Source | FBIF Food & Beverage Innovation ID | FoodInnovation Author | FBIF
Durian cheese, cold-brew coffee, highland barley dumplings, Boya Juexian, pistachio lava, pandan coconut shreds... These are not new flavors from major new tea brands, but new mooncake flavors.
Once upon a time, lotus seed paste, red bean paste, and five-nut could support most of the Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake "jianghu" (world), but now, they have long become just one of many SKUs.
Pandan coconut shred mooncake Image source: Xiaohongshu
The Mid-Autumn Festival is the concentrated new product launch event for mooncakes. "New mooncake forces" await consumers to cast their votes with real money, and from their purchase feedback, the "evolution" direction of this traditional category is discerned.
From low-GI, low-sugar to whole wheat, and medicine-food homology, healthification has become a major trend; in terms of flavor, from cold-brew coffee to cheese matcha, mooncakes are increasingly resembling new tea drinks; even the round shape symbolizing reunion is no longer the only choice—rabbits, peaches, frogs... irregular-shaped mooncakes continuously refresh imagination.
Unlike "new car-making forces," the "new mooncake forces" that have risen in recent years do not merely refer to the breakthrough and innovation of individual brands; this is a collective evolution of the entire category.
Time-honored brands actively seek change with various flavors and marketing plays; new players use the Mid-Autumn Festival as an opportunity to make health, aesthetics, and co-branding the basic cognition of mooncakes. Mooncakes, a traditional category with a hundred years of history, are "rolling out" more new tricks at a rate of once a year within a limited sales cycle.
Zhiweiguan mooncakes Image source: Zhiweiguan
Yearly "Roll"
Mooncakes Compete on "Freshness"
The mooncake "roll" is very intuitive.
To be healthy, eye-catching, and novel, mooncakes must go all out within a relatively short period. This is not a simple price war, but who can create more freshness within the same window period, making consumers feel, "This year's mooncakes, I'll buy these."
1. From Medicine-Food Homology to Low-GI, Mooncakes Play the "Health Card"
In 2022, Guangzhou Restaurant released low-GI mooncakes. According to the official website of Guangzhou Restaurant, this is "the first mooncake in China to obtain GGU low-GI food certification. The diglyceride content reaches 40%, and the glycemic index is ≤55%, which helps maintain blood sugar stability."
Similarly, Xinheweida, which focuses on producing low-sugar and low-GI healthy foods, collaborated with the Affiliated Kangning Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University this year to launch low-GI "friendly" customized mooncakes. A relevant person in charge of the Wenzhou Kangning Hospital Group introduced that this mooncake uses medicine-food homology ingredients, focuses on low GI, low calories, and high dietary fiber, and is combined with probiotics known as "gut health companions," making it very friendly to children, the elderly, and diabetics. [1]
A mooncake trend report released by JD.com shows that 56% of respondents pay attention to the healthiness of mooncake ingredients. According to the First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, low-GI mooncakes, like sugar-free mooncakes, do not add extra sucrose, and usually add some resistant starch and dietary fiber to the filling to slow down the post-meal blood sugar rise. Generally, every 100g of mooncake contains 10-15g of dietary fiber, and the glycemic index generally does not exceed 50, so even diabetics can eat them in moderation. [2]
Guangzhou Restaurant low-GI mooncakes Image source: Guangzhou Restaurant
This year, many local Chinese medicine hospitals have also launched special medicinal diet mooncakes. These mooncakes mostly use medicine-food homology ingredients such as Poria cocos, lotus seeds, and coix seeds as raw materials.
The "Five Elements Mooncakes" launched by Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine; Yangzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital launched 12 mooncake products for the Mid-Autumn Festival solar term; [3] the cultural and creative mooncakes of the Children's Hospital Affiliated to Chongqing Medical University focus on low sugar, low salt, and low fat.
Mooncakes from the Clinical Nutrition Department of Chongqing Maternal and Child Health Hospital Image source: Children's Hospital Affiliated to Chongqing Medical University
2. Low Sugar, Low Calorie, Mooncakes Become "Lighter"
Low-sugar formula, coarse grain light nourishment—this is the promotional language for Sam's Club's low-sugar multigrain mooncake gift box. And low sugar and coarse grains have become high-frequency words in this year's mooncake promotions.
