Although classic mooncake flavours the likes of lotus seed and salted duck egg yolk have stood the test of time, we are over the moon about new mooncake flavours that give a fresh take on this traditional festive treat.
We’re also always on the lookout for the most creative packaging out there.
Old Bailey
In this neck of the woods, Cantonese-style mooncakes reign supreme, so it’s refreshing to see mooncake traditions from other regions of China also appearing on the market. Old Bailey’s executive chef, Kwan Man Wong, has created authentic Shanghainese mooncakes with crumbly, buttery shortcrust pastry filled with minced pork, shallot, ginger, soy sauce and white pepper for a truly savoury indulgence. We taste-tested this one, and the flavour reminded us of a buttery, crusted version of a sausage roll! But don’t fret if you’ve got a sweet tooth, because there’s also another variety filled with creamy homemade red bean paste, wrapped in the same lovely shortcrust.
Price: $238 for box of 6
How to order: order online, purchase at Old Bailey or phone the restaurant at 2877 8711 (available for pick-up 1–13 September 2019)
Location: 2/F, JC Contemporary, Tai Kwun, 10 Hollywood Road, Central
Ralph’s Coffee
If you crave a coffee fix with your mooncake, look no further than Ralph’s Coffee, the stylish café connected to Ralph Lauren at Ocean Terminal. Customers can choose from two flavours: custard lava and coffee lava. The coffee lava mooncakes are made with the highest-quality organic coffee beans from Ralph’s Coffee. Each box of mooncakes comes in a collectable Ralph’s Coffee truck with a moveable window and decorative lights.
Price: $468 for box of 6
How to order: purchase in-store or phone 2376 3936 (available for pick-up until 14 September 2019)
Location: Shop OT313, 3/F, Ocean Terminal, Harbour City, TST
KiKi Noodles
Featuring Taiwanese flavours, the low-sugar mooncakes from KiKi are a blend of premium dried shrimp, salted egg yolk, mocha and taro paste. Limited to just 1,000 boxes across Hong Kong, the sweet and savoury cakes come in an adorable box featuring a superhero jade bunny flying across a round moon. Each box comes with an adorable brown rabbit-shaped bag that’s designed to be reused as a carrier.
Price: $298 for box of 6, to include a $20 restaurant voucher with each box purchase
How to order: order online, purchase in-store or phone 2111 3764 (available for pick-up 8, 10 and 11 September 2019)
Locations: KiKiTea@Sun’s Bazaar (Pacific Place), KiKi Noodle Bar (KiKi Tea) (ifc mall) and KiKi Noodle Bar (KiKi
Tea) (K11 MUSEA)
Tea WG
We’ve already seen coffee lava mooncakes from Ralph’s Coffee, and now Tea WG has created the Moon Route Tea collection so that tea drinkers don’t feel left out. Four tea-infused mooncakes are on offer, ranging from lotus and salted egg yolk with Singapore breakfast tea, to chocolate tea lotus paste dotted with chocolate chips in a baked chocolate crust, to Mistral Tea and lemongrass-infused lotus filling with a strawberry almond centre, to matcha-infused lotus paste with an Amarena cherry core. The scrumptious mooncakes come alongside the unique Moon Route Tea, a creamy blend of red fruits and citrus in a green tea.
Price: $468 for box of 2 mooncakes with Moon Route Tea; $108 for 1 mooncake
How to order: purchase at all Tea WG shops (pick-up available until 13 September 2019)
Locations: Central (ifc mall), Kowloon Tong (Festival Walk) and TST (ELEMENTS)
KFC
KFC and its buckets of fried chicken are known the world over, but this Mid-Autumn Festival, the Colonel has filled his iconic bucket with mooncakes… that is, spicy chicken-flavoured mooncakes. Packaged in a “moonlight bucket” that lights up with the click of a button (so you can used it afterwards as a lantern), this newest KFC bucket is filled with two flavours of mooncake: spicy chicken with nuts and golden lava custard. We were a tad wary of the chicken-filled mooncake, but upon first bite, the sweet and savoury combo reminded us of a familiar flavour – spicy jerky.
Price: $275 for bucket of 6 mooncakes
How to order: vouchers available at all KFC shops except Hong Kong Stadium, Sha Tin Racecourse and AsiaWorld Expo
Locations: click here for redemption locations (vouchers redeemable until 10 September 2019)
2/3 Dolci
If you prefer your mooncake as an icy dessert covered in Belgian dark chocolate, look no further than 2/3 Dolci. Six flavours of gelato, including pistachio, Earl Grey tea, salted caramel, gourmet 85% chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, are on offer. To further sweeten the deal, customers get a free single scoop of gelato with each box purchased plus a $50 Cafe Deco Group dining voucher.
Price: $328 for box of 6
How to order: vouchers can be purchased at various Cafe Deco Group outlets (vouchers redeemable until 10
September 2019)
Locations: click here for pick-up locations (pick-up available until 13 September 2019)
John Anthony
Hong Kong’s leading Chinese restaurant in sustainability, John Anthony, has partnered with The Cakery to create a completely vegan collection of mooncakes. The four distinct mooncake flavours are made with organic ingredients free of refined sugar, gluten, dairy, egg, preservatives and artificial colouring. Tempting flavours include dark chocolate with Sichuan pepper, black and white sesame, rose and mixed berries and mango, ginger and turmeric. Each mooncake has approximately 40 per cent less calories than a traditional mooncake. Because the mooncakes are preservative free, a two-day advance order is needed to ensure quality and freshness.
