to cut through the soft sweetness of the meringue shell. Color is sometimes added to the fillings but not as much as to the macaron shells. Looking for wholesale macarons to sell in your bakery, cafe, or specialty store? Click here.

MACARON FLAVOR GUIDE

While the French macaron is endlessly adaptable and new flavors are created all the time, there is a core group of traditional flavors that macaron lovers expect to see. If you’re looking for wholesale macarons, these are especially popular and have a high sell-through rate.

CLASSIC MACARON FLAVORS

PISTACHIO: AN ELEGANT SOFT GREEN MACARON

This Parisian macaron is so iconic that it’s even become a popular candle scent. It traditionally gets its flavor from finely ground pistachios folded into the buttercream filling. A few pinches of green vegetable powder are added to enhance the sage green color. Pre-made pistachio paste may be used or artificial pistachio flavoring may be added to a ready-to-use compound (cheaper than pistachio nuts). We prefer the flavor of dry-roasted, freshly ground nuts for our pistachio macaron.

RASPBERRY: A PINK MACARON FILLED WITH TANGY PRESERVES

Raspberry macarons can be everything from a baby pastel pink to a bold magenta red. They are traditionally filled with raspberry jam. The acidic bite balances the sweetness of the cookie shells. Sometimes, there is just a dollop of jam in the center surrounded by a ring of raspberry buttercream. Freeze-dried raspberries are a fun way to add pink color and surprisingly bright flavor to your baked goods without compromising the texture. While most macarons are tinted pink with artificial dyes (gel or powder food coloring), red vegetables and berries processed into a fine powder can be added to buttercreams and macaron batters and give a lovely color.

VANILLA: A CLASSIC IVORY MACARON FLECKED WITH VANILLA SEEDS

Boring? Never. Vanilla vies with chocolate for the title of most popular macaron flavor. When made with the best-quality ingredients and speckled with real vanilla bean seeds, this macaron stands alone. Traditionally seeds are used in the shell and the Swiss meringue-based buttercream filling. Because there are so few flavor components, you can’t get away with using mediocre ingredients. We import our vanilla beans directly from Tahiti and extract every possible drop of flavor from the precious pods.

LEMON: A SUNNY YELLOW MACARON FILLED WITH TART LEMON CURD

Acidic citrus flavors are a perfect match for the meringue, making a refreshing contrast. Lemon macarons are usually filled with lemon curd, but sometimes buttercream or other frostings are used. Instead of lemon extract, the flavor for our macaron comes from homemade lemon curd filling, made of freshly squeezed lemon juice, cage-free eggs, cane sugar, and butter, thickened slowly over gentle heat.

SALTED CARAMEL: A CREAM-COLORED MACARON WITH SALTED CARAMEL FILLING

Wildly popular and verging on addictive, a kiss of sea salt knocks homemade caramel over the top. Salted caramel is an iconic French macaron flavor for a reason—chewy yet crunchy, sweet and salty. Both texture and flavor are complex and balanced. The shells range in color from blonde to medium brown (mostly due to coloring agents), and the filling varies from caramel Swiss meringue buttercream to a dark chocolate ganache. We use organic white chocolate to create a ganache with our from-scratch caramel.

CHOCOLATE: A VELVETY BROWN MACARON FILLED WITH RICH GANACHE

Chocolate macarons go with everything, and they also go quickly. It may go without saying, but they are usually brown (from cocoa powder used in the macaron shell batter) and sandwiched with chocolate ganache. We use organic 66% (semi-sweet) dark chocolate sweetened with cane sugar for our ganache and scatter bits of real cocoa nibs over our macaron shells for natural color contrast and crunch.

COFFEE: A TAN MACARON WITH A KICK OF COFFEE OR ESPRESSO

Parisians originally served macarons with tea (not coffee), but this modern invention feels like a classic, so we’re leaving it here. If coffee’s bitterness is too much for you, in macaron form the sweetness and richness of ground nuts tamp it down—leaving only the chocolate-esque roasted coffee flavor on your palette. Coffee macarons range in color from ivory to deep caramel. Bitter espresso powder is often folded into the meringue batter for both flavor and a speckled look on the baked shells. They are usually filled with a coffee buttercream, but sometimes with a white chocolate ganache or mocha buttercream. The problem with using espresso powder is that it creates a bitter flavor like dark roasted coffee beans. Instead, we use a brewed cup of coffee that’s been freeze-dried into a powder, then mix that into the buttercream filling, to produce a flavor that’s more true to a balanced cup of coffee.

