Top 10 Most Appetizing Mooncake Flavors in Vietnam

The Vietnamese Mooncake Origin

Vietnam is one of the countries where mooncakes have been widely adapted from their Chinese origins. There are numerous intriguing myths about the mooncake's early beginnings that have been passed down through the ages in China. The Song Dynasty in China, which ruled from 1127 to 1279, is when the word "mooncake" first entered the language. Mooncakes had become a staple of the harvest moon festival by the Ming Dynasty. While the precise date of the introduction of mooncakes to Vietnam is unknown, Chinese culture has had a significant effect on Vietnamese cuisine for hundreds of years.

Two happy children participating in the Mid-Autumn Festival with their families

Tet Trung Thu was celebrated in Vietnam as a unique occasion for reunification and harmony. After a successful harvest, family and friends would get together once a year to unwind, sing songs, and have tea beneath the light of the full moon. Kids would eagerly anticipate staying up late, walking about with star lanterns in the dark, and listening for the lion dancers' drumming. Mooncakes in the shapes of squares for the earth and rounds for the sky were the ideal dessert for this enchanted evening.

You shouldn't miss out on the article about Mid-Autumn Festival Traditions in Vietnam

The Vietnamese Mooncake Meaning

Mooncake, which has the form of a full moon, represents the coming together of all family members after a protracted period of separation. However, there are only two primary shapes of traditional mooncakes in Vietnam: the square and the circular. The square is thought to represent the Earth, and the circle is the sky.

Mooncakes are often consumed with tea and cut into little wedges. Today, it is common for businesspeople and families to deliver cake to their customers or loved ones as a gift, which contributes to the growth in popularity of expensive mooncakes.

The Square Is Thought To Represent The Earth, And The Circle Is The Sky

Traditional & Creative - New Flavors

Vietnam once had just two different kinds of mooncakes. Up to 10 components, including lotus seeds, smoked sausage, lime leaves, and a special sauce or wine, were used to make savory mixed paste mooncakes. Mooncakes prepared with mixed paste would be cooked in square molds. On family altars, these cakes would be offered, and they would be eaten at home. To be consumed immediately, the spherical mung bean mooncakes were baked using sticky rice flour. They can be consumed at home or offered at Buddhist pagodas.

Banh Nuong (Gold Baked Moon Cake) and Banh Deo (Soft sticky rice-covered Moon Cake) are classic mooncakes. Mooncakes may now be found in a variety of shapes and styles with a wide range of fillings and crusts. There are many more flavors of mooncakes available today than there were in the past. Large mooncakes for sharing are typically made in traditional bakeries using ingredients like lotus seed, coconut flesh, black sesame, almonds, and green rice.

Traditional Vietnam Mooncake With Taro And Salted Egg Flavor

More creative bakers provide their customers with pistachio, coffee, chocolate, jelly, strawberry, durian, and even mooncakes made with jelly.

Modern Mooncakes With Fancy Design With A Variety Of New Flavors

Top 10 Mooncake Flavors in Vietnam

In Vietnam, hundreds of mooncake fillings can be divided into 2 main tastes which are sweet and mixed. The most common fillings are traditional mixed nuts, green beans, lotus seed paste, taro, coconut juice, Chinese sausage, salted egg yolk, and others. Today, many innovative recipes of mooncakes have added Isomalt and Maltitol sugar which is good for vegans and people going on a diet. Here’s a list of the top 10 must-try Vietnam mooncake flavors that’ll make you desire a bite.

1. Traditional mixed nuts

Despite thousands of modern fillings, the traditional mixed flavor has been the most preferable to many Vietnamese people. This kind of filling is a mix of sophisticated ingredients including five kernels: lotus seeds, pumpkin seeds, watermelon seeds, peanuts, and sesame seeds. This combination can be added with more ingredients such as walnuts, cashew, Chinese sausage, lemon leaves, roast chicken, and salted egg yolk. Also, expensive shark fin and bird nests are added to make high-end products.

Traditional mixed nuts filling of Vietnamese mooncakes

2. Lotus seed paste

Lotus seeds are especially good for the cardiovascular system, anti-aging, and night sleep. That’s why the Vietnamese locals consider lotus seeds as traditional therapy and favorite material. Lotus seed paste is made from dried lotus seeds which create a sweet and smooth filling paste for mooncakes. The traditional-style mooncake is usually filled with pure lotus single yolk and single salted egg yolk in the center.

