With three weeks left to go before the Mid-Autumn festival, bakeries around the country have kicked into high-gear to provide unique mooncakes for the upcoming festivities.
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A generous pour of red wine soaks a tray of top-quality longan. These are the star ingredients in the “Red Wine Stuffed Longan Mooncakes” launched this year from a well-known Changhua meat bun shop. The cakes are fruity and aromatic– just one bite blends together leaving a long-lasting unforgettable aftertaste.
Customers say the strong smell of red wine, and the taste, not so sweet, feels healthy and refreshing.
While the shop usually sells egg yolk cakes for Mid-Autumn Festival, this year they will exclusively launch the red wine longan mooncakes; an effort in which the shop has spared no expense. In addition to buying top-quality longans in large amounts, the red wine for the recipe comes from the owner’s personal wine collection.
At another famous Changhua pastry shop, the owner is the third-generation of Chiang Kai-shek’s imperial chef, and says he inherited his mooncake recipe from his grandfather. With a taste that speaks for itself, his cakes have sold out fast– up to 5,000 boxes a day.
The store owner has also had to deal with rising costs of butter and eggs, thanks in part to the recent typhoon. These costs, however, were absorbed by the owner himself to provide the best possible customer experience.
Many loyal customers rushed to place orders beginning last year, with some even ordering 12 boxes in one day.
The fervor comes from the purity and simplicity of ingredients. With massive lines every year, even the police get involved to maintain order.
With three weeks left to go before the Mid-Autumn Festival, the mooncake market is booming with fresh recipes and old favorites, each vying to win the hearts, and taste buds, of Taiwanese around the country.
Amanda Stephens for RTI News