10 Tea-Infused Mooncakes For Mid-Autumn Festival 2022
Love having tea with mooncakes? Here are 10 tea-infused mooncakes for your celebration this year
Mooncakes and tea are a perennially popular pairing. Pots of freshly-brewed oolong or pu’erh tea are familiar sights around platters of mooncakes come Mid-Autumn festival, which falls on 10 September.
More dining establishments are incorporating the tea from Matcha and Hojicha to Longjing and Oolong into baked and snowskin mooncakes this year. The rise of tea-infused mooncakes is bolstered by Singapore’s ardent love for bubble tea, which shows no signs of slowing down. Some restaurants are also incorporating the milk tea flavour into their snowskin renditions.
We chomped on 10 tea-based mooncakes to get into the festive spirit.
Every year, the tea company rolls out mooncakes that are inspired by tea from its extensive repertoire. This year, the tea-infused mooncakes take their cue from the Immortal Moon Tea, a white tea and green tea infused with soft, ripe berries. The snowskin mooncake, which is embellished in gold leaf, resembles a shimmery moon. The white lotus paste, which is perfumed by the floral and fruit-forward notes from the tea, is studded with white chocolate pearls and a white chocolate core loaded with zesty mango confit.
Lemon Truffle with Green Tea Lotus Snowskin Mooncake, JW Marriott Hotel Singapore South Beach
One of the two new snowskin mooncake flavours this year, the Lemon Truffle with Green Tea lotus has a bright lemon core embedded in the fragrant green tea lotus paste. The green tea flavours is given a citrusy kick from the lemon truffle — it feels like sipping on green tea with zesty slice of lemon. The hotel has one of the more interesting mooncake packaging this year. The pretty coral blue or ocean blush boxes can be repurposed into a tea stand or mooncake tray (or a breakfast tray after the Mid-Autumn festivities).
Try this baked mooncake featuring osmanthus-infused lotus paste. The subtle sweetness of the low-sugar lotus paste is just right, which allows the osmanthus tea flavour to comes through. The Ritual Osmanthus is inspired by the boutique hotel’s bath amenities, which include a Lotus & Osmanthus scent. The mooncake giftset is packaged in a smart-looking mini briefcase, complete with a curated blend of lotus and osmanthus tea.
Signature Tea Treasures Snowskin Mooncakes, InterContinental Singapore
The hotel’s Chinese restaurant, Man Fu Yuan puts the spotlight on tea in its new snownskin collection this year. The flavours of the rose-patterned mooncakes wouldn’t look out of place in a bubble tea joint. The Passionfruit Earl Grey has a zesty passionfruit truffle centre studded in a bergamot-scented lotus paste, while the Lychee Oolong features the TWG Maori Spring Tea in its paste, which houses a lychee truffle. For Thai milk tea lovers, there is the Thai Cheese Milk Tea mooncake, which has a cream cheese truffle centre.
One of its new baked mooncake flavour by the homegrown bistro chain is the Hojicha Matcha with Raisin mooncake, which marries two popular Japanese teas. The roasty flavours dominate the palate, with the pops of raisins injecting some sweetness. The mooncakes are housed in a chic pink rattan vanity case, which is inspired by picnic baskets.
Honey Chrysanthemum & Orange Peel Snowskin Mooncake, Crystal Jade restaurants
The Chinese restaurant chain has a new assorted Fruity Blossom Petite set that features four new snowskin mooncake flavours inspired by Chinese ingredients and local flavours. The bright orange snowskin mooncake is the Honey Chrysanthemum with Orange Peel, which wouldn’t look out of place on a Chinese tea menu. The soothing honey chrysanthemum-flavoured paste in the mooncake is dotted with bits of chopped orange peel for a subtle touch of sweetness.
A number of establishments are incorporating milk tea flavour into mooncakes this year. Afterall, bubble tea is still a popular beverage, with joints still sprouting across the island. Esteemed Cantonese restaurant Wah Lok is catching up with the times with a new baby pink-hued sakura milk tea mooncake. The cherry blossom-scented skin encapsulates a sakura pink truffle, while the paste is studded with chocolate bits for added crunch. The mooncake box, which is reminiscent of an oriental-style antique cabinet, comes in a rarely-seen trapezium shape.
Royal Milk Tea Paste with Irish Coffee Truffle Snowskin Mooncake, St Regis Singapore
Paying homage to the yin-yang coffee and tea drink is this new truffle snowskin mooncake, which features milk tea paste and an intensely flavoured Irish coffee truffle. The mooncakes are presented in a posh glossy glass box cabinet that is adorned with flower motifs.
Hongyu black tea lotus with pomelo, citrus peel and pumpkin seed baked mooncake, Mandarin Oriental Singapore
Hongyu black tea from Taiwan is well-loved for its aromatic notes of menthol and cinnamon, and the hotel has deftly infused the flavour into the lotus paste. It is uplifted by zesty notes from the citrus peel and pomelo, which is rarely-seen in baked mooncakes.
Imperial “Long Jing” Tea with Pumpkin Seeds Baked Mooncake, Marriott Singapore Tang Plaza
One of the most well-known teas from China, Long Jing is a pan-roasted green tea that is loved for its mellow and sweet flavour that is reminiscent of roasted chestnut. The mooncake features the tea-infused paste studded with pumpkin seeds.
Mooncake boxes have morphed into make-up kits and laptop cases over the years. Now you can add teapot set casing to the list. The Origin+Bloom mooncake set by the bakery run by Marina Bay Sands has a gongfu ceremonial tea set fitted into a hefty wooden box. Fitting snugly are four mooncakes – one of them is the royal milk tea with melon seeds. The baked mooncake’s Darjeeling tea-infused lotus paste has a crisp fragrance, and melon seeds for a textural contrast to the smooth lotus paste.
Text: Kenneth SZ Goh/The Peak