Customers planning to buy mooncakes to celebrate China's traditional mid-autumn festival are being tempted by a range of new flavours ranging from soyabean and blueberry to chocolate chip and white soyabean.
Mooncakes, traditionally a rich mixture of cholesterol-loaded lotus seeds and ducks eggs wrapped in cake-shaped pastry, are a lucrative money spinner for cake shops.
Hong Kongers munch their way through more than 5 million mooncakes during the festival period at the end of September.
Saint Honore Cake Shop runs 71 outlets in Hong Kong and is forecasting double-digit growth in its mooncake sales.
"The new mooncakes are for those who appreciate a fashionable lifestyle and unique tastes," Carrina Chan, Saint Honore managing director, said. She said the company expected to sell more than 100,000 boxes of the new range.
"Some even buy eight to 12 packs of mooncakes at one time," Chan said. - Sapa-DPA
- This article was originally published on page 27 of The Sunday Tribune on August 29, 2004