On a very auspicious day – September 15th, some of us from the Carleton chapter decided to get together. It was a small catch-up session, nothing serious. Coincidentally, it was the Mooncake/Mid-Autumn Festival and so I brought some mooncakes for our Canadian Carleton Spoonies to try and get their reactions.
A Mooncake is a baked pastry, often made out of a rich, thick lotus seed paste filling that’s surrounded by a really thin crust. Sometimes you can find one or two salted egg yolks inside that create a sweet and salty taste. Mooncakes are eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival and in most parts of East and Southeast Asia, it’s deemed as one of the most important festivals.
Plain White Lotus
This is considered to be the original yet fanciest mooncake flavour. It’s made of the white lotus seed paste that's the basis of all mooncakes. It’s also my favourite mooncake flavour. In my opinion, this is least sweet of all mooncake flavours. PSA: Mooncakes are meant to be very sweet.
Olivia
Olivia said it smelled like brioche or egg bread. In terms of taste, she said it tasted surprisingly of sesame. Olivia said she thought since it was lotus paste, it might have tasted very floraly like rosewater but it was nothing like that.
Breanne
As for Breanne, she said it smelled sweet. Breanne added that this mooncake tasted like peanut butter for a second but then it stopped.
Jordana
Similar to Breanne, she said it smelled good, like toast. Jordana said it tasted like sesame but then it faded tasted like nothing. She said that the mooncake had her favourite kind of texture and she really liked it.
Shanghai White Lotus with Egg Yolk
As mooncakes can range in flavour and taste depending on the region, I thought it’d be cool if they tried one that’s not generic. The crust of this one is crumblier and flakier. It also has to be wrapped in bubble wrap so that it doesn’t break into pieces. This mooncake also has a single salted egg yolk.
Olivia
Olivia found that it smelled much sweeter than but similar to the white lotus. She said it tasted eggier than the previous mooncake. Olivia added the egg yolk tasted saltier but not too eggy.
Breanne
Breanne said that this mooncake smelled really good and that the smell of the sugar was stronger. She didn't manage to get a lot of egg so she said she couldn't taste it. Although it is much sweeter than the White Lotus, she said she liked the crust of this mooncake a lot better.
Jordana
Jordana said she thought it smelled like apple pie and the look of it gave her the impression that the smell would be similar to that. She said that the filling tasted exactly the same as the Plain White Lotus. When she accidentally took a bigger chunk of the egg yolk, she said it was too salty for her and proceeded to gulp down a cup of water.
Green Tea
As mooncakes became more popular, flavours of the original mooncake expanded. One in particular became really popular: the Green Tea flavour. It only seems natural since tea is already an essential part of East Asian culture. In some of them, they include pieces of red beans and white sweet beans.
Olivia
Olivia didn’t have much to say about this one. She said it smelled like green tea but only after she grabbed it closely to her nose for a whiff. Olivia also mentioned that she could taste the green tea on this one.
Breanne
Breanne on the other hand, said she couldn’t smell anything. She said she didn't like this flavour because it reminded her of a face wash she had that she also didn't like.
Jordana
Just like Breanne, Jordana said she couldn’t smell anything. She also said that this mooncake tasted like "worse nothing" compared to the other ones and that it had an aftertaste of something she didn’t like. She did say however, that it could be because she doesn’t like green tea.
There you have it, three different Canadians' opinions on the various mooncakes. Olivia and Jordana said that their favourite was the White Lotus while Breanne found the Shanghai White Lotus with the Single Egg Yolk her favourite. Treat yourself to a mooncake and see which one you like best.