Hangzhou's century-old catering brand Zhiweiguan, with the concept of light sugar and low burden, launched low-sugar/no-sucrose series such as low-sugar red bean paste tangerine peel Pu'er tea Cantonese mooncakes and xylitol Jinhua ham Suzhou-style mooncakes. Zhiweiguan also launched rice mooncakes in flavors such as red date oatmeal walnut, coconut cheese, and lactic acid bacteria strawberry.
Wufangzhai used rice and glutinous rice in combination to create the "Light Sweet Rice Moon Series" rice mooncakes, while also using medicine-food homology ingredients such as black rice, donkey-hide gelatin, and black sesame in the fillings. The brand's promotion also emphasizes soft, sticky, and light sweetness.
Light Sweet Rice Moon Image source: Wufangzhai
New brands have made many attempts at low sugar and low calories to seize opportunities.
Low-Calorie Doctor's whole wheat egg-baked mooncake baby: The packaging is marked "75 kcal per piece," using whole wheat flour for the crust, no added sucrose, reducing calories, with each mooncake at 75 kcal, suitable for the festive tasting needs of those controlling calories and sugar.
Ketone You Shijia's ketogenic mooncakes focus on "0 sucrose, 0 flour," using low-carb flour substitutes and sugar substitutes, suitable for the special needs of diabetics and those on a ketogenic diet.
"Traditional mooncakes belong to the 'three highs' food of 'high oil, high sugar, high fat,' but there is only one Mid-Autumn Festival a year, and people do not consume mooncakes as a daily large intake, so it is okay to eat some mooncakes appropriately during the Mid-Autumn Festival without being too entangled," said Wu Jia, a registered dietitian of the Chinese Nutrition Society, in an interview with People's Daily, suggesting that adults should try to consume no more than 50 grams of mooncakes per day, and diabetics should preferably not exceed 30 grams. [4]
Today, mooncake brands are also beginning to change traditional mooncakes, using low GI, whole wheat, sugar-free, 0 flour, and new materials to make "healthy" mooncakes.
Whole wheat egg-baked mooncake baby Image source: Low-Calorie Doctor Douyin
3. Mooncakes Are Not Just Round: They Can Be Rabbits, Crabs, or Even Transparent
The "involution" of mooncakes also extends to shape innovation. In the past, mooncakes symbolized reunion because they resembled the full moon, and the round shape was their classic form. Now, to attract consumers' attention, major brands are continuously breaking through in cake shapes.
Game company miHoYo made some new cross-industry attempts, launching a 2025 Mid-Autumn series commemorative gift box, making mooncakes in the shape of the "Cat Cake" from its IP "Honkai: Star Rail," making the mooncakes more closely integrated with the game IP.
Maxim's, the "top stream" in the mooncake world, has also launched rabbit-shaped mooncakes in addition to traditional shapes. This rabbit shape not only has a new association with the festive day but also brings a new change in cake shape—unlike traditional molds, this mooncake is a 3D rabbit shape. In Maxim's Douyin live stream, the host introduced that this is the first rabbit-shaped mooncake Maxim's has made for young consumers.
Around the Mid-Autumn Festival, mooncakes, which do not lack attention, can also be used to "chase hot topics."
This summer, the popularity of "Su Chao" (Jiangsu Football League) continued to rise. Therefore, time-honored brands and new brands have "hitched a ride" and launched a series of creative "Su Chao" themed mooncake gift boxes.
For example, Daoxiangcun launched the "Bulk Jiangsu Thirteen Taibao" gift box, which contains 14 mooncakes, representing 13 participating cities and one "Friendship Fourteenth." The mooncake shapes and flavors are all playing with memes: the crab-shaped "Su Deqi," the dinosaur-shaped "Chang Diandi," the peach-shaped "Wu Suowei"...
Bulk Jiangsu Thirteen Taibao gift box Image source: Daoxiangcun
Zhiweiguan made new attempts on the appearance of mooncakes, creating colored glaze enamel mooncakes.
Tang Zenglu, head of the Food Marketing Management Center of Zhiweiguan, told FBIF: "(The colored glaze mooncake) in appearance, the crust is as transparent as colored glaze, like a romantic 'kaleidoscope' or classical patterned window; colors use elegant tones such as peacock blue, bud green, and bright red; shapes are non-traditional like oval and diamond; in craftsmanship, we successfully built an automated dispensing and piping production line."
Tang Zenglu of Zhiweiguan introduced that originally, manual dispensing of colored glaze mooncakes was easily affected by human factors, resulting in unstable quality. With the use of AI intelligent dispensing and other technologies, the product refinement and production efficiency have significantly improved.
