It started with a simple thought.
Mooncakes are made to be shared. So is chocolate.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a celebration of reunion, a time to gather with family and friends, share food and reconnect under the full moon.
It is celebrated across many Asian cultures, known as Zhongqiu Jie in China, Chuseok in Korea, Tsukimi in Japan and Tết Trung Thu in Vietnam, each with its own version of the same gathering under the same moon. Here in Australia, a country shaped by so many cultures coming together, that same spirit of celebration has found a natural home too.
That felt very familiar to me.
At Kakawa, chocolate has always been about sharing too. A box brought to a family gathering, something given to a friend, or a small gift to celebrate a moment together.
So I started wondering: what if I created a moon cake of my own?
Not a traditional mooncake covered in chocolate, but something that celebrated the same spirit through what I know best, chocolate.
Finding Inspiration in the Season
Once I had the idea, I looked to the flavours surrounding the festival itself.
The Mid-Autumn Festival falls at a beautiful time of year for food, with ingredients and flavours that have long been part of Asian desserts, tea culture and seasonal celebrations.
I began with those that are especially enjoyed around the festival, then looked for the ones that felt naturally at home with chocolate.
Tea, nuts, lotus seed, sesame, salted egg yolk, osmanthus and seasonal fruits all became sources of inspiration.
Rather than recreating traditional mooncake fillings, I use these familiar flavours as a starting point and reinterpret them through chocolate, sometimes keeping the pairing quite traditional, sometimes bringing together flavours you might not immediately expect.
The idea is simple: take something rooted in the season and Asian food culture, and see it again through the eyes of a chocolatier.
Reimagining Mooncake Flavours Through Chocolate
Some flavours may bring back a familiar memory. Others may introduce an ingredient in an entirely new way.
But they all come from the same place that inspired me to make my first Chocolate Mooncake.
Sharing.
Sharing flavours, sharing cultures, and sharing chocolate with the people around me.
Every mooncake is hand dipped in premium chocolate and finished with its own chocolate disc, made fresh in small batches in our Darlinghurst kitchen.
The Kakawa Chocolate Mooncake Collection
Kakawa's Chocolate Mooncake Gift Box brings four flavours into one box: White Peach Jelly and Oolong Tea, Pineapple Confit and Milk Chocolate, Mango Caramel and Almond Quinoa, and Matcha Green Tea and Strawberry.
Each box is handmade fresh and gift wrapped, ready to bring to a family gathering or give to someone you want to thank properly this Moon Festival.
Shop the Chocolate Mooncake Gift Box
It is my small interpretation of a very old tradition, created for the same reason mooncakes have been given for generations: to gather, reconnect and share something special.
Jin Sun
Founder & Head Chocolatier, Kakawa Chocolates
Jin Sun is the founder and head chocolatier of Kakawa Chocolates, which she started in Sydney back in 2009. She trained at Le Cordon Bleu, worked her way through some of Sydney's top fine dining kitchens, and spent time in London learning the craft under renowned chocolatier Keith Herdman. A multi-award winner and a judge at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, Jin Sun still designs every piece of Kakawa chocolate, with a skilled team of chocolatiers making them by hand.
