The following sentence is from a newspaper article メレンゲ菓子は数あれど、これほど繊細なものは珍しい。
- あれど = あるけど makes sense to me in the context, and this seems to be supported by my searches so far - is it simply a written form?
- The full phrase "は数あれど" appears extremely common on google - is 数 here read しばしば, and is this a set phrase?
は数あれど
is not a phrase.メレンゲ菓子は
orメレンゲ菓子は数あれど
are each a phrase.