Trying Four Mooncake Flavours🥮

In Chinese culture, the Mid-Autumn festival (falling somewhere in September/October) is a time to gather with loved ones, give thanks, and pray for good fortune and health.

Of course, food is of paramount importance to these celebrations - mooncakes especially. They come in many different styles, but they are almost always round to symbolize reunion and have the bakery's name with an elaborate design printed on them. They're served in wedges and paired with tea.

This year, I tried the 4 different flavours of mooncake from the T&T Bakery Assorted Mooncake Pack, which comes in a lovely box depicting the Moon Rabbit:

These mooncakes are all of the Cantonese variety with rich fillings, a thin and tender pastry crust, and salted egg yolks inside (more on that later). The four different fillings here are white lotus paste, mixed nuts, dates and walnuts, and red bean.

White Lotus Seed

First up, the classic lotus seed paste is the most popular filling for mooncakes, despite its rarity in other desserts.

White lotus seed paste mooncake

It has a very smooth, uniform texture, and a sweet and slightly nutty, floral flavour. It's quite mild and slightly caramel-y, and hard not to like with its softness and subtlety.

Apparently, white lotus seed paste is made from peeled seeds while more traditional lotus seed pastes keep the outer layer, giving it more depth of flavour. I would love to try the traditional version one day!

Mixed Nuts

Next is a very different mooncake, sometimes called "Five Kernels". This particular one has walnuts, melon seeds, almond, sesame, and Chinese olive kernels, and is incorporated together with winter melon paste, orange paste, and oyster sauce among other things.

Apparently each nut represents one of the five constant Confucian virtues (benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness). It's definitely an interesting medley, texturally and visually:

Five kernels mooncake

Biting into it, I was honestly surprised by how structurally sound it was, since it looked like it was going to crumble all over the place. I was expecting some odd flavours (especially with the presence of oyster sauce) but everything melded well together into a sweet-and-salty delight. 

It's less sweet than the lotus paste, and has a nice orange aroma in the background. The Chinese olive kernels provide a slightly herbal/piney flavour, I actually would've liked a bit more of them.

Red Bean

This has been an enjoyable taste test so far :). Red bean paste is common in East Asian desserts such as sweet buns or sesame balls (even ice creams!), so I knew I would like this one. You can also see I got a salted egg yolk in this piece.

Preserved egg yolk in red bean mooncake

The red bean paste is quite similar to lotus paste, but with an earthier and, well, beanier taste (don't knock it till you try it). The salted egg yolks are rich, oily, and a bit crumbly, with concentrated umami.

As a kid I disliked the egg parts of the mooncake, but now I appreciate how it cuts and compliments the sweetness of mooncake fillings. The round yolk also symbolizes the full moon, so it's a shame not to eat it!

Dates and Walnuts

Last one - I think this is the least traditional flavour of the four. Dates can be an acquired taste with their unique sweetness. In this case, they have been diluted a bit with red bean and lotus seed pastes, with some walnuts floating around in there.

Dates and walnuts mooncake

This mooncake was nice; I often find desserts with dates to be overly sweet, but it wasn't the case here. The honey-like and fruity taste of the dates still stood out and tasted great with the walnuts and salted yolk.

The Verdict

All the mooncakes were miam-miam-miam, but which one comes out on top?

My personal purely taste-based ranking (a close race for all) is red bean, lotus paste, mixed nuts, and then dates & walnuts.

However, since red bean is so common in other desserts, I have to rank lotus paste as my favourite mooncake filling overall (with egg yolks of course). It is also what I would recommend to mooncake newbies since it's yummy, special, and traditional.

Of course, there are so many delicious types that I haven't explored yet. Recently there have been more modern takes as well with taro, durian, matcha, and other fillings.

If this gave you anappetite to try some mooncakes, then keep an eye out for them in Asian Supermarkets around September! Some may also carry them out of season, but it's much more of an event with nice decor right before the actual festival.

Until next time,

~Ana