[2] The Selection calendar. What’s waiting behind the doors? See the next photo.

[3] The chocolates inside the Selection.

[4] The Pralines Selection contains dark, milk, and white chocolates. What’s behind the doors? See the next photo.

[5] The chocolates inside the Pralines Selection

[6] For lovers of dark chocolate, the Advent Calendar Pralines Noir.

[7] The chocolates inside the box of Pralines Noir. Each chocolate is behind a numbered door.    
We love Advent calendars—both giving them and receiving them. But they’re not a last-minute gift: You need to give them to the recipients before December 1st so they can begin the 24-day countdown to Christmas.

That’s why for the past few years, we’ve turned to giving them to our family and friends at Thanksgiving dinner. We spend hours poring over websites to find the right calendar for each person.

This year, Läderach, one of our favorite chocolatiers, has made it easy for us. Not only does everyone we know love fine chocolate, but in addition to conventional formats, they have created a unique calendar configuration that forms a little village you can keep when the chocolate is gone.

Why are we addressing Advent calendars before the Halloween candy has been given out? Because the best ones sell out early.

Do you have to celebrate Christmas in order to receive an Advent calendar?

We opine that most chocolate lovers wouldn’t refuse a daily, delicious piece of chocolate for 24 days.

Below:

• Läderach Advent calendars.
• The history of the Advent calendar.
• The Advent calendar gets its name.
• Beyond candy: modern Advent calendars.
  
• About Läderach Chocolate Suisse.

 
 
1. LÄDERACH ADVENT CALENDARS

One of our favorite chocolatiers, the Swiss company Läderach makes five different Advent calendars:

• Advent Calendar House, milk and white chocolate.
• Advent Calendar Selection, milk, dark, and white chocolate.
• Advent Calendar Grand Selection, milk, dark, and white chocolate.
• Advent Calendar Pralines Selection, milk, dark, and white chocolate.
• Advent Calendar Pralines Noir, all dark chocolate.

Our favorite—because we fancy setting up our own little winter village on the kitchen windowsill—is Advent Calendar House.

The lucky recipients can save the village for next year’s holiday decorations, or enjoy it on a shelf all year long (photo below).
 

[8] Läderach’s winter village. It first appears as the tall center box, and opens up to chocolates in little houses.
 
 
2. THE HISTORY OF THE ADVENT CALENDAR

The evolution of what became Advent calendars unfolded across the 19th and early 20th centuries in Germany.

The idea of marking the days to Christmas began at the beginning of the 19th century, when German Lutherans made chalk marks on doors, lit candles, or hung religious pictures to count down the days to Christmas.

They began on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and continued each day through Christmas Eve.

The first-known commercial mention of what would later be known as an Advent calendar is from 1851, appearing in a children’s book by Elise Averdieck.

In 1902, the Reichhold & Lang printing company in Munich published a “Christmas clock” (Weihnachtsuhr), followed in 1903 by a calendar titled “Im Land des Christkinds” (In the Land of the Christ Child).

Gerhard Lang of Reichhold & Lang is widely credited with creating the first officially recognized, commercially printed calendar featuring small pictures behind doors.

In 1904, Lang was inspired by a Christmas calendar that his mother had made for him as a child: 24 cookies (some say candies) sewn onto the lid of a box. He was allowed to eat one of them every day during the Advent period. Other parents created their own handmade versions.

Remembering mom’s cookie countdown, Lang created a pilot calendar in 1904. He printed calendars with small colored pictures that children could attach to a cardboard backing—one picture per day. The first printed, commercially distributed calendar debuted in 1908 [source].

It was published under the title “Münchener Weihnachtskalender — Im Lande des Christkinds” (Munich Christmas Calendar — In the Land of the Christ-Child).

At the time, publishers and the public typically referred to these creations as Weihnachtskalender (Christmas calendar) or Christkindl-Kalender (Christ-child calendar).

The calendars were a commercial success and were made with both religious and non-religious themes.
 
 
The Little Doors Appear

The now-familiar format with little doors that open for the reveal was introduced by Lang in the 1920s.

• Religious calendars typically counted down each day with a prayer or spiritual imagery—nativity scenes, angels, and biblical verses behind each door.
• Secular versions for children had pieces of candy or tiny toys.

These first calendars-with-doors were called “Nicholas calendars” (Nikolauskalender), since they were given out on December 6th, St. Nicholas’ Day. They were 19-day calendars, ending on December 24th, Christmas Eve.

They stemmed from a European tradition where St. Nicholas distributed treats, small gifts, or educational prints to children on his feast day.

