Macarons are one of my family’s favorite indulgent treats. This meringue-based dessert features jam, ganache, or buttercream filling sandwiched between two pastry pieces. Macarons are like a fancy sandwich cookie, with each cookie portion featuring a distinct rounded top and a ruffled “foot.” This dessert may have originated in France during the Renaissance in the 15th or 16th centuries.
Aldi sells macarons year round in its freezer aisle, and they’re great. They always have an authentic texture and the flavors are good. The discount grocer also sells special macaron flavors during holidays such as Easter. In addition, I like the macarons at Aldi’s cousin, Trader Joe’s.
Most recently, Aldi is selling extra-large packages of macarons with Christmas-themed flavors. They include:
- Chocolate orange
- Chocolate hazelnut
- Gingerbread
- Peppermint
- Pistachio
- Vanilla
The regular macarons Aldi sells year round come in raspberry, vanilla, pistachio, salted caramel, lemon, and chocolate flavors, so you really are getting several unique flavors with the holiday box.
Specially Selected Holiday Macarons are an Aldi Find, so they’re only in stores for a short time. Each store receives one shipment, and after they sell out, they’re gone unless Aldi decides to bring them back next year. Aldi does not offer online ordering for products that are not currently in stock at your local store.
These are imported from France. (Other macarons I’ve purchased at Aldi are from Belgium.)
Specially Selected Holiday Macarons cost $7.99 for an 8.11-ounce box at the time of publication, which comes out to about 99 cents per ounce. The box contains 18 macarons, which comes out to about 44 cents per macaron.
Nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
If you’re looking out for allergens, these contain milk, eggs, almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, wheat, and soy. They may contain other tree nuts.
These do have some processed ingredients such as xanthan gum and carrageenan. You could make them from scratch and avoid processed ingredients, but macarons are fussy to make homemade, so I’ll stick with storebought. I tend to save macarons for special occasions anyway, so I don’t eat them all that often.
There are nine 2-piece servings, and one serving will net you 100 calories, 5 grams of total fat (6% DV), 1.5 grams of saturated fat (8% DV), 5 mg of cholesterol (2% DV), 5 mg of sodium (0% DV), 12 grams of total carbohydrates (4% DV), 1 gram of dietary fiber (4% DV), 11 grams of added sugars, and 2 grams of protein.
These are sold frozen, and the box instructs to defrost the macarons in the refrigerator in their packaging for four hours. After defrosting, keep in the refrigerator for five days. (Sometimes we can’t wait until these are fully thawed before we start eating them. Macarons are that good.)
From left to right: chocolate orange, chocolate hazelnut, gingerbread, peppermint, pistachio, and vanilla.
As soon as my family realized I’d brought these into the house, they were eager to try them. This particular assortment of flavors turned out to be, for me at least, a mixed bag. Peppermint was our least favorite flavor, with some people opting not to even try it. For those of us who did try it, it didn’t do it for us, and it didn’t seem like the right flavor for a macaron. Gingerbread was all right but not my favorite either. The chocolate hazelnut, chocolate orange, and pistachio are fine.
Vanilla was my favorite flavor, and that’s a flavor you can get in the macaron box Aldi sells year round. I prefer the flavors in the year-round Regular Buy Aldi macaron assortment.
Still, these aren’t bad macarons. Also, this package of macarons is larger than the others that Aldi or Trader Joe’s have sold, with 18 macarons instead of 12. That is an advantage if you’re feeding a lot of people this holiday season.
The Verdict:
Specially Selected Holiday Macarons come in chocolate orange, chocolate hazelnut, gingerbread, peppermint, pistachio, and vanilla flavors. They’re a fun change from the more standard macaron flavors Aldi sells year round, although these holiday flavors are not all our favorites. We especially didn’t care for the peppermint flavor.
