We’ve made no secret of the fact that we’re huge fans of Guinness. There’s nothing quite like a pint of the black brew to cool one down in the scorching Singapore heat.
While we’re used to the liquid form of the Irish stout, we are no strangers to having it in stews, pies, and even ice creams.
Mooncakes, however, are another matter entirely.
Hey readers, if you’re looking for the Guinness Mooncakes in 2019, we have an updated review right here.
Mooncakes
We’ll say upfront that we are not huge fans of mooncakes in general. While the right lotus paste is luxurious thick, especially when combined with the savoury richness of salted egg yolks, we find them a little too sweet for our tastes- at least in general. There is no denying that it is festive, however, and we find ourselves having seconds more often than not.
Curiously enough, we love Guinness for exactly the opposite reasons. Many stouts are so thick and sweet that they become cloying; almost exactly like dumping a block of sugar in your black coffee. Guinness, though, balances richness with a dry crispness.
So when we heard about the new Guinness mooncakes, our interest was piqued. Would the marriage of our festive confectionery with Irish stout result in saccharine sweetness, desiccant dryness, or a perfect balance of both?
A Light Touch
The packaging itself is exquisite. As we don’t recall ever buying mooncakes for ourselves- we only ever give and receive them as gifts- this is an excellent thing.
Each box is a rectangular tower, with four compartments containing one mooncake each stacked up within.
Naturally, the finished product resembles a pint of Guinness with its frothy head, but it also resembles a traditional lantern. Feeling festive, we enjoyed our mooncakes and appreciated the moon’s beauty- as the ancient Chinese did- while bathed by a soft, warm glow. It makes for quite a magical experience.
Not sure if we know what we’re talking about? You can judge for yourself.
A Mid-Autumn Night’s Dream
The mooncakes themselves are of the snowskin variety- which makes sense when you have an alcohol-inspired filling.
The mooncake’s textures are superb. The snowskin itself is soft but thick enough to contain the fillings; it retains its shape even after one bites into it, and does not fall apart. Biting into it, our first encounter was with the filling which had just the right consistency; the paste was soft and yielding, but retained its shape as well.
The real clincher was the innermost layer, which replaces the egg yolk. Guinness-infused chocolate ganache, housed within a crispy orb of white chocolate.
The whole effect amuses the tongue; with the soft outer layers punctuated by a hard layer of chocolate, then a creamy surprise at the end. A curious but satisfying reversal of the norm, for sure.
Taste-wise, there was little to complain about overall. The lotus paste has been flavoured with the strong aromas and flavours of white coffee, which pairs well with the traditional filling. It was sweet, but not cloyingly so, and even has the light bitterness reminiscent of Guinness. The ganache itself was a creamy, milky confection, adding a little richness- and surprisingly, lightness, to the dessert.
The trouble is, of course, we didn’t really get much of the Guinness flavour. It’s there, of course; a small tinge of it was sealed within the Ganache, but it fought against the coffee/lotus paste- and loses. We were a little disappointed, to be sure. If one is looking for a strong alcoholic flavour, however, then it might be wiser to crack open a pint directly.
Overall, if we judge it as a mooncake, however, it tastes really good. A nice balance of luxuriance and flavour. We would say that we could eat the entire bite-sized portion- and then ask for seconds.
A class of its own
If you want to have a bit of fun, Guinness will also be running a series of Mooncake Crafting and Styling Workshops led by food stylist, C.R Tan (@xlbcr). There will be eighteen sessions organised the first six weekend afternoons in September.
Each session, priced at $20 per person, consists of 2 hours of creating your own Guinness mooncakes, and a food styling and photography session. You get to keep your own creations, of course. If you’re at all interested, you can check out this link here.
If you’re just interested in getting the mooncakes directly, you can redeem a box of the mooncakes when you buy four 4-packs of Guinness Draught (440ml) via Redmart and FairPrice On.
You can also redeem a box of Guinness Snowskin Mooncakes from 1 September, with a minimum spend of $90 on Guinness products at leading supermarkets including Fairprice, Cold Storage, Giant, Sheng Siong, and Prime.
