2017 Mooncake Gift Selection – Creative Offerings from Japanese-Inspired & Cantonese Michelin-Starred Restaurants

By MOOK Scenic Spots Editorial Team

As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, hotels, restaurants, and dessert shops are rolling out a variety of mooncakes to attract customers. In addition to Cantonese-style mooncakes entering the Taiwanese market, some even launch pop-up stores. Michelin-starred restaurants are also offering their own mooncake creations for foodies to choose from. Dessert brands maintain their signature product elements but innovate in packaging, incorporating Mid-Autumn imagery. Hotels are also going all out to provide elegant and luxurious gift boxes. The creative designs of these various mooncakes not only offer consumers options for gifting or personal enjoyment based on their preferences and needs, but also give travelers more choices such as limited-edition Mid-Autumn gift boxes when selecting souvenirs.

1. Kagaya
Yoshino Kagaya has once again collaborated with the cultural creative team “Artop” to use the Edo-period popular “ukiyo-e” woodblock prints as packaging inspiration. Leveraging the realistic and delicate style of ukiyo-e, the design showcases the majestic presence of towering mountains and vast oceans, along with a hazy full moon that conveys the classic elegance of the Mid-Autumn Festival. It embodies the refined sentiment of traditional Japanese aesthetics, creating a visual image of “the bright moon rising above the sea, shared by all under heaven.” The overall shape of the gift box radiates a sense of celestial harmony, refined elegance, and noble happiness, delivering heartfelt blessings infused with the essence of moonlight.

2. Marriott Hotel
Taipei Marriott Hotel combines classic elegance with modern fashion, presenting a Cantonese-style mooncake gift box featuring four popular flavors: “XO Sauce Salted Egg Yolk,” “White Lotus Seed Paste with Salted Egg Yolk,” “Cognac Longan with Salted Egg Yolk,” and “Yuzu Earl Grey with Salted Egg Yolk.” The set includes eight exquisitely sized pieces, allowing consumers to enjoy them with grace.

3. BAKE
Besides barbecues and mooncakes, BAKE CHEESE TART offers something different this Mid-Autumn Festival. Their highlight is the Autumn Gift Box – the BAKE CHEESE TART Golden Moon Gift Box. Carefully selected high-quality ingredients from Hokkaido are combined with Taiwan’s seasonal gifting culture and packaged in a traditional Japanese furoshiki cloth, replacing the conventional paper bag to deliver an elegant sentiment. The furoshiki cloth is not only elegantly shaped but also reusable and versatile, providing consumers with a fresh and unique gifting option for the autumn season.

4. Hong Kong Maxim’s Mooncakes
Classic Cantonese mooncakes make their first explosive appearance in Taiwan this fall. Hong Kong Maxim’s Mooncakes, which have been the best-selling in Hong Kong for 19 consecutive years, have opened their first 3D moon scenery pop-up store in Taiwan in the Xinyi District. The pop-up features hyper-realistic decorations including the moon, maple trees, jade rabbits, and Maxim’s signature “Flowing Custard Mooncakes.” The classic Cantonese flavors “Double Yolk White Lotus Seed Paste Mooncake” and “Double Yolk Lotus Seed Paste Mooncake” have won the Cantonese mooncake ranking championship for three consecutive years. Their self-developed and unique “Flowing Custard Mooncake” features a distinctive burst-in-your-mouth filling, creating a custard flow craze upon its launch. Additionally, they have introduced the “Flowing Custard White Lotus Seed Paste Mooncake” for the first time, reinterpreting the traditional lotus seed paste flavor to offer a multi-layered taste experience.