La Boulange bakery goods come to Starbucks stores in Chicago

Time Out Chicago magazine taste-tested the goods on La Boulange's debut in the Windy City.

Here's what they said:

Reduced-Fat Pumpkin Cream Cheese Loaf Cake: “This is like the pumpkin spice latte in food form. There are a lot of baking spices in here."

Chocolate Croissant: "This isn’t bad! I wish it were flakier, but the chocolate adds some balance to the butter flavor."

Chewy Chocolate Meringue Cookie: "This is sticky. And not crispy. But the chocolate flavor is really pretty good."

Croissant: "It's very buttery and not very flaky."

Blueberry Yogurt Muffin with Honey "It's too spongy to be a good muffin. ...I don't think this will encourage people to get food here."

Chocolate Marble Loaf Cake: "This is terrible."

Ham & Cheese Croissant: "This is WAY too salty. ...The ham also has a weird flavor."

Wheat Spinach Croissant: "This tastes like Popeye puked."

* Taste-testing Starbucks' new La Boulange pastries in Chicago

* La Boulange items at SBUX: Your best and worst choices

Comments

[FoxinaHole]

In other words: They've replaced one sort of crap with another sort of crap. This is rebranding at its worst -- no substance underlying the supposed change. (Signed, someone who still remembers, hazily, a time ?in the early 2000s? when Starbucks was known for excellent bakery)

[KDH]

Hahaha...all of the new pastries aren't great, but I wouldn't say the spinach croissant tastes like vomit. Is the marble loaf actually "terrible" or does the reviewer just like the old one more?

We've sold 2x's as many of the LaBoulange pastries in the last 2 days than what we have normally been selling with very few complaints. I, personally, have had no complaints.

The pastries aren't rebranded. It's a completely different bakery.

[chicagoshift]

I'd say we have double the sales at my location too. The only complaints have been about the 15 second wait time to warm the product.

[m]

Too bad the chocolate cinnamon bread disappeared.

[LadyKathryn]

They posted the recipe for the Chocolate Cinnamon Bread, m. I've made it at home, and it turns out really well! =)

[R]

Our food sales have doubled and people really enjoy the product where we are... don't know where people get this garbage.

[Katie Mikell]

Seriously, they call that a blueberry MUFFIN? It's so sponge like, I can wipe my sink clean with it. We need someone to help La Boulange understand American tastebuds. Oh, and wait here while I microwave your muffin for you because it's frozen? WTF?!

[Jeanne]

Really? People like the new pastries? I bought a blueberry scone and it was barely edible. Not nearly as good as the old ones. And I really didn't think heating it was an improvement.

[Jill]

The new La Boulange line is underwhelming, to say the least. The mini bread loaves, for example, taste bland and mass-produced, with none of the depth of flavor and texture of the old breads. Heating them in the microwave does nothing to disguise the poor quality of the products. A very disappointing misstep for Starbucks.

[Debra]

I miss the lemon loaf and pumpkin muffin with cream cheese for the fall. The new items I tasted were not good. Nothing I would look forward to getting. I am just being honest. It doesn't matter if you warm it up if it is not good.

[Brian]

The issue with this article is that EVERYONE HAS DIFFERENT TASTE BUDS!!!! Personally, I really enjoy the new blueberry yogurt muffin. The old one was too flaky and a mess to eat.

If you've ever been to La Boulange in San Francisco, you will know there are other great things to come.

[John S]

New loaf cakes are dry on the outside and almost undercooked in the centre, the scone is a disater, falls into crumbs. Dreadful, certainly not a change for the better. Just drink my latte now, if I need to eat I go somewhere else.

[Deb M.]

They ruined the morning bun. Now tougher, stale tasting and loaded with sugar. They cut the fat and raised the calories and sugar from the old one. Like we really need more sugar! Anyone who bakes knows that the fat is needed to make the pastry tender. Bad move.

[Mike]

I was really looking forward to the new pastries from La Boulange and was excited on the first day when I got to try one. However, my excitement quickly turned to disappointment as a morning bun turned into a pile of stale yeasty yuk in my mouth! I didn't count it out at that point though and tried two other pastries on other visits just to be equally disappointed by them. To top it all off though, when I complained to Starbucks customer service about it there seemed to be a canned answer they were giving rather than really responding to my complaint. Does this mean they are overwhelmed with complaints??? Makes one wonder! I definitely won't be back to waste more money on substandard food!