Modern Mooncakes: Treats for Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-autumn festival is coming up, bringing cooler weather – let’s hope – and, of course, mooncakes. The staple gift/ personal treat for the festival can be found in any Chinese shop or supermarket, but there are plenty of other options if you’re looking for something less traditional. Just grab those vouchers before they all sell out.

Starbucks is once again peddling holiday treats, but don’t plan on grabbing them off the shelf. Like most mooncakes, orders must be placed in advance and at Starbucks it starts on August 21. Cakes can then picked up with your voucher at a later date. Don’t expect the cakes to be cheap either - RMB 268 will get you a set of eight with flavors like, espresso coffee cheese & orange, espresso coffee milk chocolate, green tea toffee cheese, and espresso blueberry cheese. If those don’t sound appealing dish out RMB 368 for a set of six including Colombia coffee blueberry macadamia, Kenya coffee orange & milk, and banana hazelnut chocolate crunch.

Over at expat-favorite Comptoirs de France, pick up chocolate-encased mooncakes such as mango, green tea, raspberry hazelnut and mocca or go for a more traditional pastry casing with cranberry, vanilla hazelnut, green tea-almond and chocolate mango. Three different sets are available priced RMB 188 (Standard), RMB 238 (Deluxe) and RMB 288 (VIP).

For those that prefer ice cream to cake drop into Haagen-dazs for ice-cream mooncakes covered in chocolate. Order in-store, online or from their hotline at 400 820 9815. But order early, as these are always in high demand, and vouchers quickly sell out. Once they do your only option is to get vouchers on the mooncake black market. Their “collections” start at RMB 228 and skyrocket up to RMB 788.

If Haagen-dazs is too extravagant, drop into your local Dairy Queen for cheaper frozen treats. Boxes of four to six cakes run from RMB 198-298.

Savvy Taobao shoppers can search the site for various vouchers often getting discounts of 70-80% off face value. Meanwhile enterprising mooncake sellers have set up websites to move the specialty mooncakes from Starbucks, Haagen Dazs and Dairy Queen.

Fans of Angry Birds can start searching for Angry Birds mooncakes next month.

For something less corporate, drop into Sanlitun and pick up a moon-cupcake from Colibri. Pre-ordering begins on September 15 and a box of four costs a comparatively reasonable RMB 120.

Photos: Angrybirdsnest.com, Colibri Cafe