Macaroine. Addicted to macarons.

Dangerously delicious

‘This box was probably empty before you got home. Don’t worry, I understand’, was written on the side of every box. That was either a box with 4, 8, 12 or 25 Dangerously Delicious Macarons from Poptasi. Yup, that’s me. The biggest macaron addict in the universe. That’s why I wrote a book about it. For my addicts only: Macaroine. Addicted to macarons.

No worries

One of the best therapies to deal with addiction, or problems in general, is to write about it. I do it all the time and it really helps. You might think that it’s not for me. But no worries, you don’t have to publish it, like I do. Just writing it down can help.

This box was probably empty before you got home.

Don’t worry, I understand.

Poptasi

In 2012 I opened the first macaronshop in the Netherlands. In 2017 I had to close it. Unfortunately. But the world of macarons was still alive in my head. What’s in your head, needs to get out, right? So I had to do something. Being addicted to macarons is as bad, or maybe even worse, as being addicted to cocaine or heroine. Hence: macaroine.

In 2021 I decided to write a book about my addiction. I had never written a book before. Actually before that. I had never had a shop before. You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. Right? So I started from scrap.

I wrote down recipes, preparation methods, tips on how to work your kitchen equipment the best. Anything I could think of. I even wrote a true fairy tale for the book. About the Kalop mountains and the Bilders. Actually they are the ingredients of macarons coming alive. EEB is also such a character who got his own world.

While I was writing everything down, I couldn’t find the perfect letter font for the book. There are so many to choose from. But none of them gave me the look and feel that I wanted. So I designed my own font type. The same for the visuals in the book. All that I could find were visuals that i did not want my book to look like. So I illustrated my own visuals. Resulting in Macaroine. Addicted to macarons.

Then there was the challenge how to publish the book. Personally I had never done that before. I didn’t know who to approach. So I decided to publish my book myself. With the help of the company Blurb.

Then there was the challenge how to promote my book. Actually I would have been happy to have my own personal copy. It didn’t matter if I would sell a book or not. It was just a personal achievement. I posted the question on my Facebook page: Who would pre-order my book? I was amazed that about 70 people replied! Wauw! But hey, people who SAY that they will pre-order, aren’t the ones who actually will pre-order. I mean, I didn’t even know how much the book was gonna cost.

When I was done writing and designing, I opened the pre-order option via Facebook. I didn’t have a webshop, so I planned to do everything manually. To be honest, I didn’t expect any orders at all. But then the pre-orders came in. First one. Quickly followed by the second, third and so on. The counter didn’t stop! Pretty soon there were 100 pre-orders! OMG!! But the counter didn’t stop! It went on and on. 150, 200. In total there were 260 pre-orders for Macaroine book! Wauw! I was blown away! Funny detail, I mailed them personally and manually one by one. Oh and I wrote the 70 names of the true fans in the book as a big thank you for trusting me.

I decided to make my book as personal as I’d like to receive one. So I numbered every book. And I wrote a personal message in all 260 books. I bought fitting Crazy Pastry Academy bubble envelopes. On which I put custom design stamps.

Macaroine is written in Dutch but also translated to English. I’ve stopped selling the book myself. But if you really want to, you can still order a copy via Blurb: Click here for the English version. Macaroine. Addicted to macarons.