COCONUT: A TROPICAL WHITE MACARON DUSTED WITH TOASTED COCONUT

Coconut is a refreshing chameleon that goes equally well with chocolate and fruit flavors like raspberry. And since it’s white, it can be woven into many different macaron color assortments and blend in seamlessly. Unlike many coconut macarons on the market which have artificial coconut flavor or are loaded with sugar, we use 100% natural coconut extract and generously sprinkle ours with shreds of freshly-toasted coconut.

HAZELNUT BRITTLE: A CRUNCHY, BEIGE MACARON WITH HAZELNUT FILLING AND PRALINE

One of our sweeter flavors, this macaron is filled with roasted hazelnut cream and coated with crunchy hazelnut praline. Unlike other macaron companies we don’t simply add hazelnut flavoring compounds to a base recipe made with almond flour. We use hazelnut flour in the shells and real praline paste made of caramelized hazelnuts in the filling for a true hazelnut macaron.

PLAYFUL OR MODERN FLAVORS

RED VELVET: THE CLASSIC AMERICAN LAYER CAKE IN A DEEP RED MACARON

Red velvet cake is usually a plush affair—a springy layer cake or cupcake doused in red food coloring and slathered in cream cheese frosting. Transformed into a French macaron, this standby from the American South is dressed up and reined in a bit. Unlike most red velvet, the red in our macaron shells is 100% natural, derived only from fruits and vegetables . But we keep to tradition by sticking with cream cheese for the sweet filling.

BIRTHDAY CAKE: SWEET, WHITE MACARONS WITH COLORFUL SPRINKLES

A sweet reminder of your childhood birthday, birthday cake macarons taste like a downy yellow cake with vanilla frosting. After some tinkering, we landed on a buttercream-based frosting for the perfect filling with hints of tea and honey in the background. A rainbow of confetti sprinkles decorate the shell.

COOKIES AND CREAM: A FRECKLED BLONDE MACARON WITH WHITE BUTTERCREAM

An iconic American ice cream flavor transformed into an elegant French macaron. It was tricky to achieve this flavor combination with all-natural ingredients, but through trial and error, we eventually got it right. A white buttercream filling with notes of brown sugar remind you of cookie dough, while the dark chocolate cookie crumbs coating the outside of the macaron shells conjure up the familiar cookie’s crunch.

TEA FLAVORS

GREEN TEA: A GRASS GREEN MACARON INFUSED WITH MATCHA TEA

Pastry chef Sadaharu Aoki is probably the best-known chef to blend Japanese flavors and ingredients into French pastries like macarons using classical French techniques. Now matcha tea is one of the most popular macaron flavors worldwide. The earthy bitterness of green tea lends itself beautifully to sweet applications. And because it’s a fine powder, matcha adds a natural pop of bright green color to buttercreams, custards, and ganaches without affecting the texture—ideal for macaron shells and filling. Our green tea macarons are a soft blush color dusted with green matcha powder and sandwiched around a green tea and white chocolate ganache filling.

EARL GREY: A STRIKING GRAY MACARON SCENTED WITH BERGAMOT BLACK TEA

Since the Parisian macaron was popularized at tea salons and originally served with tea, it’s only fitting that tea-inspired macaron flavors would be invented. Earl Grey is a strong English blend of black tea scented with bergamot oil extracted from the peel of the sour bergamot orange. We infuse our ganache filling with real tea leaves instead of chemical extracts. Organic tea leaves are also loosely scattered over our dove gray macaron shells for an elegant finish and aroma.

FLORAL FLAVORS

BLUEBERRY LAVENDER: A PURPLE MACARON SCENTED WITH LAVENDER

We take advantage of fresh organic blueberries for this filling to create a rich and true berry flavor that’s nothing like the typical ganaches made with artificial flavoring—it’s unforgettable. Lavender is another controversial flavor that could taste soapy or perfume-y in the wrong hands (read: mass-market macarons). So we use just a touch of lavender essential oil from lavender petals grown in Provence, France—the highest quality lavender in the world—to create a smoothing, fresh, and balanced aroma. The mauve meringue shells are then sandwiched around the homemade jam and sprinkled with organic lavender buds.