Over time, as commercial publishers sought to lengthen the holiday anticipation period, the timeline shifted backwards to encompass all of December, merging the concept with the broader Christian season of Advent.

Later, calendars were made that began on December 1st and were called “Christmas calendars.” These typically didn’t follow the full four-week period of Advent, because the date varies in any particular year (it can range from November 27th to December 3rd).

Instead, the calendars marked the 24 days leading up to Christmas, December 1st through December 24th.
 

[9] The inside of the Läderach Grand Selection Advent calendar. See all the doors fully opened in the next photo.

Advent, from the Latin word adventus, means “coming.” It’s a time of waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus, on Christmas Day.

The term Adventskalender (Advent calendar) began appearing gradually in the 1910s and 1920s as commercial publishers expanded their offerings and the product became popular throughout Germany and Central Europe.

Because in early 20th-century Germany, the word Advent retained strong, formal religious connotations associated with the church calendar, publishers initially preferred titles featuring Weihnachten (Christmas) or the Christkind (Christ child) to emphasize the holiday magic and festive countdown for children.

Standardization began in the 1920s, as Lang’s company (Reichhold & Lang) and other printing houses developed new variations—including the 1920s introduction of doors/windows (Türchen).

The name Adventskalender became the standard, everyday German word for the item.

After World War II, the tradition spread beyond Germany. In the 1950s, a man named Richard Sellmer began mass-producing Advent calendars and exporting them internationally, helping to popularize them worldwide.

The tradition was largely popularized in North America after national newspapers published a photograph of President Dwight D. Eisenhoweropening a calendar with his grandchildren, in 1953. The direct English translation—Advent calendar—became fixed worldwide.

The 1950s also saw the introduction of chocolate-filled calendars, which became hugely popular.

The fun of modern Advent calendars is opening each of the 24 closed windows/doors, that mark each day until Christmas. Young or old, opening the daily window brings anticipation and surprise.
 

[10] Details of the chocolates in the Läderach Grand Selection.
 
 
4. BEYOND CANDY: MODERN ADVENT CALENDARS

For most of its history, the Advent calendar was targeted to children. The surprises behind the window were a piece of candy, a charm, a mini toy, or a holiday-themed image (Santa, Rudolph).

Inspirational versions are still made. The calendars can be basic or very elaborate.

In recent years there’s been a trend to adult-appropriate Advent calendars, that focus on not just fine chocolate, but bottles of beer or wine, coffee and tea, hot sauce, and even beef jerky. 
 
We’ve also seen artisanal jams, gourmet cheese, and one for home cooks, presenting daily tins of artisan finishing salts, BBQ rubs, and global spices.

Beyond food, there are calendars for crafting, crystals and minerals, fishing lures, mystery puzzles, pet treats, seed bombs for gardening, skin care, and votives/tea candles. No doubt, there are yet others.

We love these non-candy ideas for kids:

• Archaeology and fossil digs: Kids chip away at a small block of plaster each day using miniature tools to unearth a real mineral, shark tooth, or dinosaur fossil piece.
• Birdwatching and wildlife kits: Includes items like DIY birdfeeder building blocks, seed cakes, animal tracking guides, and outdoor mission cards to complete in the backyard or local park.
• Book libraries: These look like oversized storybooks with 24 individual mini-pocket books inside. Children unwrap a new mini paperback every night for a bedtime story (popular themes include Disney classics, Marvel, Bluey, and Harry Potter).
• Chemistry and physics calendars: Featuring 24 days of hands-on experiments to perform a mini-science trick or reaction.
• Choose-your-own-adventure/puzzle books: Daily chapters or puzzle pages that unfold an ongoing holiday mystery or rescue mission that the child helps solve.
• Craft Kits: Instead of a finished plastic toy, each door holds the supplies for a specific craft project—such as felt sewing kits, shrink-plastic charms, wooden ornaments to paint, or bracelet-beading supplies.
• Grow-your-own indoor gardens: Designed for budding horticulturalists, these include small biodegradable pots, soil pellets, and 24 packets of easy-to-grow seeds (like microgreens, fast-sprouting flowers, or holiday herbs) to start indoors during the winter.
• Junior chef kits: A countdown that builds out a complete kid-safe baking set over 24 days—starting with measuring spoons and a whisk, moving on to mini spatulas, cookie cutters, and custom recipe cards for family holiday baking.
• Watercolor and drawing challenges: Featuring daily sketch prompts, mini watercolor pans, specialty brushes, and heavy-stock paper cards so kids can create their own holiday art gallery.

If none of these is what you’re looking for, just search online.
 

