What makes a good macaron?

Okay, well I am not saying mine are perfect, but it really really irks me when there are stores out there selling bad macarons. I would say I'm a macaron snob...lol. But some shops just give macarons a bad name! Then people who eat them say "I hate macarons" but they haven't had a true good one. One shop that I've been to that makes really good macarons is Chantal Guillon in San Francisco.

(courtesy of foodspotting.com)

This one is a pumpkin spice macaron, and the insides are nice and moist, how it should be. They also use the Italian meringue method, which produces a softer, fluffier cookie. They also use ganache, so the filling doesn't go spewing all over the place when you bite into it.

On the other hand, there are some "dessert shops" that sell atrocious looking macarons (no offense to whoever likes them) and they are dry, crumbly, and not moist. A good macaron should NEVER crumble into bits as soon as you bite into it. Nobody likes that. But obviously people who haven't had a good macaron wouldn't know, so they just "hate" macarons. Here's some examples.

These ones are from a bakery in LA that I don't know the name of. My brother brought them home after he came back from the trip. As you can see, the insides are quite hollow, and the filling is spewing out of the shell because I bit into it. The shell has cracked into pieces, and the what is left of the insides is dry and unappealing. To top if off, it was way too sweet for my liking. I'm not saying this because I make macarons. I actually enjoy eating other place's macarons to see what I can do to improve mine. But these are not like mine at all...AND they were $2 each. Ridiculous.

These macarons are from a local bakery in Alameda called Feel Good Bakery. But at $2 each, how can this be worth it?! The shell is so friggen lumpy. All they have to do is sift, seriously. I see an air pocket, and the filling is coming out of the shell. These were pretty dry, pretty sweet, and ugh. I wish I was selling macarons in the area, because these do not take the cake. 

Another shop that I am irked with is Cako in San Francisco. They just recently started making macarons, and I've heard nothing but bad things about them. People say they're dry, hard, and not good. So annoying how people think they can try to make something without really researching on it and sell it just to make money. They think "Oh, it's popular nowadays so let's look up a recipe online and sell that". My friend who hasn't tried macarons before just bought some from there and now she says "I hate macarons. I'd rather have ice cream". But those aren't the best she could've had :( 

It just looks misshapen, lumpy, and gross. Sorry for being a snob but if you're charging $2 each for these, you should be doing better than that...

Now compare mine...whose would you pay $2 for?! And I don't even charge $2. This really makes me want to start my own business for real.