Price: $398 for box of 4; $88 for 1
How to order: 2 days’ advance order online or in-store at The Cakery or John Anthony (pick-up available until 14 September 2019)
Location: The Cakery – Causeway Bay (Lee Garden Two), The Cakery – Central (ifc mall and LANDMARK), John Anthony (Basement, Lee Garden Three, 1 Sunning Road, Causeway Bay)
Yan Toh Heen at InterContinental Hong Kong
If you like the taste of apple pie, InterContinental Hong Kong’s two-Michelin-starred Yan Toh Heen might just have the perfect mooncake for you. In support of New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association, an organisation that promotes mental wellness, Chef Yiu Fai Lai has created a special apple and custard cream mooncake made with locally grow apple, with proceeds going to the social enterprise. Traditional, well-loved flavours are also available, including custard cream, lotus seed with double salty egg yolk and Ibérico ham with mixed nuts.
Price: From $388–448 for box of 4–6; $100 for 1 New Life apple and custard mooncake
How to order: order online, purchase at Yan Toh Heen or phone 2313 2323
Location: Lower Level, InterContinental Hong Kong, 18 Salisbury Road, TST
Vive Cake Boutique
Boutique bakery Vive’s mooncakes – coconut-scented shortcrusted custard – are as beautifully presented as they are delicious and would make for a particularly festive treat for those of the, shall we say, feminine persuasion. The eco-friendly gift boxes are designed by founder Vivien Lau (we recommend saving these pastel-coloured beauties for jewellery or stationery storage post-Mid-Autumn Fest), and there are also mooncake hampers available.
Price: from $420 for Classic Mooncake and Organic Tea Gift Box, to include 2 shortcrusted golden custard mooncakes and 2 shortcrusted golden lava mooncakes + 12 packets of Vive Organic Taiwan Tea (Alpine Roast, Oriental Beauty and Golden Honey)
How to order: order online, purchase in-store or phone 9602 2869 (pick-up available until 13 September 2019)
Location: Shop 3, 1/F, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central (entrance at 50 Stanley Street), Central
Green Common
Green Common teams up with Patisserie La Lune for the first time to create a vegan custard mooncake made with FabaButter, a plant-based vegan butter made with chickpeas and vegetable oils. In addition, the popular vegan blueberry mixed nuts mooncake makes a reappearance on the shelves following last year’s warm reception. Both options are free of preservatives, with the blueberry version made with fresh berries and having 38 per cent less sugar than traditional mooncakes. The vegan custard mooncake contains 11 per cent less sugar, 25 per cent less fat and eight per cent fewer calories than traditional shortbread custard mooncakes made with two egg yolks. They’re also cholesterol and trans-fat free.
Price: $218 for box of 4 vegan custard mooncakes; $258 for box of 4 vegan blueberry mixed nuts mooncakes
How to order: order online or purchase at all Green Common shops (pick-up available until 8 September 2019)
Locations: click here for all Green Common shops
Man Ho at JW Marriott Hotel Macau
This year, mooncakes come into full bloom at JW Marriott Macau’s Man Ho Chinese restaurant with floral-inspired flavours. Wrapped in a gorgeous box decorated with the “king of flowers”, the peony, the mooncakes created by Chef Jeremey Leung include flavours such as rose paste lava, sweet osmanthus lava, salted egg yolk custard and chocolate lava. These babies are definitely a feast for all the senses.
Price: MOP$358 for box of 8
How to order: purchase at Man Ho or phone +853 8886 6228 (available for pick-up until 13 September 2019)
Location: 1/F, JW Marriott Hotel Macau, Galaxy Macau, Estrada da Baía da Nossa Senhora da Esperanca s/n, Cotai, Taipa, Macau
The Drunken Pot
Hip hotpot specialist The Drunken Pot is getting in on the Mid-Autumn action this year with its golden lava custard mooncakes, presented in a dazzling street-art-style recyclable metal tin designed by Hong Kong artist Ben Pickering (limited to 1,000 sets). Nuke these babies for a few seconds and watch the vanilla-laced custard flow. The tin also doubles as a unique handbag!
Price: $268 for box of 6
How to order: order online, purchase in-store or phone 2323 7098 (Causeway Bay) or 2321 9038 (TST) (available for pick-up until 12 September 2019)
Locations: Causeway Bay (27/F, V Point, 18 Tang Lung Street) and TST (2/F, 8 Observatory Road)
And, if you find yourself buried under a mountain of mooncakes, you can always bring your unopened mooncake boxes to a Whistles location near you (Harbour City, ifc mall and Pacific Place) and walk away with a $100 store voucher. Use the certificate towards a new wardrobe for your trimmer figure thanks to not overbinging on mooncakes and rest assured that the mooncakes will be donated to local charity Foodlink.
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