For decades, Läderach operated primarily as a B2B supplier, providing the shells and other high-quality chocolate products to pastry shops and hotels. In 1981, Läderach expanded to Dillenburg, Germany and began to export overseas. It wasn’t until 2004, following the acquisition of a retailer of premium chocolates, pralines, and confectionery—the Swiss confectionery chain Merkur Confiserie AG—that Merkur’s chain of retail chocolate boutiques enabled Läderach to become a global consumer brand, rebranded with the Läderach name.

Twenty years later, by 2024, Läderach employed some 2,000 people in 20 countries. The company has 220 boutiques, 100 of which are located in Europe; and as of early 2026, 40 to 45 boutiques across the U.S. It also sells online.
 

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

 
   ]]> https://blog.thenibble.com/2026/10/04/cheers-the-top-vodka-cocktails-for-national-vodka-day/ Sun, 04 Oct 2026 22:52:51 +0000 https://blog.thenibble.com/?p=162036
Continue reading "Cheers! The Top Vodka Cocktails For National Vodka Day" →]]>

Vodka lovers: Today’s your day to decide which of America’s favorite vodka cocktails you’d like to have.

If the answer is “just shots,” that’s O.K. with us.

We celebrated with these on October 4th, National Vodka Day.

Below:

> America’s top 10 favorite vodka cocktails.

> The 12 leading vodka brands in the U.S.

> Vodka trivia.

> Lemon Drop Martini recipe.

> More vodka cocktail recipes.

Elsewhere on The Nibble:

> Make your own cranberry-infused vodka for the holidays.

> The history of vodka.

> The history of cocktails.

> The year’s 100+ cocktails and spirits holidays.

 
 
1. AMERICA’S TOP 10 FAVORITE VODKA COCKTAILS

In alphabetical order, take a sip of these vodka cocktails. Additional ingredients are included:

• Bloody Mary: tomato juice, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, seasonings. Here’s the recipe.
• Cosmopolitan: orange liqueur, cranberry juice, lime juice. Here’s the recipe.
• Espresso Martini: espresso and coffee liqueur. Here’s the recipe.
• Lemon Drop Martini: lemon juice, sugar or simple syrup, often orange liqueur. The recipe is below.
• Moscow Mule: ginger beer and lime juice. Here’s the recipe.
• Screwdriver: orange juice.
• Vodka Cranberry/Cape Codder: cranberry juice, typically with a lime garnish. The recipe is just vodka and cramberry juice in your favored proportions, served over ice in a highball glass.
• Vodka Martini/Dirty Martini: dry vermouth, here’s the classic recipe. Add olive brine for the dirty version. Here’s the dirty recipe.
• Vodka Soda: club soda, often with lime. The recipe: a 1:3 ratio of vodka to chilled club soda over plenty of ice.
• White Russian: coffee liqueur and cream. Here’s the recipe.

 
 
2. THE 12 LEADING VODKA BRANDS SOLD IN THE U.S.

The best-selling brands in the U.S. are Tito’s (the top seller), Smirnoff, New Amsterdam, and SVEDKA.

In bars and restaurants, Union, a website that serves the hospitality industry, names the top-selling bar-and-restaurant brands as Tito’s, Ketel One, Grey Goose, Absolut, and Deep Eddy (2023 sales).

These brands, in alphabetical order, are the biggest sellers overall (both consumer and trade):

• Absolut: Swedish vodka recognizable for its distinctive bottle and extensive flavored range.
• Belvedere: Polish rye vodka positioned in the luxury segment.
• Deep Eddy: Texas vodka particularly associated with fruit flavors, including lemon and ruby-red grapefruit.
• Grey Goose: French wheat vodka and a prominent premium brand.
• Ketel One: Dutch wheat vodka; its range also includes Ketel One Botanical.
• New Amsterdam: American vodka made primarily from corn, with other American grains, available in both original and flavored offerings, including Pink Whitney, a pink lemonade-flavored vodka created in collaboration with Ryan Whitney and the hockey podcast Spittin’ Chicklets.
• Pinnacle: A value-oriented brand made with wheat from northern France, with original and flavored vodkas.
• SKYY: American vodka recognizable for its blue bottle, made from American grains.
• Smirnoff: A major mainstream brand with original and numerous flavored offerings.
• Stoli: The wheat-based brand formerly marketed as Stolichnaya, with original and flavored vodkas.
• SVEDKA: Now made in the U.S. from corn, offering original and flavored vodkas.
• Tito’s Handmade Vodka: A premium brand from Texas, made from corn.

