Need A New Jewellery Box? Lucky For You, It’s Mooncake Season
Mooncakes in Singapore are like elephant pants in Thailand – same same but different. And in a world filled with too many mooncakes, how do you choose which ones to buy?
Every Chinese restaurant has a baked mooncake with lotus seed paste… would you like single or double yolk? Mao Shan Wang mooncakes are as ubiquitous as bubble tea, and every snow skin mooncake comes with a white chocolate truffle centre flavoured with champagne or some other suggestion of alcohol.
We’ve walked through the mooncake fairs at shopping mall atriums and we know that choice overload is real. So what did we do? We decided based on how pretty or useful the packaging is, of course.
Mooncake packaging that can be used as jewellery boxes is still a thing. In fact, they may even be part of the tradition. And in this age of eco-this and sustainability-that, if you’re going to use precious trees to make boxes, then better make them functional, correct?
In that spirit, if your jewellery box is due for a change, consider these mooncake options:
IMAGES: SHANGRI-LA SINGAPORE
Trinket treasures: Shangri-La’s velvety delights
Shangri-La Singapore has partnered with Bynd Artisan to create a sturdy velvet-lined trinket box filled with four Red Date Pumpkin Seed and Bird’s Nest Mooncakes ($156). The box includes a removable jewellery tray and a sheet of vegan leather, which you could use as a mousepad or take to a leather crafting workshop ($68) at Bynd Artisan where you’ll learn to make a coin pouch, card holder and key holder.
IMAGES: ORCHARD HOTEL SINGAPORE
Crafty companions: Hua Ting’s two-in-one trinket and lantern combo
Hua Ting's pale blue craft boxes are sectioned into two small compartments for trinkets, with ring holder inserts in the centre. There’s also a pretty paper lantern for an extra festive touch. Fill your boxes with classic baked mooncakes like White Lotus Paste with Double Yolk and Macadamia Nuts (prices start from $58 for a box of two) or snow skin flavours like Crunchy Pistachio Chocolate and Southern Jujube with Almond Flakes and Sakura Ganache ($78 for a box of eight).
IMAGE: MANDARIN ORIENTAL SINGAPORE
Tropical elegance: Mandarin Oriental’s Peranakan jewel box
Mandarin Oriental, Singapore's Snow Skin Cherry Garden Six Jewels ($102) come in a pretty tropical print box with a Peranakan-style green stained glass lid. Inside are flavours like Red Bean with Pineapple, Mango Pomelo, Lychee Longjing Tea, and Sweet Potato with Black Sesame.
IMAGE: CONRAD SINGAPORE ORCHARD
Pretty in pastels: Summer Palace’s gilded drawers of delight
The women in our office gasped with delight when they set eyes on Summer Palace's lovely pale pink and blue boxes. Gilded knobs open out to a set of drawers containing flavours like Parma Ham and Pork Floss with Assorted Nuts baked mooncakes (from $62 for two) and Bird’s Nest with Gold Leaf snow skin mooncakes (from $138 for four).
Travel chic: Ritz Carlton’s vanity cases for mooncake lovers
Rather than boxes, Ritz Carlton, Millenia Singapore has created handy and rather stylish vanity cases that can be used as travel pouches after you’ve relieved them of their mooncakes. Choose from a red or taupe saffiano leather vanity case which you can fill with mooncakes like White Lotus Seed Paste with Brown Sugar, Red Dates, Ginger, Longan, and Pumpkin Seeds (baked) or Mini Snow Skin Lycheetini. Prices start from $88 for eight mini snow skin mooncakes.
IMAGE: MARINA BAY SANDS
BONUS: All aboard! Ralph’s Coffee’s vintage train treat box
Okay, we know this isn’t a jewellery box, but Ralph's Coffee vintage steam train box is damn cute, right? It comes with six mini mooncakes in coffee and chocolate raspberry flavours ($118 for six), and you can refill it with trinkets or pencils or whatever… we just wanted to fit it into this story. It was too adorable not to mention!
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