Hong Kong
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The dessert-stuffed Dubai chocolate bar, of viral TikTok fame, has seen many imitators.
Its chocolate snap and pistachio-pastry crunch has impressed every thing from milkshakes to croissants.
Now, Hong Kong-based Conspiracy Chocolate is reimagining it once more: this time, as a mooncake.
The bean-to-bar model, launched by chocolate-obsessed couple Amit Oz and Celine Herren in 2018, has produced mooncakes earlier than that extra intently resemble the traditional Chinese treat, which is often made with candy lotus seed paste and savory salted duck egg yolk in a tender pastry casing.
But this 12 months, the duo wished to do one thing extra enjoyable and accessible.
Over 4 months, Conspiracy Chocolate developed its personal model of Dubai-based FIX Dessert’s knafeh-filled chocolate bar, which it says is much less candy and removes the tahini for a extra concentrated pistachio taste in its selfmade nut paste.
While taking a inventive strategy to flavors and textures, Oz and Herren wished to create a product that pays homage to the unique mooncake, which dates again more than 1,000 years, and is an integral half of the Mid-Autumn Festival in lots of Asian households. For instance, in the middle of the mooncake, a ball of raspberry jam encased in darkish chocolate affords a tart distinction to the richer flavors and echoes the symbolic full moon historically represented by the salted egg yolk.
“It has a lot of tradition behind it, and we really need to respect mooncake tradition,” says Oz.
Conspiracy Chocolate isn’t the just one tapping into the trend: Hong Kong dessert-makers Dulce Vida and Soulgood Bakery are additionally providing Dubai chocolate-inspired Mid-Autumn merchandise.
“We heard that people are not really spending that much in the mooncake market,” says Anjaylia Chan, founder of Soulgood Bakery. Mooncake gross sales have fluctuated over the previous decade, and after a post-Covid restoration, fell by 9% in 2024. “But at the same time, for our brand, our positioning is to always innovate.”
Soulgood Bakery has bought conventional mooncakes in the previous, however like Conspiracy Chocolate, determined to create one thing extra distinctive. Its Basque cheesecake mooncake is available in seven flavors, together with Dubai pistachio. “We want to excite our customers,” Chan provides.
Major hospitality manufacturers in the area are getting in on the motion too, together with the Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur with a Dubai chocolate mooncake, Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel’s sea salt chocolate with pistachio kunafa praline taste, and a kunafa pistachio chocolate model by the Four Seasons Hotel Singapore.
Novel flavors “spark curiosity” and generate pleasure, however “traditional mooncakes anchor the season,” Summer Lo, director of meals and beverage at Four Seasons Hotel, Singapore, informed NCS in an e mail.
While not everyone seems to be naming Dubai chocolate as their inspiration, dozens of mooncake producers are incorporating pistachio into their choices this 12 months: from Häagan-Dazs, pioneer of the ice cream mooncake, to Maxims, one of Hong Kong’s best-selling mooncake manufacturers.
Every 12 months, manufacturers take inspiration from trending meals to create various, buzzy variations of the conventional deal with for “variety-seeking customers,” says Mandy Hu, an affiliate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and director of its Center for Consumer Insights.
Trending flavors hardly ever substitute conventional ones on this billion-dollar industry, however add pleasure and appeal to new, particularly youthful, shoppers, says Hu. Social media affords a fast strategy to learn the room and will assist new manufacturers break right into a crowded market the place legacy producers typically dominate in the conventional flavors, she provides.
“If you want to stand out from the rest of the competitors, you need to offer something different,” says Hu.
Earlier this year, German courts dominated that something branded “Dubai chocolate” has to really come from Dubai to keep away from deceptive prospects. The demand for the chocolate has develop into so excessive that there are now pretend variations of imitators showing: final month, counterfeits posing as the copycat knafeh bar by Arabic candy maker Le Damas have been present in British supermarkets and recalled by the UK Food Standards Agency.
Sarah Hamouda, co-founder of FIX Dessert Chocolatier, says that whereas she has considerations about merchandise that exploit their model in an try to rip-off folks, she loves seeing how firms and people round the globe are taking inventive approaches to the trend.
“I especially love seeing people try the Middle Eastern flavours of knafeh and pistachio for the first time, and how these traditional ingredients are transformed in each new country and recipe,” Hamouda informed NCS in a written assertion. “We’ve seen everything from ‘Dubai Chocolate’ inspired cannolis in Italy, to stroopwafels in the Netherlands and mooncakes in Malaysia.”
There will be downsides to leaping on the bandwagon, although. In April, The Financial Times reported a 34% year-on-year enhance in pistachio costs, regardless of a 7% increase in production based on the United States Department of Agriculture, partially pushed by rising demand for Dubai-style chocolate and associated merchandise.
Conspiracy says it hasn’t felt the crunch, although. “The nut itself has not increased that much. What increases is the pistachio paste, because most of the people who try to recreate Dubai Chocolate will buy the pistachio paste,” which Conspiracy makes in-house, says Herren.
The small manufacturing facility goals to provide round 2,000 mooncakes over the season, which retail for HK$536 ($69) for a field of 4, till the finish of September.
While it’s a seasonal product, Conspiracy says its pistachio mooncakes are about extra than simply buzz.
“I think if what we wanted was to ride the trend, we would have done it a year ago when it was peaking. We purposely did not,” says Oz. “Beyond it being a trend, it’s something people like, and it’s good — and credit where it’s due, they [FIX Desserts] had a good idea.”