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A Mid-Autumn Night’s Dream

September 2, 2019

We are over the moon that September is finally here because that’s when we get to feast ourselves silly with all kinds of yummy mooncakes and pair them all with our favourite Gryphon teas!

Mid-Autumn festival started in China as a post-autumn harvest cum ‘moon appreciation’ celebration to thank the gods and to celebrate family reunions. It occurs when the moon is at its fullest and roundest, usually occurring on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, and features families gathering together to admire the moon as they bond over mooncakes and tea.

Mooncakes are traditionally made with thick lotus seed paste and a thin crust, but in recent years, popular iterations of mooncakes include snow skin mooncakes, and mooncakes with a westernised twist. These mooncakes are made from glutinous rice flour and water, resulting in its characteristic chewy and soft texture.

Here, we’ll share some ideas of teas that you can pair with your mooncakes this Mid-Autumn Festival:

For traditional mooncakes filled with lotus seeds or mung beans, we recommend either our Nymph of The Nile or White Gingerlily blends. These 2 blends are made with white teas blended with florals. White teas have a lighter flavour profile which avoids overwhelming the taste of the fillings, and instead complements the filling’s sweet notes.

Our Nymph of The Nile  is blended with Persian pink roses and rosehips, while our  White Gingerlily is blended with lilies, both of which add depth to the overall profile of the mooncakes. In addition, the earthy notes from the white teas mellow out the cloying sweetness of the mung bean and lotus seed paste fillings.

If you fancy mooncakes with salted egg yolks, an ideal tea to pair them with are black teas. Salted egg yolks have strong savoury notes, hence they should be complemented with a tea profile that has a stronger body, such as black tea.

We recommend black teas like our Earl Grey Lavender blend as it pairs well with these types of mooncakes. The rich malty notes from the black tea and hint of lavender balances out the savoury and sweet notes of the mooncake.

Lastly, snow skin mooncakes tend to be more delicate, thus the complementary tea should not be too strong, yet provide a depth of flavour as well. As these types of mooncakes are usually filled with sweet ingredients like chocolate; enjoying them with green tea would be the perfect option.

Green tea provides the perfect lift to balance the sweetness of the fillings. Green tea blends like our Yuzu Pear Blossom features a Japanese green tea blended with white orchids and nashi pear. This green tea has green earthy notes with a hint of bitterness that mellows the sweet profile of the chocolate. The citrusy-floral notes from white orchids and nashi pears also help to round off the overall flavour of the mooncakes as well.

We hope you’ve gotten some inspirations from our suggestions and do try your hand at Tea and Mooncake pairing this Mid-Autumn Festival.

Here’s wishing everyone a Blessed Mid-Autumn Festival!

中秋节快乐! 😊

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