 
 
3. VODKA TRIVIA

• The Word. The word “vodka” a diminutive of the Russian voda, “water,” and literally means “little water.” It was used for “water of life” (zhiznennaya voda), the same meaning as the Irish Gaelic uisce beatha (ISH-ka BYA-ha), which evolved into “whiskey.” (In Scottish Gaelic it’s spelled uisge beatha, ISH-ka BA-ha, and the Scots use the spelling “whisky” instead of “whiskey.”)
• Aging. Unlike whiskey, no aging or maturation period is required for vodka.
• Ingredients. Just about anything fermentable can be used to make vodka: potatoes, sugar cane, barley, molasses, even beets. Rye and wheat are the classic grains; many of the best Russian and Swedish vodkas use wheat while Polish vodkas have a preference for rye. Molasses is used for inexpensive, mass-produced brands. American distillers use the full range of base ingredients, depending on price range and preference.
• Gluten-Free Note: Potato-based vodka is gluten free. Since it isn’t distilled from grain like wheat and rye vodka, potato vodka can be enjoyed by people who have celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. Some excellent vodkas are made from potatoes, like Cold River Vodka, distilled in Maine. Chopin Potato Vodka, from Poland, is widely regarded as a global benchmark.
• Character. A vodka’s water supply, its base ingredient (grain or other), and its filtration method are all important to its character. Potato vodkas, for example, have a subtle hint of sweetness not present in other varieties. When you find particular brands that you prefer, check to see what the base ingredient is. You may find that you’re a winter wheat vodka person, a rye vodka lover, or a potato vodka fan.
• Style. In Eastern Europe, vodka is commonly drunk “neat” and ice-cold in chilled glasses, which some people believe is the best way to enjoy premium vodka. (At THE NIBBLE, we keep our vodka and our glasses in the freezer.)

 
 
4. RECIPE: LEMON DROP COCKTAIL A.K.A. LEMON DROP MARTINI

We’d never had a Lemon Drop Martini, but as we created this article and saw it on the Top 10 Vodka Cocktails list, we figured it was time.

This is a sweet drink, and not in any way a Martini. People often call it a Martini simply because of the glass it uses.

However, it lacks vermouth or gin, and got rounded up in the Martini craze of the 1990s when every flavor of drink was called a Martini.

The Lemon Drop actually belongs to the sour family of cocktails.

The Lemon Drop cocktail was invented in the 1970s by Norman Jay Hobday, owner of Henry Africa’s, a legendary singles bar in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood. The bar opened in 1969, and was one of the first of the so-called “fern bars”—welcoming, plant-decorated spaces that helped draw single women into a previously male-dominated bar culture.

The bar got its iconic aesthetic because Hobday lacked funds for expensive decor, and instead filled the space with lush hanging plants, Tiffany lamps, stained glass, and Victorian knickknacks.

Hobday named the drink after the classic sweet-and-sour Lemon Drop candy (a sweet lure for female clientele).

The recipe was a variation of a Sidecar, made with vodka, triple sec or Cointreau, and fresh lemon juice, originally served straight up in a cocktail glass.

Hobday became so attached to his bar that he legally changed his own name to Henry Africa. He sold his stake in 1983, and the original location eventually closed in 1986. Hobday passed away in 2011.

Ingredients Per Drink

• 2 ounces vodka, regular or citrus-flavored
• 3/4 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 to 3/4 ounce simple syrup
• 1/2 ounce triple sec, Cointreau, or other orange liqueur
• Garnish: lemon twist or wheel

 
For The Sugar Rim

• Lemon wedge to wet the rim
• Sugar, plain or decorated (e.g. sanding sugar)

After you taste the first drink, you can tweak the sweet-tart profile as you like.
 
Preparation

1. PREP the glass: Rub a lemon wedge along the rim of a martini glass. Dip the rim into a plate of granulated sugar to coat it evenly. Place the glass in the refrigerator or freezer to chill.

2. FILL a cocktail shaker halfway with ice. Add the cocktail ingredients and shake the mixture vigorously for 20 to 30 seconds, until the shaker feels very cold and frosty.

3. STRAIN the liquid into the chilled, sugar-rimmed martini glass. Garnish with a lemon twist or wheel and serve immediately. (Note: The wheel will go on top of the sugar rim, but you can place it on neatly. It looks more impressive than the twist.)

