The Mid-autumn Festival (中秋節), otherwise commonly referred to in English as the Moon Cake Festival, falls on Nov. 3. A combination of economic uncertainty and fear of fattening sweets has kept sales rather modest this year.
The exchange of boxes of moon cakes is customary at this time of year, and bakeries, hotels and charity organizations all want a piece of the pie.
Charities have been especially hard hit, with the United Daily News reporting that sales for some organizations are down by as much as 90 percent, possibly because of charity fatigue after Typhoon Morakot.
This downturn has not prevented some of Taiwan’s leading bakeries from releasing top-dollar gift boxes of elaborately concocted moon cakes, such as Hsin Tung Yang’s (新東陽) NT$1,580 three-cake gift box that features Hokkaido scallops.
If you dislike the red bean, mung bean or date pate that constitute the basic filling of most traditional moon cakes, there are many Western-style bakeries that have come up with their own innovative takes on the moon cake genre. Haagen-Dazs offers up-market ice cream versions. Its Deluxe Collection (金尊) includes both mango-flavored yogurt and a range of different ice creams wrapped in chocolate casings. However, at NT$2,980 for a box of eight cakes, the collection is not exactly a cheap option.
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