Traditional Vietnam Mooncakes with lotus seed paste and one salted egg yolk 

3. Red/Green bean paste

Thanks to its not-so-sweet and easy-to-eat flavor, red or green bean paste is a perfect alternative to traditional mixed nuts. Both sweet and salty fillings made from beans are widely interested by lots of Vietnamese people. Interestingly, this mooncake flavor is not only easy to taste but also simple to make. The harmony of organic ingredients like red bean, green bean, cooking oil, white sugar, sticky flour, and sesame oil has created the smooth paste.

Baked mooncake with filling made from red bean paste

4. Matcha mooncake

Green tea brings a fresh and flavorsome taste to plenty of Vietnamese food, ranging from ice cream, cookies, and yogurt to mooncakes. Green tea mooncakes are perfect for Matcha lovers; because unlike usual crusts, the mooncakes have a soft and slightly chewy texture of snow skin which is similar to mochi. Chewing a bite of green tea mooncake, you’ll feel a taste of fresh matcha and a lingering sweet aftertaste.

Matcha mooncakes give a cool and refreshing taste

5. Mochi mooncake

Mochi mooncakes also called snow skin or snowy mooncakes, use a cooked glutinous rice flour crust that gives you a soft and chewy texture. Rooted in Singaporean culture, snow skin mooncakes are made by Japanese mochi recipes with different colors and flavors consisting of green beans, fruits, jams, chocolate, coffee, cheese, durian, etc. In spite of being served chilled, this no-bake mooncake brings a unique savor of soft crust combined with a refreshing taste after being refrigerated.

Snow skin mooncakes usually have colorful decorations

6. Salted Egg Yolk Custard Lava Mooncakes

The conventional mooncake is elevated by Salted Egg Yolk Custard Lava Mooncakes. The molten salted egg yolk in the center, the eggy custard in the middle, and the flaky cookie shell that encases all three tastes in one can all be tasted in the lava mooncakes.

Taste The Lava Mooncakes With Three Different Layers

7. Coconut mooncake

A tenderly sweet filling made of coconut offers you the most appealing and healthiest mooncake than ever. One of the popular combinations contains shredded coconut, young coconut milk, lotus seed, and sesame seed. Coconut mooncakes give tasters a distinctively mesmerizing savor, unlike other mooncakes. Such a savory mooncake to die for!

A mixed combination of coconut filling mooncake in Vietnam

8. Pineapple leaf paste

A mooncake filled with pineapple leaf paste brings a sugary and refreshingly bitter. Furthermore, thanks to the abundance of nutrients in pineapple leaves, you can relieve flu, and fever; cure diarrhea, and TB disease; help to smooth the digestion system and other health issues. Frequently mixed with green bean, mooncakes made from pineapple leaf is unsurprisingly prevalent among Vietnamese people.

Pineapple leaf is a perfect ingredient for mooncakes in Vietnam

9. Jelly mooncake

The Jelly version of the Vietnamese mooncake is made from gracilaria or agar jelly and decorated with vibrant colors and plenteous patterns with a colorful center. In addition to normal fillings, jelly mooncakes are often filled with soft fillings such as flan cake, caramel, and milk jelly. This type of mooncake is fresh without preservatives so it’s best served chilled as a refreshing dessert and preserved in a short time.

Jelly mooncakes have a refreshing taste after fridged

10. Black garlic mooncake

Black garlic has been the weirdest and wackiest flavor in the history of mooncakes. Besides, black garlic has plenty of amazing advantages: cardiovascular protection, anti-virus, cancer prevention, lowering cholesterol, immune booster, etc. Instead of colorful crusts, this mooncake has a great variety of fillings and a black crust created from finely ground black garlic. The mystery of gothic color must arouse your curiosity about what the mooncake tastes like. Once the cake hits you with a strong garlic flavor at first bite, you’ll ease into the sweetness of the caramelized paste.

Black garlic mooncakes have been rising popular in Vietnam

Where to Buy Vietnamese mooncakes?

Two months ahead of Mid-Autumn Day, Vietnamese mooncakes are sold broadly in the whole country. You should be aware of numerous brand names spreading in the market. Count on these reliable brands to find your favorite taste.