Zhiweiguan colored glaze mooncakes Image source: Zhiweiguan
4. Some Brands Spend Millions on "Appearance"
Even the "appearance" of mooncakes has become a battlefield for brands to "roll."
This year, Pangdonglai's self-operated mooncake packaging boxes were designed by the team of Alan Chan from Hong Kong, China. One of the moon appreciation gift box series packaging boxes, when pulled, the rabbit pattern on the box can "move." Currently, this self-operated mooncake is completely sold out.
According to Blue Whale News, some netizens revealed that Pangdonglai's self-operated mooncake gift boxes this year cost tens of millions of yuan in packaging design. Pangdonglai responded that the design fees for 9 mooncake gift box designs in 2025 were 3.72 million yuan, and the design fees for 21 loose mooncake packaging designs were 420,000 yuan. [5]
Pangdonglai Moon Appreciation Gift Box Image source: Xiaohongshu @Lili Ya
5. Tea, Wine, Milk, and Fruits All Join the Mooncake Family
Flavor innovation is even more the highlight of mooncake "involution." Various ingredients such as tea, wine, milk, and fruits are being incorporated into mooncakes, breaking the limitations of traditional flavors.
Xinghualou and League of Legends mobile game co-branded mooncakes include a creamy coconut flavor; Pop Mart's mooncake gift box has five innovative flavors: raw chocolate lava, rum nut, lychee rose, brown sugar quinoa, and custard cheese; the catering brand Yangzijiang's mango pomelo sago mooncakes and coconut latte mooncakes make it hard to tell whether you are eating dessert or drinking coffee.
Holiland's Chiikawa series pastry gift box also has flavors like rice fragrance red bean highland barley cheese, rice fragrance kumquat cheese, rice fragrance pineapple cheese, rice fragrance taro cheese, and rice fragrance black tea chia seed cheese; Chagee's mooncake gift box flavors are also closely related to its "main business" of new tea drinks, such as osmanthus oolong mochi tea, Wuyi Dahongpao mochi tea, and jasmine snow bud mochi tea...
Holiland Chiikawa series pastry gift box Image source: Xiaohongshu @Yacui
6. Raw Material Origins Precisely Positioned to the "Village Entrance"
Nowadays, the origin of mooncake raw materials is increasingly particular, even precise to the "village entrance." This is similar to the idea of new tea drinks emphasizing the origin and high quality of ingredients; many places have become synonymous with high-quality ingredients.
Taking Zhiweiguan as an example, the brand particularly selects Jiangnan landmark ingredients in its use of food materials, striving to present regional flavors.
Guizhou Provincial Medical Mooncake is another typical case—this year it ranked first on the sales list of a large supermarket in Guizhou. According to staff, they go to Xuanwei, Yunnan every year to select ham, using local Xuanwei ham to make mooncakes. [6]
Other brands are also digging deeper into origin stories for their ingredients. Rishiji's black truffle Yunnan ham puff pastry mooncakes use Yunnan black truffle sauce and Xuanwei old ham fermented for more than 18 months; the rose Yunnan ham puff pastry mooncakes add Yunnan Anning double-petal roses to the ham. Jiahua, a well-known Yunnan baking brand, launched Yunnan ham and termite mushroom mooncakes this year, using Xuanwei ham paired with Dali termite mushrooms, bringing the fresh fragrance of Yunnan's mountains and fields to the Mid-Autumn table.
Rishiji mooncakes Image source: Xiaohongshu @Rishiji
Zheng Muzhang, general manager of Durian Moment, told FBIF that after nearly 10 years of making mooncakes, Durian Moment has also seen industry changes brought by consumption habits: "First, flavors have shifted from traditional to segmented innovation, such as durian, cheese, and local specialty flavors; niche flavors are constantly innovating, and the boundaries of mooncake flavors are continuously broadened; at the same time, young consumers emphasize healthy sugar reduction and snack dailyization; besides gifting, mooncakes must also be healthy and delicious; marketing has shifted from gifting to social seeding and appearance economy."
Tang Zenglu of Zhiweiguan also told FBIF that they have found that in recent years, the mooncake market has been shifting from focusing on festive ritual and luxurious packaging to paying more attention to the health attributes, flavor innovation, and cultural connotations of the product itself. "The core of these changes is that brands are paying more attention to the real needs of consumers. Whether for health considerations or the pursuit of personality and novelty, everyone can find a suitable choice in the current market."
