Mid-Autumn Festival is one of Asia’s most enchanting celebrations. It’s a time for family reunions, gazing at the moon, lighting lanterns, and giving gifts – the most popular being packaged mooncakes. These round pastries are traditionally filled with sweet lotus paste and salted egg yolk to represent the moon – but, as times have changed, so have tastes. Today’s mooncakes come in a huge variety of flavours, so, to narrow down the difficult selection process, here’s our pick of this year’s most exciting gift boxes.
The Peninsula Hong Kong
The Peninsula’s huge collection of Mid-Autumn Festival gifts is as premium as you’d expect. There are classic mini egg custard morsels, limited-edition Luna Collection mooncakes in three contemporary flavours (black sesame with vanilla, dark chocolate with mixed nuts, mango and pomelo), and lavish hampers brimming with The Peninsula Champagne Brut, premium teas, hand-made dark chocolates, almond puffs, and a variety of mooncakes, of course. This year, a buzzy new range has been added: mini-Manuka honey yuzu egg custard mooncakes topped with walnuts, showcasing the hotel’s beehives.
Duddells
Michelin-starred, art-filled Duddells has teamed up with Hong Kong graphic artist Hong-Chong Ip to create its range of eye-catching ruby red mooncake ensembles. This year, the restaurant is also collaborating with Saicho, a Hong Kong brand of high-end non-alcoholic sparkling teas delivered in Champagne-style bottles with bubbles just as fine as its boozy French counterpart. The special edition gift box contains six lava custard mooncakes and a 750ml bottle of Saicho’s Jasmine Sparkling Tea, whose subtle floral hints pair perfectly with the sweetness of the mooncakes.
The Upper House
There are four versions of The House Collective’s Moonlit Discoveries Mid-Autumn Festival gift boxes, each representing a city where the group has a hotel. They’ve been designed like travel journals and open with musings from some of the cities’ most famous residents – and feature eight non-traditional mooncake flavours. Sets for The Opposite House, The Middle House, and The Temple House include Parma ham, granulated chestnut, five black nut, and rattan pepper, whilst The Upper House has red bean and mandarin peel, jasmine tea custard, and coffee with salted caramel.
Rosewood Hong Kong
The Rosewood’s mooncake gift boxes and hampers are suitably opulent. Amongst its myriad flavours are white lotus seed paste with double egg yolk, jasmine tea-infused egg custard, and red bean paste with mandarin peel. Elegant gift boxes also include rare blends of Pu-erh and Shang Xia Yunnan black teas, as well as palmiers, pralines, and a bottle of Champagne. Our pick? The In Celebration of the Moon set, a collaboration with the Hong Kong Palace Museum whose box can be transformed into a decorative paper lantern.
The Merchants
Looking for something more traditional? The Merchants’ Light Gift Box is presented in a beautiful hand-made bamboo lantern decorated with delicate painted panels depicting bucolic scenes of waterfalls, flowers, and tigers. Inside is a collection of eight mooncakes in four Suzhou-style flavours: red bean, red date, black sesame, and seaweed. The restaurant is also offering a special Mid-Autumn Festival set dinner including fortuitous dishes such as chilled abalone in Shaoxing wine, braised winter melon with Jinhua ham, and red bean pancakes with aged tangerine peel.
Four Seasons Hong Kong
Four Seasons’ array of mooncakes have been created by the double Michelin-starred chef of Lung Keen Heen, Chan Yak Tan. Fillings include lotus seed paste with black truffle and salted egg; pickled ginger and preserved egg; and cream custard with toasted pine nuts, whilst the attractive red and white circular boxes include paper lanterns and can be fully recycled. All the mooncakes are made fresh in-house and don’t contain any preservatives, so must be ordered at least 72 hours in advance.
