It's that time of the year again, when the full moon is at its biggest and brightest. This year, the Mid Autumn Festival falls on 3 October (the 15th day of the eighth month in the lunar calendar). 

According to popular legend, eating and giving mooncakes to friends and family are a tradition to commemorate the Ming revolutionaries' successful attempt to overthrow the Mongols. Fast forward 700 years, bakeries, restaurants, and hotels battle one another to win over customers with their mooncake creations, which are getting more and more creative by the year.

In our little island nation where we are spoilt for choice, mooncake creators churn out novel flavours every year to entice jaded consumers eager for something different. Here at inSing.com, we taste-test five new flavors, and rate them separately on packaging, taste and how innovative the flavours were.

 
Snowskin apricot mooncake with popping candy
$50 for 8 pieces
Raffles Hotel
Mooncake hotline: 6412 112

Packaging
We love Raffles Hotel's retro-inspired square tin box. Its elegant and timeless look makes it a collector's item.
Rating: 4.5/5

Taste
The surprise was in the centre of the mooncake - a chocolate egg filled with Pop Rocks - made us all squeal in wondrous delight! As the carbonated candy popped and sizzled in our mouths, we were magically transported back to our childhood. What a blast! However, we thought the pink snowskin smelled rather artificial, and could be thinner. Those who like the flavour and aroma of apricot would enjoy the chopped apricot in the lotus paste.
Rating: 4/5

Innovativeness
Popping candy in mooncake? A stroke of genius, guaranteed to impress your guests! We'd happily rate this 6 out of 5.
Rating: 5/5


Mini snowskin lychee-tini
$33.90++ for a set of 6
Summer Pavillion, The Ritz Carlton, Millenia
Mooncake hotline:  6434 5286 

Packaging
Looking effortlessly chic, Ritz Carlton's bright red cardboard box features a vibrant print by artist Sam Francis. Simply open the magnetic flap with one hand and retrieve a mooncake with the other. How nifty! Plastic skewers and a knife are thoughtfully provided. Its compact size means carting multiple boxes will be a breeze.
Rating: : 4.5/5

Taste
The snowskin was incredibly thin and soft. The lotus paste was very smooth and had the perfect level of sweetness. The white chocolate truffle centre was delicious, too. On the whole, it was a delectable snowskin mooncake. But the question on everyone's minds was, "Where's the lychee-tini?"
Rating: 4/5

Innovativeness
We've seen many liquor-inspired creations, but the use of cocktail is relatively unique.
Taste: 3/5
 

Horlicks with crunchy pearls
$7.50 per piece/ $48 for 8 pieces
Marriott Hotel
Mooncake hotline: 6831 4708

Packaging
Impress your business associates with Marriott's beautiful matt gold box. With an intricate paper cutting, and a drawer that pulls out to reveal the mooncakes, this is one of the classiest packaging we've seen this year.
Rating: 4/5

Taste
Providing an interesting distraction, the crunchy Valrhona chocolate pearls were a pleasure to munch on. But instead of a distinct taste of malt - which is what Horlicks is - the paste tasted too strongly of milk. Although it wasn't too sweet on the whole, the richness was cloying after a while.
Rating: 3.5/5

Innovativeness
We like the idea of Horlicks and chocolate. Too bad the execution didn't quite make us go ho-ho-ho!
Rating: 4.5/5


Soursop paste in snowskin
$22++ for 2 pieces/$40++ for 4 pieces
Goodwood Park Hotel
Mooncake hotline: 6730 1867

Packaging
Bright yellow with silver floral prints, Goodwood Park's elegant design is easy on the eye. However, its longish rectangular shape might pose some issues for storage in a cluttered fridge.
Rating: 3.5/5

Taste
The filling was made of real chunks of fresh soursop. Tangy and refreshing, the sorbet-like consistency of the filling tasted best when taken straight from the freezer. However, the beautiful jade-green snowskin looked better than it tasted; it was a little too thick and stodgy.
Rating: 3.5/5

Innovativeness
While the use of fruit in mooncakes isn't new, soursop is a new and bold experiment.
Rating: 3.5/5


BBQ meats & selected nuts mooncake
$25 for 6 pieces/$36 for 9 pieces
Kia Hiang Restaurant
Mooncake hotline: 6273 7352

Packaging 
The size of the rectangular box is just right, but the use of wood makes it quite heavy, not to mention environmentally unfriendly! Neither were we attracted to the dull black and red exterior.
Rating: 2/5

Taste
The BBQ meat is bak kwa, or barbequed pork jerky. There wasn't an obvious presence of bak kwa as they were finely chopped but the meat did lend a subtly savoury taste and smoky flavour to contrast the sweetness of the mixed nuts. Taste-wise, the fragrant, nutty filling was pleasant to chew on, and wasn't too sweet. The baked skin was thin and well made. But the almonds were a little bitter. Strictly for mixed nuts mooncake fans.
Rating: 3.5/5

Innovativeness
The use of savoury ingredients in mixed nut mooncakes isn't new - think Jin Hua ham. So why didn't anyone else think of using bak kwa earlier?
Rating: 3.5/5