Mid-Autumn festival 2024: The best traditional mooncakes to try in Singapore

Marina Bay Sands encapsulates all of the moon’s brilliance with its glowing lunar box that shows how tradition meets modernity with a choice between four baked mooncakes. By sourcing prime ingredients across Asia, executive pastry chef Hoi Kuok I, used traditional Cantonese techniques to craft elevated classics like the lotus paste with salted egg yolk, specially dipped in Chinese wine.

The 20-year dried tangerine peel shines in the red bean paste mooncake that presents a balanced blend of the sweet paste with the fresh zest of the tangerine peel. Hoi plays with texture in the torch ginger with candied winter melon rendition that he intends as a nod to the key ingredient in Singapore’s beloved rojak. Opulence is elevated with the Changbai mountain ginseng mooncake that is hailed as the ‘king of all herbs’ as Hoi leverages northeast China’s produce, enriched with sliced almond for a satisfying crunch.

The set comes complete with an assortment of fragrant teas curated by Tea Bone Zen Mind to pair aptly with the mooncakes.

Marina Bay Sands
Address: 10 Bayfront Avenue, S(018956), +65 6688 8868

The Origin Bar offers a mooncake set fit for your cocktail aficionado friends who believe a well-crafted libation is indispensable to any degustation, especially during the festive seasons. Inspired by Origin Bar’s signature cocktails from its newly launched Infinity menu, six baked mooncakes are packaged alongside a flask of voyager negroni.

The signature eyes scream cocktail takes mooncake form in the milk lotus with strawberry and citrus mooncake, and offers a creamy blend of sweet strawberry with a light zesty kick. Alongside it is the salted caramel with coffee mooncake inspired by Origin Bar’s starbugs cocktail, and presents a coffee-based paste with strong caramel notes.

As you bask under the moon’s gentle glow this Mid-Autumn Festival, enjoy TWG Tea’s new Amber Rose Tea collection. TWG Tea maintains tradition with its baked mooncake selection of four celestial flavours. The jewel mooncake features a coral-orange crust infused with amber rose tea and filled with white lotus. Bite into the mooncake to reveal its raspberry almond core that lends a fruity tartness. You may not be able to resist the glowing lure of the illumination mooncake with an orange crust that encases a milk oolong infused white lotus paste. The fragrant filling is perfectly complemented by its mango almond centre.

The collection also includes the constellation mooncake similar to the beloved classic lotus paste with salted egg yolk, where the lotus paste is infused with Singapore breakfast tea. To round off the baked selection, the Jade mooncake features a white lotus paste infused with fragrant almond tea made extra nutty with a scatter of macadamia nuts.

TWG Tea
Address: 2 Orchard Turn, #02-20/21 ION Orchard, S(238801), +65 6735 1837

Jade gives you all the well wishes and luck you need during the festivities as they encase four large mooncakes in an elegant red box with gold hardware, aptly embodying timeless luxury. Jade honours tradition with its classic single and double yolk with lotus paste mooncake that lend the quintessential sweetness cut off by the indulgent savouriness of salted egg yolk.

Alongside the classics, you can look forward to being treated with two new flavours. Sweet, sour, and earthy notes are perfectly balanced in the assam tea with lemon, mung bean and raisin baked mooncake, while the premium mixed nuts baked mooncake is a nod to the Cantonese classic.

Jade
Address: 1 Fullerton Square, S(049178), +65 3129 8330

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Cherry Garden stays true to the Mandarin Oriental, Singapore’s floral adornment in its baked mooncake set that is not only served in a leatherette box embellished with blossoms but features tea-infused floral flavours. Get a taste of this in the exceptionally Singapore blend that promises a nutty flavour rounded off by the sweet and fragrant notes of orchid. Bring your summer indulgence into the festivities with the tropical infusion that layers the sweetness of coconut with the tart and fruity zing of hibiscus. These are served alongside traditional flavours in the two-tiered four treasure set.