 
 
5. MORE VODKA COCKTAIL RECIPES

Specialty cocktails we’ve made over the years:

• 12 recipes with Stoli Blueberi
• Amsterdam Martini with Agwa or other green liqueur for a bright green color
• Black Russian
• Ciroc Pomegranate Vodka Cocktail Recipes
• Classic Martini & Variations
• Cold River Shiver: vodka, Tequila, and gin
• Fish Bowl Punch a.k.a. Shark Tank Punch
• Ginger Vodka Cocktails
• Halloween Vodka Cocktails
• James Bond’s Vesper Martini & 50 More Martini Recipes
• Lychee Martini & More Cocktails with Lychee Liqueur
• Pumpkin Divine with Grey Goose La Poire Vodka
• Red, White & Blue Cocktail for patriotic occasions
• River Driver: An Elevated Screwdriver With Cointreau
• Vodka Martini With Buttermilk Blue Cheese-Stuffed Olives

[2] Calling Carrie Bradshaw: Your Cosmopolitan is ready (photo © Kitchen Swagger).

[3] Espresso Martini (photo © The Nibble).

[4] Lemon Drop Martini (photo © Sonoma Syrup).

[5] A Moscow Mule is traditionally served in a copper mug (photo © Smirnoff).

[6] Screwdriver: orange juice with vodka is a popular brunch drink (photo © Olivier Guillard | Unsplash).

[7] You can see why the Vodka Cranberry/Cape Codder is a popular holiday drink (photo © Svitlana B | Unsplash).

[8] A Vodka Martini with an elegant presentation: a small pitcher of ice and classic garnishes (photo © S. Freihon | Dante Restaurant | NYC).

[9] Vodka soda, a clear drink, is enlivened with lime circles or wedges (photo © Sam Hojati | Unsplash).

[10] The combination of cream and coffee makes the White Russian a popular after-dinner drink (photo © Byblaan | Pexels).  
 

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   ]]> https://blog.thenibble.com/2026/10/01/can-you-name-the-10-different-types-of-cookies/ Thu, 01 Oct 2026 15:22:03 +0000 https://blog.thenibble.com/?p=161961
Continue reading "Can You Name The 10 Different Types Of Cookies?" →]]>

[1] Why are cookies like these lemon bars called cookies instead of cake? Because they’re finger food, eaten without a fork (photo © King Arthur Baking).

[2] Brownies are also bar cookies. These, from Chicago’s Palmer House, may be the original brownie (so claims Palmer House). Here’s the recipe (photo © Palmer House).

[3] Some of America’s favorite cookies—chocolate chip, oatmeal, and peanut butter—are drop cookies (photo © American Heritage Chocolate).

[4] Zeppole, an example of fried cookies, are balls of yeast dough. Like brownies and other bars, they’re considered cookies rather than cake because they’re finger food (photo © The Nibble).

[5] Springerle cookie dough rolled out alongside baked cookies (photo © Hello Aesthe | Pexels).

[6] Gingerbread people are an example of rolled cookies/cutout cookies. These are decorated with cinnamon heart “buttons” for Valentine’s Day (photo © Sur La Table).

[7] These are the original Rice Krispies Treats. While many versions are now decorated, here’s the initial recipe (photo © Kellogg’s).  

What do we do on National Homemade Cookie Day, October 1st?

We revisit the 10 different styles of cookies and decides which one to bake.

Then, because it’s also International Coffee Day, we invite the neighbors for coffee and cookies.

Below:

> The 10 basic styles of cookies.

> America’s favorite cookies.

> America’s top cookie brands.

Elsewhere on The Nibble:

> The history of cookies.

> Different varieties of cookies: a photo glossary.

> The differences between butter cookies, shortbread, and sugar cookies.

> The year’s 44 cookie holidays.

> Christmas cookie recipes.

 
1. THE 10 BASIC STYLES OF COOKIES

The different styles of cookies are classified by the way the dough is handled.

Bar Cookies. Here, batter or other ingredients are poured or pressed into a rectangular pan (sometimes in multiple layers), then baked and cut into individual-sized squares or rectangles that have a dense cake-like consistency. Brownies and lemon bars are examples of bar cookies (photos #1 and #2). In the U.K., bar cookies are known as “tray bakes.”

Drop Cookies.
A relatively soft dough is dropped by the spoonful onto the baking sheet. During baking, the mounds of dough spread and flatten. Chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies, and coconut macaroons are examples of drop cookies (photo #3).

Filled Cookies. The cookie dough is stuffed with fruit, jam, or other confections. They can be like thumbprint cookies (photo #8 below); or a variation where the fruit/jam is totally enclosed in dough. Other types of filled cookies include Linzer cookies and other sandwich cookies filled with jam, often with a small cutout on top, and stroopwafels. Linzers are an example of overlapping categories: They are also sandwich cookies.
 

[8] Jam-filled thumbprints are a popular filled cookie (photo © Taste of Home).
 
Fried Cookies. These are fried dough, often dusted with powdered sugar. Examples include the Polish kruściki/chruściki, and the Italian zeppole (photo #4). Fried dough is becoming increasingly popular, with chocolate chip cookie dough, oatmeal cookie dough and others all headed to the fryer.