ROSE: A SOFT PINK MACARON WITH A HINT OF ROSEWATER

Rose macarons are ethereal and graceful—the ballet slipper of macarons when done well. As with any floral-flavored dessert, it’s easy to go too far with rose flavoring and end up with a macaron that tastes like a bar of your grandmother’s soap. Especially if the rose flavoring is highly processed or artificial. We use a light touch with certified-organic rose petal water to scent our macarons and finish them with a wisp of (naturally- derived) pink coloring sprayed across the top shell.

SEASONAL FLAVORS

PASSION FRUIT: A TROPICAL, PALE YELLOW MACARON

While certainly not widely available in 19th century Paris, the tropical brightness of the passion fruit is perfect for the French macaron. Pure passion fruit puree and cream fill the center of this delicate, airy sandwich. The tiny dots on our yellow macaron shells might look like sprinkles but they are poppy seeds—adding a natural contrast in color and crunch.

LEMON BERRY: A BRIGHT YELLOW MACARON FILLED WITH BERRY BUTTERCREAM

This fun flavor is only available in the summer when blueberries and raspberries are at their peak. We take the same shells for our popular lemon macaron (available year-round) and fill them with a homemade fruity buttercream of mixed berries, fresh lemon juice, and cane sugar. Then we swizzle a few pink stripes over the top—perfect with a pitcher of cold lemonade on a warm afternoon.

ORANGE TRUFFLE: A PALE ORANGE MACARON WITH CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE CENTER

This truffle-like macaron is another timeless holiday flavor pairing: intoxicating dark chocolate enhanced by a hint of orange liqueur. We use natural flavors, like food-grade orange essential oil, to avoid overpowering the taste buds. The combination can be far too strong when extracts or artificial flavorings are used. Our orange macaron shells are dusted with chocolate crumbs, great for a year-round treat

CHOCOMINT: A SPECKLED, LIGHT GREEN MACARON FILLED WITH RICH CHOCOLATE

Seafoam green dotted by bits of cocoa nibs with a deeply chocolate center—this is mint chocolate chip ice cream in the form of an elegant macaron. Bonus: It won’t melt on you! A classic holiday flavor combination that is a delightful surprise on the macaron menu, the richness of dark chocolate stands up to the tingly chill of peppermint. This may be the quintessential Christmas seasonal flavor!

PUMPKIN PIE: AN ORANGE MACARON WITH SPICED BUTTERCREAM

Pumpkin macarons can range in color from a chic pastel peach to neon orange. They are often filled with buttercream or cream cheese frosting with traditional pumpkin pie spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and a hint of clove. We use 100% pure pumpkin powder and warming fall spices in our pumpkin pie macaron (with only natural vegetable and fruit extract for color). This produces a pure flavor like you’d expect from an oven-fresh pie at Thanksgiving or Christmas!

MACARON COLOR GUIDE

Color is one of the most fun things about macarons. A tray or tower of macarons can be personalized with a kaleidoscope of colors for special events, brands, holidays, and weddings.

Red Macarons	Raspberry Red Velvet
Orange Macarons	Orange Macarons Pumpkin Orange Truffle
Yellow Macarons	Lemon Passion Fruit Lemon Berry
Purple Macarons	Blueberry Lavender
Cream	Vanilla Salted Caramel Coconut
Tan/Brown Macarons	Coffee Chocolate
Blue-Gray Macarons	Earl Grey
Green Macarons	Pistachio Chocomint Green Tea
Multi-Color Macarons	Birthday Cake

POPULAR HOLIDAY COLOR COMBOS

Macarons are just a few bites and come in a variety of colors, so it’s easy to create a custom color assortment for special events. Think favors in wedding colors, team colors, or logo/brand colors for corporate events. Here are some of the most popular macaron combinations for special occasions:

Baby Shower / Gender Reveal Parties — Ombre blue (Earl Grey) and pink (Raspberry and Rose)
Weddings — Any color theme!
Valentine’s Day — Raspberry, Chocolate, and Salted Caramel
Easter — Pistachio, Lemon, Raspberry
Mother’s Day — Rose, Raspberry, and Blueberry Lavender
St. Patrick’s Day — Pistachio and Green Tea
Cinco de Mayo — Pistachio, Raspberry, and Coconut
Pride — Rainbow of macarons, and Birthday Cake
July 4th — Blueberry Lavender, Red Velvet , and Vanilla
Halloween — Pumpkin Pie, Blueberry Lavender and Orange Truffle
Thanksgiving – Pumpkin Pie, Salted Caramel, Cookies & Cream
Christmas — Red Velvet and Chocomint

The essential structure of macarons, and the subtleties of flavor development
What the most popular macaron flavors are, from classic to playful modern twists
Why artificial flavoring is totally unnecessary (and what we use instead)

By the end, you’ll know all about the different flavors and colors of French macarons.

There is a growing body of evidence that artificial colors and dyes are harmful to human health, especially for kids, and lab-made artificial flavors just aren’t necessary. Organic food sales continue to grow as a percentage of overall retail food sales, as consumers demand more non-GMO and organic choices. We are proud to offer macaron lovers delicious treats that are made from 100% clean and natural ingredients. But since we eat with our eyes first, we wanted beautiful colors for our macarons as well—so we sought out colors derived only from fruit and vegetable extracts. See our premium, all-natural macarons.

MACARON FAQ

What are the most popular macaron flavors?

As with ice cream, it might surprise you that the most popular macaron flavors are the simplest—chocolate and vanilla. Many macaron bakeries report salted caramel and pistachio as their top sellers, often followed by lemon or raspberry. Our pre-pack assortment (Dégustation Pack) includes raspberry, pistachio, chocolate, salted caramel, hazelnut brittle, and lemon—a colorful starter set perfect for the macaron newbie.

What are the best fall macaron flavors?

Pumpkin spice is the most popular fall dessert flavor, and macarons are no exception. Anything involving caramel or apples is a close second. Salted caramel is a favorite anytime of year, but goes especially well with fall flavors like pumpkin, apple, and pear. The same goes for chocolate. Caramel apple macarons (sometimes the shells are piped into the shape of an apple!) are filled with a whimsical combination of salted caramel buttercream with a surprise dollop of apple pie filling. Other great ideas for fall macaron flavors are pear, fig, pecan, and chai tea.

What are the best spring macaron flavors?

Dainty and colorful, French macarons seem tailor-made for spring. Pistachio, raspberry, and lemon are a beautiful trio of Easter egg colors. Blueberry lavender and rose add color and a floral note to a spring dessert spread. Naturally free of wheat flour and gluten, macarons are an ideal dessert choice for Passover as well. Orange creamsicles come into season in spring and make a delightful spring macaron.

What are the best summer macaron flavors?

Summer is about celebration. Vacations, showers, graduations, and weddings fill the calendar, and macaron towers and favor boxes are popular at events—in part because they’re so easy to color coordinate. Lighter flavors like lemon berry, passion fruit, and coconut are refreshing in summer heat when chocolate or caramel can be too rich. For celebrations, a variety of dessert-inspired macarons like cookies & cream, birthday cake, and red velvet cake let everyone sample different flavors with less waste.

What are the best winter macaron flavors?

Winter immediately brings to mind chocolate and mint (which we’ve combined in our chocomint flavor), and chocolate of any kind. Chocolate and orange is a classic at Christmas, especially in the UK, so our orange truffle is a fine choice. A mix of red ( red velvet) and green (pistachio or chocomint) makes a festive holiday combo and can be alternated with winter white (coconut or vanilla) in a box, tray, or tower.

Duverger Macarons

TASTEBUDS ARE TRUSTWORTHY: DISCOVER DUVERGER’S MACARON FLAVORS

There are so many eye-catching macarons that disappoint the moment you take a bite—gluey, dry, or overly sweet—it’s very disappointing.. At Duverger, we pride ourselves on crafting authentic macarons by hand with time-honored French technique. It required years to construct a process that would allow us to scale our production while still maintaining handmade quality and using fresh ingredients. We believe it was well worth it. We’re confident our catalog of flavors will exceed your expectations. 11 flavors are USDA-certified organic– we’re the first and only organic wholesale macaron on the market. If you want a French macaron that tastes as good as it looks, it’s impossible to decide with your eyes alone. You must taste them for yourself.

Request your sample of the only certified organic macaron on the wholesale market.

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