The French Macaron Critic: Macarons in St. Maarten- Worth the search?

During a recent trip to St. Maarten, I was staying on the Dutch side of the island. I had read a review before heading there indicating that the French side, St. Martin, had the absolute best French macarons, second to only Paris! You can imagine my absolute delight upon hearing this. I was determined to stop in French bakeries along my travels on the French side. However, with each hop out the car and each march up to the counter I was told, "We don't have them today." WHAT?? Every single bakery I stopped in had picture of French macarons drawing me to them, but none for sale. A few croissants and almond cookies later I had just about completely given up. There are no French macarons in St. Martin in August.

Back on the Dutch side, only blocks from our resort, there was this modern looking bakery called The Taste Factory. After passing it for days, I realized that its logo was in the shape of an Eiffel tower. I was not optimistic but figured I would try one last bakery for the delectable treasures before leaving the island. Voila! At last I had found them!

These were unlike any I had seen before; they were enormous! Stored in the refrigerator, they were pretty cold. They each had a very generous amount of filling and appeared to be malted. The cookie top was not smooth, like the macarons I have grown used to seeing. But after the long, hard search, I knew I had to try them. The flavors I tried were vanilla, chocolate and lemon. Overall the flavors were very good and satisfying.

Vanilla had a soft shell. Inside it was airy and a bit chewy. The generous filled was a butter cream vanilla filling.

Chocolate was also chewy, however it was also crunchy. The filling was dense and very chocolaty. While eating it, it felt like a crunchy cookie.

Lemon had crunchy thick shell with a moist inside that I found to be delicious. The lemon ganache was absolutely refreshing and a perfect way to end my sampling.

In the end, I never did get to try the French side's macarons, but the Dutch side had macarons that were worth trying for the experience. It was nice to see so much filling while not being overly sweet. If I ever return to St. Martin, I will continue my search, but at least I know there is at least one place I can find these treats!