Molded Cookies. Made from stiff dough, these cookies are shaped by hand and embossed with a mold or with a stamp of Springerle rolling pin, before baking (photo #5). Wreath cookies are an example. (The vast majority of traditional holiday wreath cookies are Spritzgebäck, made using a cookie press equipped with a wreath pattern, or stamped/molded, rather than hand-molded cookies.)

No-Bake Cookies. These are “faux” cookies, a kind of candy-cookie hybrid. Made without dough, no-bake cookies are made with a cooked stovetop mixture that functions like a dough before it sets. Examples include haystack cookies, no-bake coconut macaroons, peanut butter cornflake cookies, and the iconic Rice Krispies Treats (photo #7). (Rice Krispies Treats® is the trademark of Kellogg. If the cookies are made with another crispy puffed rice cereal, they’re called crispy rice treats or marshmallow treats.)

Pressed Cookies. Made from a soft dough that is extruded from a cookie press (cookie gun) or piped from a pastry bag into various decorative shapes. Spritz cookies and French macarons are examples.

Refrigerator Cookies or Ice Box Cookies. These are made from a stiff dough that’s refrigerated in logs until the dough becomes firm. It’s then sliced into rounds and baked. Examples include pinwheels and shortbread.

Rolled Cookies (Cutout Cookies). These cookies are made from a stiff dough that’s chilled, rolled out, and cut into shapes with a cookie cutter, knife or pastry wheel (photo #6). Gingerbread people are an example (as is any cookie made with a cookie cutter).

Sandwich Cookies. Sandwich cookies are rolled or pressed cookies that are assembled as a sandwich with a sweet filling. Buttercream, ganache, jam, marshmallow cream and peanut butter cream are popular fillings (photo #9). Oreos—perhaps the most famous sandwich cookie in the world—and whoopie pies are examples (whoopie pies are also categorized as drop cookies). French macarons are perhaps the most elegant example: two almond-flour cookies often filled with a layer of ganache. S’mores—graham crackers with marshmallows and melted chocolate—may be the most fun.
 

[9] Whoopie pies are sandwich cookies with cake-like halves (photo © Taste of Home).
 
 
2. AMERICA’S FAVORITE COOKIES

Customer polls will vary (we looked at five different ones), but these cookies typically rank among America’s favorite cookie types.

1. Chocolate chip, widely considered the number-one favorite across the country.
2. Peanut butter, a classic that consistently lands near the top.
3. Sugar cookie, beloved for its simplicity and versatility, whether for holiday decorating or everyday baking.
4. Oatmeal raisin, a chewy, traditional favorite.
5. Peanut butter blossom, the iconic peanut butter cookie appears again, this time topped with a Hershey’s Kiss.
6. Double chocolate, a chocolate cookie with chocolate chips or chunks.
7. White chocolate macadamia nut, a flavor popularized in the 1980s by Mrs. Fields.
8. No-bake cookies like Rice Krispies Treats, made on the stovetop instead of in the oven.
9. Molasses ginger, a warmly spiced favorite that’s popular during cooler months.
10. Macaroon, a coconut-based flourless cookie made with shredded coconut and egg whites. (Here’s the difference between macaroons and macarons.)

 
 
Continue to America’s Top Cookie Brands, Below  
 
3. AMERICA’S TOP COOKIE BRANDS

We include these because someone asked. Mass-market cookie brands taste nothing like delicious homemade cookies. Yet America buys some $15.8 billion worth each year. (this ranking is based on sales as of this article’s update in 2026).

Homemade cookies rely on real dairy and pantry staples and contain no artificial preservatives.

A majority of mass-market cookies use inexpensive, shelf-stable fats, high-fructose corn syrup and/or corn syrup solids, artificial flavors and colors, and chemical preservatives.

1. Oreos, America’s (and the world’s) best-seller, a chocolate sandwich cookie known for its classic cream filling and endless flavor variations.
2. Chips Ahoy! are America’s top-selling chocolate chip cookies.
3. Girl Scout Cookies, while seasonal, sell enough Thin Mints and Samoas to take third place.
4. Pillsbury’s refrigerated break-and-bake dough and soft-baked packaged cookies make it easy to bake at home.
5. Pepperidge Farm, considered a premium brand, has many fans of its Milano cookies, chocolate-filled sandwich cookies.
6. Keebler, famous for nostalgic favorites like Fudge Stripes and Chips Deluxe—and the Keebler Elves, of course.
7. Nestlé Toll House, a staple for ready-to-bake refrigerated cookie dough and baking essentials like morsels.
8. Nilla Wafers, classic vanilla wafers that are a key ingredient in some banana pudding recipes.
9. Royal Dansk, a classic butter cookie imported from Denmark. Packaged in a recognizable blue tin, they use real butter and contain no artificial colors or preservatives.
10. Famous Amos, bite-sized, crunchy chocolate chip cookies, mostly sold in individual snack packs.

