With a beautiful, clean white fit-out looking like something straight out of a luxury high street, By Josephine is not your usual bohemian Sydney Road cafe. It is a small cafe that serves coffee, a variety of Kusmi teas from France, a selection of French cakes and pastries, and a small selection of sandwiches. The highlight, however, is the macarons.
Josephine, the proprietor, arrived in Australia from France in 2009 and was disappointed in the quality of the macarons being sold in Melbourne. She started making her own macarons and was soon supplying some of the top restaurants in Melbourne.
I am a big macaron fan, and was lucky enough, when living in London, to travel down to Paris several times and sample a variety of the best macarons on offer. In London, I often visited the Pierre Herme boutique in Knightsbridge, and loved sampling his latest creations. Since moving back to Australia I, like Josephine, have struggled to find macarons that come close to the best that I’ve tried.
While I would never expect anyone in the world to match the brilliance of Pierre Herme, I’d at least expect something at the level of, say Laduree, to be quite attainable.
I am happy to report that the macarons at By Joesphine are excellent. A rich, tasty and dense ganache, sandwiched by a very light “cookie” portion that melts in your mouth with a beautifully thin, crispy (but not crunchy) shell.
I tried, in order from left to right:
- Passionfruit Chocolate
- Salted Caramel
- Raspberry Chocolate
- Orange Blossom
- Earl Grey
- Chocolate
They were all brilliant, but the stand-out for me was the Raspberry Chocolate. The Chocolate was allowed to provide the sweetness, with the raspberries used to provide the perfect burst of additional flavour required to take it to the next level.
A range of Kusmi teas, preserves and a few other products on sale to take away.
It’s great to have somewhere that feels like it has come straight out of France (as opposed to feeling like it’s trying too hard to be French) in this part of Melbourne. I can’t wait to go back to By Josephine and try some more of Josephine’s amazing creations. Tres bien!
By Josephine
365 Sydney Road
Brunswick
Victoria 3056
Australia
Telephone: 0420 276 361
Fax: n/a
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://macaronsbyjosephine.com.au/
Open
Tue – Sun: 9:00am to 5:00pm
