10 non-traditional mooncakes to try this Mid-Autumn Festival

Photograph: courtesy Strictly Cookies

Mid-Autumn Festival is this Friday (13 September) and that means a longer weekend to relax, spend time with loved ones and stuff your cheeks with mooncakes. For those tired of sticking to the classic flavours or those who always loved a culinary adventure, here are some mooncakes with quirky flavours and designs that might make moon-gazing more enjoyable this weekend. 

Puben by Jeremy Leung

Photograph: courtesy Puben by Jeremy Leung

Love tea? Love mooncakes? You can now have both in one bite. Puben's offering mooncakes made with high-quality Zhenghe white tea and kung fu tea, which the county is famous for. A box of mooncakes is 388RMB, which includes four packs of three year-old white peony tea bags, four packs of black kung fu tea and four mooncakes with flavours such as chestnut caramel or red wine cranberry.

📍579 Waima Lu, near Xinmatou Lu. Add 'tanwailou' on WeChat for more info or to place an order.

Strictly Cookies

Photograph: courtesy Strictly Cookies

In this era of mixing concepts as the norm, who's to say these crazy Mookies aren't mooncakes? This year, Strictly Cookies is offering six flavours including a spicy chestnut with sichuan pepper mookie, to more subtle flavours like sugar with red bean. At 188RMB per box, you get to try all the flavours and marvel at how mooncakes have evolved.

📍Room 103, 1166 Yanan Xi Lu, near Panyu Lu. Add 'StrictlyCookies' on WeChat for more info or to place an order.

Häagen-Dazs

Photograph: courtesy Häagen-Dazs

There's cake and then there's ice cream cake. Häagen-Dazs is celebrating Mid-Autumn this year with ice cream mooncakes at 258RMB per package, featuring flavours such as plain yoghurt, strawberry yoghurt, vanilla and chocolate and two extra pints of Häagen-Dazs ice cream thrown in for good measure.

📍Add 'hagen_dasi' on WeChat for more info or to place an order. 

TRIBE

Photograph: courtesy TRIBE

TRIBE's healthy mooncakes are made with organic ingredients and no additives. They come in sets of four for 108RMB or eight for 188RMB and new flavours introduced this year include beet snowskin with jasmine mango filling and snowskin with minced walnut coconut filling. Better eat them fast though as they only last three days at room temperature and eight days in the fridge.

📍A Mansion, 291 Fumin Lu, near Changle Lu. Add 'organic_organic' on WeChat for more info or to place an order.

EGG

Photograph: courtesy EGGcafe

When you pair an American snack with Chinese traditions you get MoonPies: an umami bomb of salted-egg yolk in the middle of EGG's whipped and vegan marshmallow filling, sandwiched between hand-rolled cookies and finally coated in white chocolate. Don't bother savouring it slowly as the shelf life is even shorter than TRIBE's non-additive mooncakes. One box of four MoonPies comes at 80RMB and lasts 12 hours at room temperature and five days in the fridge.

📍12 Xiangyang Bei Lu, near Julu Lu. Add 'EGGcafe' on WeChat for more info or to place an order.

Starbucks

Photograph: courtesy Starbucks

Since we have tea-flavoured mooncakes, makes sense that there's a coffee variety, too. Starbucks is offering six mooncake flavours this year at six for 348RMB, eight for 458RMB or ten for 598RMB and each set comes with a different box design. Flavours range from citrus jasmine with raspberry to sea salt espresso coffee.

📍Add 'xingbakezhongguo' on WeChat for more info or place an order. 

Shen Da Cheng

Photograph: courtesy Shen Da Cheng

As one of the best snack sellers in China, Shen Da Cheng is grabbing onto the hype for crayfish flavoured mooncakes ever since they made shoppers go crazy a few years back. Flavours include spicy, cheezy crayfish and crayfish with buttery chicken sauce as well as its classic savoury mooncakes. Mooncakes with crayfish go for 228RMB for six and the normal savoury sets at 198RMB for 12.

📍Add 'SDC-SH' on WeChat for more info or to place an order.

GANSO

Photograph: courtesy GANSO

GANSO's offering a mooncake-shaped monaka snack for those who love ice cream more than mooncakes. They come in a set of 12 with three of each flavour, which includes tiramisu, strawberry, grapes with yoghurt and butter toffee. A box is 298RMB when you pick up in store or 369RMB for delivery.

📍Add 'ganso_food' on WeChat for more info or to place an order. 

Uncle Durian

Photograph: courtesy Uncle Durian

In Shanghai where there's durian-flavoured food everywhere, it comes as no surprise that there are also durian-flavoured mooncakes. Made with Musang King durians, one of the best varieties from Malaysia, these are 428RMB for a box of six and 628RMB for mooncakes with bird's nest inside.

📍Search 'UncleDurian' on WeChat for more info or place an order.

WeiBACK

Photograph: courtesy WeiBACK

Can't get enough mooncakes? Or have too many guests to entertain? This gigantic mooncake that's bigger than your face serves at least eight people. Made with yam, mochi and meat floss or nori, mochi and meat floss, each flavour sells at 199RMB and has a shelf life of 60 days, suitable for those looking to keep the mooncake fun going for months. 

📍Add 'iweiback' on WeChat for more info or place an order.

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