Out of every 10 people I know, maybe half a person actually likes mooncakes. It’s a rare occasion these days where people actually eat mooncakes because they like them, and not just for the holiday. Today is Mid-Autumn festival. Feel free to read the wiki on what the holiday actually is, but for me, it has always been the day I had to eat dense, incredibly sweet mooncakes.
Godiva has come up with a limited edition of mooncakes for this holiday and very graciously sent a box over for me to sample!
The “mooncakes” aren’t actually mooncakes at all. They are actually just chocolates that are cleverly labeled as “small mooncakes.” I’m saving the big one in the center (Grapefruit and Black Tea) for later, but sampled the other three types. All of them are filled with some kind of tea-infused chocolate ganache.
This is the milk chocolate one with Goji Berry and Black Tea.
It is filled with a black tea-infused dark chocolate ganache and a layer of goji berry mousse with macadamia cream and cocoa nibs. Pretty decadent sounding right? Tasted pretty decadent too. I liked that the black tea was actually very strong. Tasted a little like an Earl Grey actually, though that could be from the goji berry. I honestly don’t even know what goji berries taste like. My mom always uses it in her cooking to add color. It never seemed to serve as an actual ingredient. Cocoa nibs were distracting.
This is the white chocolate one with Mango and Green Tea.
It is filled with green tea-infused milk chocolate ganache over a layer of mango apricot mousse mixed with pieces of Brazilian hazelnuts. Really didn’t taste the mango in this one. Green tea was also very light.
This is the dark chocolate one with Mandarin and Black Tea.
It is filled with black tea-infused dark chocolate ganache and ginger-spiced mandarin orange mousse. Definitely my favorite of the bunch. It had the same strong tea flavor as the milk chocolate one, but unlike the goji (it’s really probably just because I can’t identify the flavor), this ginger-spiced mandarin mousse added a great little kick. Spicy ginger and citrus just go together. I’ve also always liked citrus chocolates.
These are a really great alternative to mooncakes if you don’t like the real deal. Very pretty packaging too – good for gifting!
I had two pieces of real mooncake yesterday, with full moon and clear sky in Beijing