More happy calories

It's probably a good thing I joined a gym in the summer, even though I only recently starting going. There are too many amazing ways to put on pounds, and too few ways to drop them. It was uncomfortably convenient that last week's battle with my immune system left some casualties in the poundage arena, but I'm hoping there's no sequel for the rest of the winter. I love long walks in the City, but that's curtailed severely once the temperature drops below freezing. And now I really don't have to walk far to reach most of my tea time favorites.

Already Crumbs opened up near my office building, and Magnolia is threatening to any month now. Then there's Financier, which, as mentioned last time, has some inexcusably awesome pastries. I was already excited about their macarons, and now I have another, more strange source. Flipping Starbucks!

I walked past one of their ubiquitous branches during lunch, and the corner of my eye caught the colorful pictures of macarons on a box in one of their cases. I know: how on earth does a nearly blind woman who was preoccupied with thoughts of visiting a favorite pen store catch such a detail in her periphery? I'm not sure; I think I'm just drawn to tea and items related to tea drinking. It's teadar, to attempt to coin another corny tea word. Well, instantly I was in there shelling out $10 for a dozen macarons. At least my wallet's getting thinner!

I can say that so far I'm not disappointed. I've had the pistachio, which tasted almost like a nutty matcha scone, and the lemon, which is admittedly hard to mess up. The texture was done right, and it went well with Kusmi tea's 'Bouquet de Fleurs'. I cannot guarantee that these are necessarily better than Macaron Cafe's, but I am certainly saved the hike. Not sure that's a good thing, but it gave me a little bit of happiness on a Monday.

By the way, on the box it says the macarons are made in France by Chateau Blanc. Not super fresh, then, but not bad for Starbucks.