Ann, the mooncake display at my local Asian grocer seems to have left the planet. Is this normal for Mid-Autumn Festival or has something changed?
You’re right, the displays and the gift boxes are absolutely out of this world this year! It’s like a kind of mooncake space race that just keeps accelerating.
Mooncake tins have always been pretty visually stunning, but they’re usually just colourful boxes, perhaps with some embossed detail.
In recent years, on top of an ever-growing variety in mooncake flavours, packaging has really stepped up. You may have seen intricate paper cutouts, functioning lanterns, faux-leather carry cases, that sort of thing.
Ann, there is a mooncake vending machine. It is $129.
It’s wild, right? A few Australian companies have started really cornering this market – one of them has put out a $178 eight-mooncake gift box that’s also a light-up diorama.
As Moon Festival becomes more widely known outside Asia and diaspora communities, more brands are jumping on the bandwagon.
There’s also the fact that Asia is easily the world’s largest luxury goods market, and consumption of luxury goods in south-east Asia, in particular, is growing. Last year in China, the government cracked down on extravagant mooncakes and “excessive packaging”, decrying “rampant money worship”.
But I suspect what has really sent this trend into overdrive are all the unboxing videos.
Unboxing like, say, a beauty vlogger would do?
Yes. The ornate boxes, and filming the unboxings, have been around in Asia for a while.
But with mooncakes it’s only recently become a thing in Australia, thanks to local producers. Maybe it’s easier to show you some.
And then there’s the high-end, VIP gift versions.
So, I don’t know mooncakes but I do know luxury brands. Are any of the other big global conglomerates trying to cash in on this trend in obscene and slightly patronising ways?
Oh, yeah – big time. A bunch of luxury brands have been doing extremely cool (and extremely inaccessible) mooncake boxes for some years now – Dior, Burberry, Audemars Piguet, Celine, Christian Louboutin, just to name a few.
Some of these are apparently so exclusive that “money can’t buy them”, only clout can. Although clout, of course, is something you can buy – they are given to brands’ biggest spenders as a token of appreciation.
These boxes come with knick-knacks like silverware, crockery, watercolours, music boxes and tea sets.
Last year, the Audemars box came with a watch.
That’s a huge part of why we’re seeing this explosion of over-the-top mooncakes – people want a taste of that luxury and companies are providing.
In Hong Kong and Singapore, hotels and patisseries have built whole reputations on their offerings. It’s such a big deal that counterfeit mooncakes bearing forged logos have been seized at customs.
A faked moon conspiracy! What is the craziest real one you’ve seen this year?
It’s maybe an even split between Audemars Piguet – the box is a leather-covered lantern that comes with interchangeable projection covers and a telescope (a telescope!), and this Tiffany one which has a moon-themed Connect Four inside.
OK, final question: where are you, a non-Tiffany’s VIP, getting your mooncakes this year?
I’m in Sydney, so Thai Kee IGA’s dedicated mooncake stall in Market City. They stock local heroes such as Ommi’s, collaborations with patisserie 15cenchi and chocolatier Koko Black, and elaborate gift-box designs from Sweet Lu, as well as the classics such as Kee Wah.