Nhu Lan

• Price range: 2.5 USD - 45.5 USD

As a brand of "Vietnamese high-quality goods" for many years voted by consumers, Nhu Lan cake always puts the interests and health of customers first. By choosing Nhu Lan mooncakes, consumers are completely assured of the quality, safety, and hygiene of food because Nhu Lan always strictly complies with the regulations of the health authorities. All ingredients are selected from leading suppliers in the country and certified by authorities.

Nhu Lan Traditional Mooncakes

Kinh Do

• Price range: 1.5 USD - 213 USD

Speaking of mooncakes, you will probably immediately think of Kinh Do mooncakes - a familiar brand for all ages. You will see these Kinh Do cakes along the streets in the mid-autumn season. Kinh Do, one of the famous brands in Vietnam, has affirmed its name with the enthusiasm of the founders, product quality, and the trust of consumers.

Kinh Do Mooncake Package

Givral

• Price range: 4 USD - 20 USD

It is a famous cake brand of Saigon with a long history and more than 60 years of baking experience. Founded in the early 1950s by a French owner named Alain Portier, Givral mooncakes truly embody the elegance and sophistication of French culinary culture, captivating generations of connoisseurs. Vietnamese consumers for generations. For more than half a decade, Givral mooncake has stood out in the market as the brand name "For the health of consumers". And is the most expensive mooncake brand in Vietnam. Referring to Givral, people often think of fresh, healthy cakes.

Givral Mooncakes' Flavors

Madame Huong

• Price range: 7.27 USD - 27.79 USD per package

Madame Huong is famous for French bread, wedding cakes, gato cakes, sponge cakes, etc. But on the full moon day of August, the shop produces more mooncakes. The more successful, the more constantly improving product quality. Especially with the line of moon cakes that are always produced according to a unique, new, and eye-catching recipe, along with the relentless efforts of the staff who are always innovating to launch mooncake collections. bring a modern feature but still bold Vietnamese traditional flavor. Currently, Madame Huong has addresses and sales kiosks in most provinces and cities across the country.

The Luxurious Beauty Of Madame Huong Mooncakes

Dong Khanh

• Price range: 1.62 USD - 68.41 USD

The flavor of Dong Khanh mooncake always has its own unique flavor that no other brand has. The characteristic of the cake is created by the heirloom recipe introduced in the baking process. Dong Khanh moon cake was once a high-class traditional mooncake product in the hearts of consumers. The cake has a rich flavor of traditional identity, the aroma of the cake is created from lemon leaves, and grapefruit flowers. Ingredients for making cakes from glutinous rice flour, sugar, green beans, red beans, lotus seeds, etc. 

Dong Khanh Mooncake Still Keeps Its Unique Taste

Bibica

• Price range: 1.50 USD - 12.83 USD

Dong Phuong Mooncake

• Price range: 1.50 USD - 10.69 USD

Founded in the 1950s, Dong Phuong is a bakery brand that has become so familiar not only to the people of Hai Phong but also to neighboring provinces. Eating oriental mooncakes and drinking tea during the Mid-Autumn Festival is a hobby of those who are considered culinary connoisseurs in this land. Dong Phuong Mooncakes are produced according to the traditional method of the nation in a completely closed environment with modern technology. Baked cakes here have a thin crust, soft cakes, greasy sausage filling, and lemon leaves just bring up the aroma; the sticky rice cake is made from roasted, ground, and sweetened glutinous rice with grapefruit flower juice, etc. All ingredients are natural, rustic, and full of traditional flavor. Their products do not use preservatives or additives. thus retaining the characteristic flavor compared to modern industrial-produced mooncakes today.

Dong Phuong Is Famous For Its Traditional Mooncake Product Line

Long Dinh

• Price range: 20.01 USD - 144.85 USD

Long Dinh is a mooncake with bold flavors of Hong Kong, not only outstanding by its taste, but Long Dinh also carefully invested in its appearance to make them aristocratic, surely Long Dinh mooncake will be one of the top choices because of its eye-catching and luxurious appearance. This is the most prestigious mooncake brand in Vietnam.

Vietnamese Mooncake Flavor With Long Dinh

On the whole, mooncakes feature a traditional beauty existing from time to time in Vietnamese customs. The Mid-Autumn Festival will be incomplete unless you taste a piece of mooncake. Come going on Vietnam tours and try the best of mooncake appetite with BestPrice Travel. Let's find Vietnam's best tour - try Vietnam mooncake!

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Linh DK

(Images source: Internet)