For something lighter, opt for the two treasure set, featuring low sugar white lotus paste with a single yolk, and low sugar white lotus paste with tropical oasis tea and coconut.

Fine ingredients and decadent flavour is guaranteed in Hua Ting’s offering of baked mooncakes. Presented in a carved wood fronted box that doubles as a jewellery box following your degustation, are three traditional and new flavours fit for your festivities. Macadamia nuts are added to the classic lotus paste with salted egg yolk mooncake for a textured bite, while the Seeds of Harmony mooncake will especially appease nut lovers. Look forward to the lightly roasted and sweet notes of the new black sesame with melon seeds flavour that encloses a rich velvety black sesame paste in a delicate baked crust.

Hua Ting is also offering a special teapot mooncake collection that includes a curated teapot set and 16-year aged Pu’er tea that perfectly complements its mooncakes.

Timeless heritage is embodied in the Capital Kempinski Hotel’s mini baked mooncakes that offer the classic white lotus paste with salted egg yolk, promising that familiar velvety bite all balanced with the savoury rich yolk. Tradition aside, new flavours are featured in the set with contrasting textures like the red bean osmanthus with mixed nuts, or the indulgent black sesame paste with egg yolk that combines the subtle nuttiness of sesame with the creamy salted egg yolk. If that isn’t enticing enough, the Capitol Kempinski Hotel’s lava custard rendition is a gourmand’s dream with a slightly flaky crust and a molten golden custard core. The mini baked mooncake set is encased in a striking blue box with golden embellishments that double as a jewellery box after the mid-autumn festivities.

The Capitol Kempinski Hotel Singapore
Address: 15 Stamford Road, S(178906), +65 6368 8888

Carried in a soft pink satin bag, Yàn’s mooncakes are available in sets of two and four with new flavours like baked red bean paste with melon seed. Vegans will be happy to hear that they, too, can indulge in this egg-free Cantonese-style mooncake that boasts a fragrant red bean paste studded with melon seeds.

Each year, Yàn promises its indulgent thousand layer yam mooncake, and this year is just the same. Enjoyed plain or with an egg yolk for that satiating savoury bite, the golden delicate swirls of the pastry that enclose the sweet and smooth yam paste create the perfect indulgent bite.

Yàn
Address: 1 Saint Andrew's Road, #05-02 National Gallery Singapore, S(178957), +65 6384 5585

5 on 25’s mooncake set is fit for traditional connoisseurs and adventurous gourmands with its old and new flavours. Alongside the classic lotus paste and salted egg yolk mooncake, the 5 on 25 signature tea rendition is a long-time favourite boasting a fragrant infusion of osmanthus, oolong, and pu’er tea for a both refreshing and rich flavour.

The truffle-damia mooncake is a new flavour that brings opulent truffle oil into the mix, subtly infused into velvety smooth lotus paste and complemented with macadamia nuts. Those partial to cheng tng will enjoy the red date jubilee flavour that accompanies the sweet lotus paste with succulent logan and sweet red dates.

Xin Cuisine Chinese Restaurant is offering what they do best this mooncake season—the Teochew yam paste with a creamy yolk that encases a savoury and velvety smooth yam paste in a golden flaky crisp pastry. The mini baked egg custard mooncake is an extra treat with a decadent egg custard inside, made all the more indulgent with the classic salted egg yolk.

On the bottom drawer of its two-tiered gold embossed box is the best seller low sugar white lotus seed paste mooncake with two salted yolks, the perfect excuse to continue your mooncake degustation.

In a refined bamboo box made to double as a lunch box, The Westin Singapore offers satiating flavours alongside traditional mooncakes we know and love. The mixed nuts and nasi lemak sambal put unexpected flavours into the traditional treat, perfectly fit for curious gourmands like us. Find sweet delight in the sweet potato flavour perfectly rounded off by the creamy notes of taro coconut. Matcha finds its place in the matcha red bean with rose with a refined flavour profile of earthy floral notes.

The Westin Singapore
Address: 12 Marina View, Asia Square Tower 2, S(018961), +65 6922 6888

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