TCM mooncakes create a buzz in China

With about 10 days left before the Mid-Autumn Festival, creative trends are emerging in the mooncake market. Innovative marketing concepts like Maotai coffee and Sour plum soup of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) recipe are setting examples for mooncakes.

In recent days, the combination of wine and coffee has taken the internet by storm. As soon as Luckin Coffee's Maotai coffee was introduced, it attracted a lot of fans. Meanwhile, visiting TCM clinics to enjoy sour plum soup has become a trendy topic among young people.

The TCM hospitals in Ningbo city of Zhejiang province, has launched several medicinal mooncake varieties, and have got a surge in sales.

"Our first 200 boxes of medicinal mooncakes sold out quickly. Many residents ordered immediately because they love traditional Chinese medical stuff,” said a staff from Ningbo Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. “The second batch of mooncakes is also in high demand."

The hospital developed two types of cultural mooncakes this year, one of which is the Zhengqi mooncake, featuring four different formulas: rose and coral lily, ginseng and ejiao, or donkey-hide gelatin, sealwort and wolfberry, and ginseng and poria.

These four formulas represent the basic concepts of qi, blood, yin, and yang in traditional Chinese medicine. The fillings come in four flavors: red bean paste, pumpkin, black sesame, and purple sweet potato, all wrapped around a core made from the four formula ingredients.

"Having grown accustomed to lotus seed paste and five-nut mooncakes, these medicinal culture mooncakes offer a unique and caring touch, providing both a new culinary experience and a sense of uniqueness," praised a netizen from Ningbo.

In fact, TCM companies such as Tongren Tang, Dong'e Ejiao, and Sanjiu have ventured into areas such as mooncakes, coffee, and milk tea in recent years. While innovating their business, both new and established brands are gaining attention.

To meet ever-changing market demands, they are all striving to experiment with new creative ideas to attract a broader range of consumers, especially young people. Flavors like truffle and ham mooncakes, tea flavor lava mooncakes, nut-filled mooncakes, and Musang King durian stuffing with glutinous rice-skin mooncakes are favored in the market.

Source: People's Daily; trans-editing by Wang Yunya