Hospitals, Game Companies, and Trendy Toy Brands All Make Mooncakes Mooncakes have transformed from a seasonal food into a container carrying brand creativity.
According to the "2024-2025 China Mooncake Consumer Market Overview and Trend Analysis Report" by iiMedia Research, from 2019 to 2023, the chain rate of China's bakery food industry stores increased year by year, reaching 29.6% by 2023. [4]
Analysts at iiMedia Research believe that the branding and chainization process of China's bakery food industry is accelerating. During the peak mooncake sales season, the scale effect of chain stores can significantly boost the sales and market share of mooncake brands. Maxim's, Huamei, Daoxiangcun, Guangzhou Restaurant, Jinhua, and Wufangzhai are all typical enterprises in China's mooncake industry. [4]
According to incomplete statistics from FBIF, in addition to baking brands, dozens of brands have launched cross-industry mooncake products, including hospitals and cultural, museum, and tourism institutions.
1. Hospitals and Museums Can Also Become Time-Honored Brands; Deliciousness Is the Core Competitiveness
Among the cross-industry mooncakes that focus on collaborations and packaging, Guizhou Provincial Medical Mooncake almost "goes against the grain."
This mooncake, from the canteen of Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital, has no IP collaboration or million-yuan design budget. Oil paper wrapping and a red stamp are the entire packaging. But such a "plain" mooncake has become the top stream in Guiyang, even starting a purchase limit—each person is limited to ten jin. [6]
This is a time-honored brand that emerged from a hospital canteen—in 2023, the provincial medical mooncake brand Shengyi was rated as a "Guizhou Time-Honored Brand." Professor Xiong Wenjie of Wuhan Business University stated that the hospital background makes consumers more assured about food hygiene and can provide brand endorsement. [6]
Provincial Medical Mooncake Image source: Guiyang Local Treasure
Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, if you can get mooncakes from the Shanghai Mental Health Center located at No. 600 Wanping South Road, it is also worth posting on your Moments.
No. 600 Wanping South Road is the location of the Shanghai Mental Health Center. Around the Mid-Autumn Festival every year, "600号 mooncakes" can become a hot search topic, and even a box of "600号 mooncakes" can sell for 1,000 yuan in the secondary market. In 2023, the Shanghai Mental Health Center even used 6 flavors to reflect 6 different psychological emotions, achieving the goal of selling mooncakes while popularizing science.
600号 mooncakes Image source: Xiaohongshu
2. Time-Honored Brands, Game Companies, and Trendy Toy Companies Can All Find Traffic in Mooncakes
Not all mooncake brands have a famous hospital canteen, but every brand making mooncakes can find a suitable IP in the IP market.
Once linked to popular IPs, mooncakes can become content that "carries its own heat."
Trendy toy brand Pop Mart integrated its brand IP into mooncake products this year, with the IP "Star Man" having a high degree of fit with the Mid-Autumn full moon symbol. Its Starry Night Wonderland gift box adopts a limited regional sales model, but even with regional purchase restrictions, it still attracted many enthusiastic consumers.
Game company miHoYo incorporated the "Cat Cake" element from its game "Honkai: Star Rail" into mooncake design, while adopting a form that integrates mooncakes with peripheral products. Although many players complained about the high price, they still couldn't resist buying.
Star Rail mooncakes Image source: miHoYo
In addition, time-honored brands have also learned to "hitch a ride" on young people's traffic.
Xinghualou joined hands with the "League of Legends" mobile game to launch a co-branded Mid-Autumn mooncake gift box; the cultural brand Wushan Youmei chose to cooperate with SpongeBob to launch a Mid-Autumn limited gift box; Jintian Animation brought My Little Pony co-branded mooncakes, precisely hitting the target audience; the century-old brand Xinya, on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of Pac-Man, launched the "Xinya X Pac-Man 45th Anniversary Mid-Autumn Co-branded Mooncake Gift Box."
Tang Zenglu of Zhiweiguan told FBIF that Zhiweiguan's goal of continuously striving for innovation in mooncakes is to "renew" the time-honored brand, "by combining Chinese traditional culture with Zhiweiguan products, continuously revitalizing the new vitality and differentiation of time-honored brand products." Through market research, they found that modern consumers not only require products to be "delicious" but also "beautiful." "Especially young consumers born after 1995 and 2000, their personalized needs and aesthetic standards for traditional pastries have significantly improved; they are the main consumer force of new Chinese pastries," Tang Zenglu added.
