Taiban is best known for its snowy mooncakes that it developed as a response to health-conscious customers wanting to avoid the calorie-dense, high sugar and oil content of traditional mooncakes. These mooncakes are not baked and sold frozen for food safety, then thawed in the fridge prior to eating.
This is the Taiban Mini Snowy Moon Cake with Hazelnut Crunch and Sesame Bean Paste.
Rather than lotus seed paste, the black sesame paste is made up of white kidney bean paste (20%) and mung bean paste (15%) and sesame powder (3%) to give a lighter mouthfeel. Each mini mooncake is about 5 cm in diameter and 2.5 cm in height.
The mooncake is soft to the touch and has a gentle black sesame aroma. Upon tasting, the bite begins with the softness of the crust that is just thin enough to register on the palate and deliver a subtle black sesame flavour, which builds in intensity to a creamy richness on reaching the paste. Just as we finish appreciating the toastiness of the black sesame, the hazelnut centre delivered a textural and flavour shift with a crunch and a moreish nuttiness that maintains our interest and avoids the paste from becoming cloying. Overall, this is a very considered and balanced mooncake with a mouthfeel that is similar to a yukimi daifuku.
This Taiban Mini Snowy Moon Cake with Hazelnut Crunch and Sesame Bean Paste contained 110 g or 2 pieces. It was produced in Hong Kong and purchased in Sydney, Australia in 2020.