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

 
   ]]> https://blog.thenibble.com/2026/09/14/a-golden-accident-the-story-of-blonde-chocolate/ Tue, 15 Sep 2026 01:15:44 +0000 https://blog.thenibble.com/?p=161626
Continue reading "A Golden Accident: The Story Of Blonde Chocolate" →]]>

For more than 80 years, you could purchase only three types of chocolate bars: dark chocolate (launched in 1847), milk chocolate (debuted in 1875), and white chocolate (arrived in 1930).

Few people realize that in 2012, a fourth chocolate joined the group. Valrhona introduced blonde chocolate (which it trademarked under the name Dulcey®), discovered in a kitchen accident.

And just five years later, in 2017, Barry Callebaut unveiled the fifth type, ruby chocolate (photo #6), made from specially selected and processed ruby cacao beans. The first major consumer product using it—a ruby KitKat—followed in 2018.

Blonde and ruby are not “flavored” chocolates. They are distinct formulations, just as milk was added to dark chocolate to create milk chocolate, and the cacao solids were left out of the blend to create white chocolate.

We’ve previously extolled the virtues of ruby chocolate. In celebration of International Chocolate Day, September 13th, we introduce you to our favorite blonde.

Below:

> What is blonde chocolate?

> Why haven’t you heard of it?

> The history of blonde chocolate.

> The science of blonde chocolate.

> Where to find it.

Elsewhere on The Nibble:

> The history of chocolate.

> The different types of chocolate: a photo glossary.

> The world’s top chocolate houses.

> The year’s 69 chocolate holidays.

 
 
1. WHAT IS BLONDE CHOCOLATE?

Blonde chocolate, is caramelized white chocolate. It was trademarked as Dulcey® by its creator Valrhona, after the French word “dulce,” meaning sweet. Other producers call their products by the generic names blonde/blond chocolate, caramelized white chocolate, and sometimes, gold chocolate.

Barry Callebaut has trademarked the name Caramel Aura® for their blonde chocolate. Valrhona also makes a second type of blonde chocolate called Orelys®† for the professional market.

Unlike standard white chocolate, which is a blend of cocoa butter, milk solids, and sugar, blonde chocolate undergoes the Maillard* reaction to develop its caramel notes—the same process that turns cream into caramel candy.

Under gentle, prolonged heat, the natural milk proteins and sugars react to produce a rich blonde-tan hue. The reaction fundamentally transforms the flavor into a profile similar to that of dulce de leche (itself a Maillard reaction).

A blonde chocolate bar is creamy and melt-in-your-mouth smooth: a velvety texture, a warm golden hue, and a symphony of flavors.

The melt-in-your-mouth feature is the result of 35% cocoa butter—not to be confused with 35% cacao‡ of many milk chocolate bars. Like white chocolate, it contains cocoa butter but no cocoa solids; its distinctive blond color and toasted, caramelized flavor come from the processing of its milk and sugar components.

The initial notes are buttery and toasty, evoking butterscotch and caramel and the essence of freshly baked shortbread.
 

[9] Consumers can buy bars of Valrhona Dulcey; in fact, chocolate lovers owe it to themselves to try it (photo © The Nibble).
 
 
2. WHY YOU HAVEN’T HEARD OF BLONDE CHOCOLATE

Blonde chocolate has had a significant impact—but primarily in professional pastry, not as a mass-market candy.

It has not become a consumer category in the way milk, dark, white, or even ruby chocolate (briefly) have.

Yet, Dulcey became Valrhona’s most successful chocolate launch and one of its five leading sellers (note that the bulk of Valrhona sales are to professionals—pastry chefs and chocolatiers).

Why is that?

It originated as a professional couverture ingredient. Valrhona marketed Dulcey to pastry chefs: for creams, ganache, glazes, ice creams, mousses, and molded pieces—not as a grab-and-go candy bar. So far, its influence can be found in restaurant desserts, bakeries, and luxury confections. Some artisan chocolatiers use it, and you can find blonde/Dulcey chocolate bars.

It does not look dramatically new. Blonde/Dulcey chocolate is pale gold or tan. On a shelf, it can be mistaken for white chocolate, caramel chocolate, butterscotch, or a milk-chocolate variant.