The appeal of these mooncakes is no longer limited to taste; topics + peripherals + packaging are attractive to the audiences of many IPs. And limited gift boxes, custom cake molds, peripheral dolls, co-branded peripheral redemption codes... every detail can become a motivation for sharing orders.
Xinya X Pac-Man 45th Anniversary Mid-Autumn Co-branded Mooncake Gift Box Image source: Xinya
Yearly "Roll" Mooncakes, Concentrated Innovation
Even with a short sales cycle, it cannot stop people's whimsical ideas about mooncakes.
As mentioned above, the colored glaze enamel mooncake even uses AI technology. Tiantai Chang, a catering brand in Taiyuan, Shanxi, has begun using digitally modeled, 3D-printed molds to make cultural and creative mooncakes with elements of local history, culture, and scenic spots.
Mooncakes may become another cultural and creative check-in product after cultural and creative ice cream.
Tiantai Chang cultural and creative mooncakes Image source: Xinhua Net
Ten years ago, Durian Moment's snow skin mooncakes were all the rage—in 2015, Durian Moment launched durian snow skin mooncakes; by 2017, Durian Moment's user base exceeded one million; CIC Consulting's industry research on Chinese durian snow skin mooncakes shows that Durian Moment's durian snow skin mooncakes achieved the number one sales ranking from 2022 to 2024.
Ten years later, from the perspective of "pioneering innovation," durian snow skin mooncakes have evolved from an "innovative product" to a mature subcategory. "New and novel" is often the initial eye-catcher of innovation, but as the market settles, one of these "new and novel" points gradually merges with the category.
Durian Moment snow skin mooncakes Image source: Durian Moment
Behind mooncakes lies the cultural symbol of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Consumers buy mooncakes mostly for festive gifting needs, which gives mooncakes a strong consumption scenario demand. At the same time, the impression of mooncakes as high-sugar and high-fat is deeply rooted, and the original traditional flavors are also easy to give consumers the impression of being greasy and not suitable for eating too much.
This year, many brands have used the banners of low GI, light calories, and whole wheat to carry out lightweight transformation of mooncakes, but to break through the 90-day sales cycle, mooncakes may also need to achieve "de-festivalization."
Zheng Muzhang of Durian Moment told FBIF that Durian Moment's annual snow skin mooncake sales cycle is 90 days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, with the sales peak being 30 days before the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Tang Zenglu of Zhiweiguan told FBIF that the brand plans various execution plans for the Mid-Autumn mooncake season one year or even longer in advance. In Tang Zenglu's view: "Making mooncakes is not difficult. The difficult part is making mooncakes that don't exist on the market."
Tang Zenglu introduced that the brand currently operates on two lines: online and offline. Online, various flagship stores have over a million fans, and continuous platform activities in the month before the Mid-Autumn Festival will drive sales explosion; offline, the distributor system, key account system, and new retail system will collaborate to break through sales targets.
Starbucks mooncakes that have been launched Image source: ExcellentSH
To give mooncakes a longer cycle, brands may need to further weaken the festive attribute of mooncakes and make some changes in naming, such as turning lava mooncakes into lava puff pastries, and snow skin mooncakes can also be called snow skin desserts. When "mooncakes" can enter convenience stores in the form of regular baked goods, new "mooncakes" integrated with desserts and new tea drinks may become consumers' daily choices.
References: [1] Huang Jia, Medical-Enterprise Joint R&D: Wenzhou Kangning Sends Over 10,000 Low-GI Mooncakes for Health, September 5, 2025, Affiliated Kangning Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University [2] Can Diabetics Eat Mooncakes? Yes! But Remember These Points..., September 14, 2024, First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University [3] Wang Meihua, Medicinal Diet Mooncakes Are Popular, Want to Try? (Brief Comments), September 26, 2025, People's Daily Overseas Edition [4] Wang Meihua, How to Eat Mooncakes Healthily, September 9, 2022, People's Daily [5] Pangdonglai Denies Mooncake Gift Box Design Fee of 10 Million, Interface News [6] Fang Jiaofeng, What Enlightenment Does "Provincial Medical Mooncake" Becoming Supermarket Sales Champion Bring?, September 25, 2025, China Times [7] iiMedia Research | 2024-2025 China Mooncake Consumer Market Overview and Trend Analysis Report, October 29, 2024, iiMedia Research