Mid-autumn festival special edition: the fun mooncake series

As the Mid-Autumn Festival draws near, many people are excitedly anticipating their trips home or to vacation spots to unwind. At the same time, Chinese consumers are becoming more pragmatic about mooncake purchases. According to the "2024 China Mooncake Industry Market Trends Report" from China Association of bakery & Confectionery Industry, this year's mooncake production and sales are expected to remain stable or see a slight decline compared to last year. Mooncake gift boxes are primarily priced between ¥70 and ¥220 ($10-$31), while those costing over ¥500 ($70) are largely disappearing from the market.

For many consumers, traditional mooncake flavours and shapes no longer offer a sense of excitement. Instead, health benefits, unique experiences, and great value for money have become more important factors. So, as the festival approaches, we've curated a selection of intriguing and unconventional mooncakes to provide you with a fresh visual and sensory experience, ensuring a Mid-Autumn Festival like no other!

1. Daoxiang Village & Black Myth: Wukong: Mooncakes featuring game characters

On August 28th, Daoxiang Village partnered with the globally popular game IP to release a special mooncake gift box. The design is inspired by several classic monsters from the game—“Tiger Vanguard”, “Black Bear Guai”, “Baw-Li-Guhh-Lang” and “Yellow brow,” the destined character “Wukong.” The game development company’s “Company Cat” (which provided motion capture for many game characters) even makes a showing. The mooncakes come in flavours including barley red bean, cloud leg, jujube paste, salted egg yolk lotus paste, Wuren and rose white peach, and are available in a limited edition for ¥99 ($13) per box.

To capture the essence of the characters, the mooncakes use special production techniques such as dual-colour gradients and single-point colouring, showcasing a high level of craftsmanship. Images are from Digitaling.com.

The mooncake gift box features beautifully rendered 3D images of characters from the game IP, closely recreating various figures from game. Images are from Digitaling.com.

2. Spicy strips brand Mala Wangzi: black truffle & spicy strips mooncakes

To promote this mooncake, Mala Wangzi produced a commercial called “Moon Landing Plan.” In the ad, Chang'e, tired of traditional mooncake flavours, sends the Jade Rabbit to Earth to discover a new taste, cleverly revealing the mooncake-making process. The mooncake combines black truffle in the crust with spicy snack filling, merging these seemingly unrelated ingredients. While the flavour may be hard to imagine, the innovative concept is truly impressive. This product is now available in the brand’s Taobao flagship store for ¥188 ($26) per box.

Images are from Digitaling.com.

3. 24 solar terms mooncakes

Guan Cha has introduced a mooncake gift box inspired by China’s 24 solar terms, featuring 24 mini mooncakes with distinct appearances and flavours. The brand emphasizes that these solar terms are integral to Chinese life and philosophy, reflecting ancient concepts about life, nature, and the cosmos. The mooncakes are available on Xiaohongshu for ¥278 ($39) per box.

Images are from Xiaohongshu.

4. Alien mooncakes

As the only creative product existing solely in the digital realm, this uniquely bizarre and dark mooncake is a creation from Midjourney. While the recent release of the "Alien" movie in August may have already provided plenty of scares for many Chinese viewers, science fiction enthusiasts who love such IPs will undoubtedly find this clawed, menacing mooncake to be a delightful surprise.

Images are from Xiaohongshu.

5. #Xiaohongshu Mooncake Creative Contest

Many users on Xiaohongshu/RED have shared their unique mooncake creations under this hashtag, showcasing a variety of quirky flavors. Some examples include hú là tāng mooncakes (hú là tāng is a traditional Henan breakfast soup with a spicy and tangy taste), snail rice noodles mooncakes, mustard salmon mooncakes, and crayfish mooncakes. These inventive flavours always receive praise and adoration from Xiaohongshu users.

Images are from Xiaohongshu.

These new, weird and wonderful mooncakes are symbolic of wider consumer tastes, where consumers seek healthy, novel, collabs, digital experiences and/or value for money in many things they buy. Some things to think about for your own products.