Flavoring Macarons with Loose-Leaf Tea

If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you probably know that I also own a newly-opened macaron shop (Poeme Macarons!), an endeavor I’ve put a potent dose of effort and passion into for quite a while now. It’s been wonderful sharing my creations with everyone, and making people’s day just a little bit sweeter 🙂

Recently, one of my favorite tea shops, Happy Lucky’s Teahouse, (they’re amazing, based in Fort Collins, CO, and ship online too!) has decided to carry my macarons; it has, in turn, been a fun and fulfilling creative process experimenting with all their delicious teas for my macaron flavors. This post today, then, isn’t exactly a recipe post, but rather a little insight on how I’ve been making some delectable and unique tea-flavored macarons.

And as a sidenote, If you’ve ever made macarons before or are planning on making them at some point, DEFINITELY use tea as an ingredient or flavor inspiration at one point–the floral, herbal, fruity, earthy, and even smoky notes of tea pair beautifully with a delicate, creamy macaron. Tea also is adept at balancing any saccharine notes in a macaron; plus, it’s incredibly easy to flavor shells with it (which you should absolutely do!).

My signature flavor at Poeme is an Earl Grey and Peach macaron, so it’s probably not a huge surprise why I’m so into tea flavors! This past week, however, I’ve expanded beyond the (delicious) Earl Grey confines that most macarons stay in, thanks to all the imaginative minds at Happy Lucky’s (they have house-made blends that are both creative and delectable).

I decided to start with two very different yet bold flavors–Blackberry Sage tea (a black tea base with a delightful aroma of dried blackberries and earthy sage), and an Aztec Chocolate tea (a spicy, fruity, and incredibly chocolatey flavor…I was surprised how much tea can taste like chocolate! This one has an alluring aroma as well…perfect for a macaron).

For the Blackberry Sage tea, I decided to make a Blackberry Sage macaron that highlighted the balanced, fruity notes in the tea. I added a generous amount of the tea (ground up) into my shells. These shells smell AMAZING while baking–the tea is so fragrant!

I made two fillings (as I often do), an inner (more intense) center filling and an outer, fluffier buttercream. The center filling was a Blackberry jelly (I strain the seeds from the berries to make a jelly) infused with blackberry sage tea. To do this, I cook down fresh blackberry puree (seeds strained) with sugar, lemon juice, and ground up tea.

For the buttercream, I used a fluffy Swiss Meringue Buttercream base, flavored with fresh blackberry puree and blackberry sage tea (ground up very finely). When adding fresh fruit puree to buttercream, just make sure to add it slowly, so it doesn’t break the buttercream’s emulsion.

The final result in a refreshing, creamy, and earthy flavor that’s become a new favorite of mine! I only use the sage flavor from the tea (I don’t add any extra fresh or dried sage), so the flavor is subtle and not overpowering or too savory. I highly recommend playing around with fruit/herb/tea combos for macarons–the naturally sweet flavor of a macaron fits perfectly with more robust, tangy, and/or savory flavors.

Now the second macaron flavor I came up with was an Aztec Chocolate Raspberry macaron–I thought that raspberry would be the ideal vehicle for translating the fruity, bright notes of this tea to a macaron. I didn’t want to do anything overly-chocolatey in the filling, like a rich chocolate ganache, as I was worried it would overpower the tea and reduce it to a one-note bite (and trust me…this tea is has a lot of various notes you want to taste!).

I again added the tea (ground up) to the shells, along with a small amount of cocoa powder for added color and scent. Baking these shells was almost a transcendent experience for all my smell-o-philes out there…like the peach cobbler, the Aztec Chocolate tea permeated through the entire room with it’s rich chocolate and chili aroma. And don’t even get me started on the taste–I’m actually thinking this might be one of my favorite shell flavors EVER…it’s just so incredibly aromatic and bold, cutting through the sweet macaron shell impeccably well.

For the filling, I also used two fillings (I’m getting predictable at this point…but I swear, using just one filling does no justice to the flavor capabilities of a macaron, most of the time). In the center, I made a homemade raspberry-tea compote that turned out so divine that it seriously made me consider going into the jam business as well.

Around the dollop of jam, I piped an airy raspberry-chocolate-tea buttercream, which I flavored with the tea (of course), some shaved dark chocolate (as I didn’t want the flavor to be overly domineering), and raspberry puree. When I fed this to my boyfriend (he has a buttercream addiction…I think it might be a problem), he proclaimed it his favorite buttercream. Like an absolute (cute) animal, he just piped the leftovers into his mouth…this filling is apparently almost so good you don’t even need the macarons…almost 🙂

The completed macaron was a delicious blend of spicy berries and luscious chocolate, and probably one of my favorite creations to this point. Definitely try experimenting with this tea or similar flavor profiles–the results are magical!

Until next time, happy baking everyone! And make sure to check out Happy Lucky’s Teahouse, either in person if you’re in Northern Colorado or through their online shop; I’m in love with their business (and nobody told me to say that, for the record…they’re just that good!).

Thanks for reading 🙂