Let there be rose – Ispahan throwdown in Paris

We were in Paris last fall and one of our must-do was to try Pierre Hermé’s famous “Ispahan”.  Although there are numerous PE outlets in Paris this delicate pastry is only sold at the St. Germaine store.  There’s no seating in the store but there’s a park conveniently across the street. 

“Ispahan” is a species of rose so it goes without saying that this “Ispahan” dessert is of rose flavour.  It’s about the size of the palm so it’s like holding a burger when eating it (so much about elegance).  We read a lot about this before so we knew exactly what it is made of: rose flavour macaron, raspberry buttercream, lychee and fresh raspberries.  However, actually tasting it is a totally different experience – the complex aroma was just breathe-taking.  The subtle rose flavour mixed very well with the fruitiness of raspberries.  And the hint of lychee was just the perfect highlight of the dessert.  No wonder people say Pierre Hermé is a genius.

Pierre Hermé started off at another renowned patisserie Ladurée, where he created this gem.  Apparently there’s no such thing as intellectual property rights in the dessert world and there are many places in Paris you can get Ispahan, including Ladurée of course.  So our “try Pierre Hermé Ispahan” mission became an Ispahan throwdown.

Our second stop was Ladurée.  Unlike PE you can get Isaphan at all locations (unless they’re sold out).  This one tasted much like PE’s actually.  But we still like PE’s more, probably due to first mover advantage so this Ladurée one didn’t give us the wow factor anymore.

The other place we tried was Angelina.  We were there for the hot chocolate and Mont Blanc but we spotted it while waiting in line to be seated.  They’re not called Ispahan but some French name we couldn’t pronounce so we called it Ispahan anyway.  Hope they were not offended.

This one was our least favourite.  As you can see there were sprinkles of licorice and it did have taste of licorice.  We are not big fans of licorice so this Ispahan to us was an acquired taste.

The conclusion?  When we get the chance, make sure you try it and let the roses blossom in your mouth!