Unusual mooncakes you should try for Mid-Autumn Festival 2022

Here’s something for the chocoholics. Award-winning chocolatier Frederic Blondeel has given traditional mooncakes a sweet twist this year with handmade chocolate mooncakes! Made with a dark chocolate shell filled with creamy pralines and a layer of crispy feuillantine, the mooncakes are available in two flavours – mochi, which offers a chewy mochi centre to give the mooncake a playful texture, and hazelnut chocolate, which uses the brand’s signature hazelnut gianduja. It’s the perfect gift to share and enjoy with your family and friends this Mid-Autumn fest.

Where to buy: shopfredericblondeel.com.hk
Price: $335 per box of 4pc (10 percent discount for online orders before August 19; 20 percent discount for corporate orders (min. 50 boxes) before July 31)

Time Out Hong Kong in partnership with Frederic Blondeel

For those who enjoy the finer things in life, French tea salon Le Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon has put together four exquisite chocolate mooncakes this year. Handmade with the finest Valrhona chocolate, the mooncakes come in four enticing flavours – raspberry, almond praline, matcha & yuzu, as well as Baileys & marshmallow. With these sumptuous flavours packaged in a beautifully designed Deluxe Treasure Gift Box (1pc per flavour), you're sure to have a sweet holiday with your dearly most beloved.

Where to buy: lesalondethe.robuchon.hk/en_HK
Price: $468 per box of 4pc (early bird offer from now until August 14); $528 (original price)

Time Out Hong Kong in partnership with Le Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon

Above & Beyond’s executive chef Danny Ho has created four durian mousse mochi mooncakes for those who aren’t afraid of the pungent fruit. Presented in an elegant moon-gazing gift box designed in collaboration with the School of Design, Polytechnic University, the mooncakes are filled with a creamy durian mousse, topped with white chocolate powder and a crunchy cookie base. Hidden inside the mousse, you’ll find chewy surprises that come in the form of coconut durian mochi, pandan durian mochi, green tea durian mochi, or jackfruit mochi. Delicious.

Where to buy: eshop.hotel-icon.com/en/mooncake
Price: $498-$598

Phoebe’s Kitchen was the talk of town last Mid-Autumn fest when it came out with a beef wellington mooncake made with beef tenderloin, parma ham and duxelles (finely chopped mushroom). So, to level up this year, Phoebe has whipped up a salmon wellington mooncake! Stuffed with a tender piece of salmon fillet, a layer of cream cheese spinach, mozzarella cheese, and parmesan, these 'mooncakes' can be enjoyed after popping them in the oven or air fryer. 

Where to buy: kurozu.com.hk
Price: $238-$258

Combining traditional and modern flavours, Pâtisserie Jane’s has various mooncake gift box sets lined up this year. The tea-infused mooncake set features four tea blends, including jasmine tea mooncake with mango bean paste, earl grey mooncake with purple sweet potato mochi, matcha mooncake with red bean paste, and hojicha mooncake with assorted nuts. Meanwhile, the Rainbow Spiral mooncake has two flavours, spiral taro with egg yolk and spiral lotus seed with egg yolk, wrapped inside a handmade ‘thousand layers’ crust. Handcrafted in Hong Kong using ingredients from around the world, the mooncakes are elegantly packaged inside a pastel-coloured box with a Chinese jade rabbit admiring the moon.

Where to buy: patisseriejane.com 
Price: $148-$188

Inspired by the classic Chinese folk tale Monkeys catch the moon, Venchi’s mooncakes this year come in four scrumptious varieties: tiramisù mooncake, pistachio cream pink mooncake (with nibs and raspberry grains), dark almond mooncake, and extra dark with salted nibs mooncake. The mooncakes come in gift boxes of various shapes and sizes, featuring a family of rabbits reuniting to celebrate the heartwarming festival. Apart from mooncakes, each gift box also comes filled with a selection of Venchi chocolates for your sweet enjoyment.

Where to buy: Available across all Venchi Hong Kong stores
Price: $408-$1,088

Ralph’s Coffee is offering two Hong Kong-exclusive flavours this Mid-Autumn Festival – custard lava and coffee lava. Featuring a miniature Ralph’s Coffee kiosk in the brand’s signature green and white colours, the mooncake box comes embellished with decorative lights and a ‘Bear-ista’ magnet dressed in uniform. Six mini mooncakes can be found in each box with three pieces for each flavour. 

Where to buy: ralphlauren.com.hk.
Price: $428-$468

Conrad Hong Kong's Cantonese restaurant Golden Leaf has partnered up with Two Moons Distillery this Mid-Autumn fest for a special gin mooncake gift box set. With two flavours available – red bean paste with mandarin peels and egg yolk, as well as creamed egg yolk infused with Two Moon’s calamansi gin – the gift box set will also come with a mini bottle of Two Moons’ signature dry gin and calamansi gin to complement the mooncakes. 

Where to buy: eshop.conraddining.com 
Price: $688

Michelin-starred Shang Palace gets creative this year with a series of new quirky flavours for their mooncakes, including the Shang Palace x Hsinchu Fuyuan peanut butter mooncakes, Shang Palace x Hsinchu Fuyuan black sesame mooncakes, Shang Palace coconut and pandan leaf snow skin mooncakes, and the Shang Palace vegetarian mooncakes duet which introduces a mini red date paste mooncake with pine nuts and mini golden lotus seed paste mooncake. Shang Palace also has a Kids DIY Crystal Mooncake Set this year, so families can celebrate the festival at home and make their very own crystal mooncakes. Each kit comes with a Mid-Autumn lantern paper toy, ingredients for four flavours of crystal mooncakes, moulds, and cooking instructions.

The popular mini matcha mooncake made with an aromatic matcha crust, red bean paste, mochi, and a zesty yuzu centre is also back. Being one of the best sellers since its launch in 2020, these round little treats will be perfect for Japanese dessert lovers.

Where to buy: boutique.shangri-la.com/shop
Price: $398-$598