Land and Monkeys Boulangerie Taste Comparison

Last year, just before the pandemic started, I wrote about a newly opened boulangerie on Blvd. Beaumarchais, Land and Monkeys, which was the first all plant based/vegan bakery in Paris. (CLICK HERE to read). Even though we aren’t vegan, Vincent frequently buys bread and other products from Land and Monkeys and the quality is excellent. 

Land and Monkeys recently opened a branch across the street from our apartment and Vincent couldn’t be happier. He’s there almost every day and brings home goodies such as black bread, brownies, fruit tarts, and quiches.  

I thought it would be a fun idea to do a taste comparison between some of Land and Monkeys baked goods with other boulangeries in terms of the differences in ingredients, as the L&M products have no butter or animal products in them. I asked my friends Linda Spalla and Bernard Verdier to join me in the taste test. Linda and Bernie are from Huntsville, Alabama and spend three months in Paris, living in an apartment on rue Saint Paul just around the corner from me. Linda writes an almost daily blog while she’s here about hers and Bernie’s activities and adventures. Linda will be writing about our taste comparison on here blog too today. 

We did two separate tastings as we didn’t want to have all of those carbs at once. We agreed that we wanted to compare the staple French breads and pastries and on our first outing we chose a croissant and pain au chocolat from Land and Monkeys and then went across the street to Paul and bought the same thing. 

Linda and I laid out our goodies on the table while Bernie fetched some coffee. 

Just appearance wise, the croissant from Land and Monkeys was anemic looking compared with the well done, browned pastry layers of the Paul croissant. We agreed that even though the Paul croissant was a bit greasy, it was much flakier and buttery than the Land and Monkeys one, which tasted like and had the texture of a roll. We also felt the same way about the pain au chocolat, that the one from Paul was better, and had an all-around superior taste and texture. 

A few days later we returned to , and purchased a baguette and an escargot pastry with raisins and then went to another bakery down the street, Boulangerie Saint Antoine, which was highly recommended by a French neighbor of Linda. We sat outside again, in front of Boulangerie Saint Antoine and did the same procedure but this time it was the opposite. The escargot from Boulangerie Saint Antoine was anemic looking and too doughy for our taste, whereas the Land and Monkeys one was crisp, flaky, and delicious. It was almost the same with the baguette. Bernie and I prefer the outside of our baguettes to be crusty and well done and again the Boulangerie Saint Antoine was too doughy while the Land and Monkeys was crusty and more flavorful. 

Here's the link to Linda’s blog. https://lindaspalla.com/a-taste-test-in-le-marais/ 

Land and Monkeys 

2 rue de Turenne, 75004 

https://www.land-and-monkeys.com/

Comments

[Judy McPeak]

What a fun post! Even more fun to do, I imagine! As I scrolled through the photos, I thought the Land and Monkeys croissant and pain au chocolat didn’t look the way I expect both to look. Something off looking about the outside layer. The opposite was true in the photos of the baguette and the raisin snail. In this case, it seems, like you can judge a book by its cover.

It is a personal choice to be vegan and difficult to do in our world. It is getting a bit easier in some areas in the US, but it isn’t easy to do when traveling. I will forward this to a vegan friend (although I know she will want to find out about the corn syrup!).

Thank you, Linda & Richard!