Ruby chocolate had an immediate advantage: Its naturally bright pink color is visually striking and easy to communicate on a package or in a photograph.

Its flavor is familiar, but its identity is confusing. The flavor—caramelized milk, which delivers notes of dulce de leche and shortbread—is appealing. But consumers can easily interpret it as salted caramel or toffee, rather than recognize a distinct chocolate type.

It has no clear mass-market flagship product. Most consumers learn a chocolate type through an inexpensive, widely distributed, strongly branded item: a Hershey bar, a KitKat, an M&M’s product, and so on. Ruby received that kind of attention through Nestlé’s ruby KitKat launch.

Dulcey has been sold in bars and baking pieces (discs/feves), but its principal home has remained specialty retail and pastry. Even Valrhona’s U.S. store presents it chiefly as a premium chocolate and baking ingredient.

It competes with a crowded caramel universe. Caramel, salted caramel, dulce de leche, toffee, brown butter, cookie butter, and butterscotch already give shoppers choices in essentially the same flavor territory.

Blonde chocolate is technically more useful to pastry chefs than liquid caramel or caramel fillings, but that functional advantage matters far more in the kitchen than in the candy aisle.

In the U.S., the dominant consumer preferences are already entrenched. According to a National Confectioners Association survey, milk chocolate was preferred by 40% of consumers, dark by 28%, and white by 7%. “Blonde” was not even presented as a separate mainstream choice.

The same survey found caramel to have the broadest appeal among added flavors. In other words, consumers may like what blonde/Dulcey tastes like while choosing it under the familiar word caramel.

In fact, some companies market it to consumers as caramel white chocolate or caramelized white chocolate.
 
 
3. THE HISTORY OF BLONDE CHOCOLATE

Blonde chocolate was a happy kitchen accident at one of the world’s most prestigious chocolate houses.

It was discovered in 2004 by Frédéric Bau (photo #8), the renowned pastry chef and creative director of the French luxury chocolatier Valrhona.

While leading a demonstration at l’École Valrhona—the company’s professional pastry school in Tain-l’Hermitage, the Rhône Valley headquarters of the chocolate company—Bau inadvertently left white chocolate in a hot bain-marie for longer than intended.

Instead of burning or curdling, the chocolate slowly caramelized over approximately ten hours, turning a soft golden hue and releasing warm aromas of toasted shortbread and roasted milk.

Recognizing that this mishap had culinary brilliance, Bau and his team spent eight years perfecting the formulation, texture, and industrialization of the process until Valrhona officially introduced the product to pastry professionals and consumers in 2012 under the trade name Dulcey.
   

[1] Indulge in the creamy, caramelized texture of Valrhona Blond Dulcey 35% cocoa butter chocolate bar (photo © The Nibble).

[2] Laderach Frischoggi blonde chocolate with almonds (photo © The Nibble).

[3] Pastry chefs and chocolatiers buy their couverture in blocks like these, or in discs in the next photo (photo © Valrhona).

[4] Discs, also called fèves (French for beans) or wafers. Flat discs are also called buttons, callets, or pistoles (photo © Valrhona).

[5] A bowl of Valrhona Dulcey crunchy pearls, meant for decorations or inclusions, but you can eat them from the bowl (photo © The Nibble).

[6] You can find dark, milk, white, and ruby chocolate bars in the U.S. It’s less easy to find blonde chocolate bars (photo of blocks of couverture © Barry Callebaut).

[7] Dr. Louis Camille Maillard, who in 1912 first described the chemical reaction now known as the Maillard reaction (photo Public Domain).

[8] Frédéric Bau, creative director of Valrhona and creator of blonde chocolate (photo © Stéphane de Bourgies | Valrhona).  

[10] Macarons made with Dulcey chocolate (photo © Valrhona).
 
 
4. THE SCIENCE OF BLONDE CHOCOLATE

Unlike standard white chocolate, which relies on a simple blend of cocoa butter, milk solids, and sugar, blonde chocolate undergoes caramelization via the Maillard reaction*.

• Under gentle, prolonged heat, the natural milk proteins and sugars react to produce a rich blonde-tan hue and fundamentally transform the milk flavor.
• The resulting profile features warm notes of toasted biscuit, shortbread, dulce de leche, salted butter, and toasted nuts, rounded out by a distinct pinch of salt that tempers the sweetness.
• Per Valrhona, it’s creamy and melt-in-your-mouth smooth, carrying the comfort of butterscotch without the sharp cloying stickiness of boiled caramel candies.

 
 
What Blonde Chocolate Brings to the Table

Before the introduction of blonde chocolate, confectioners and pastry chefs faced a noticeable flavor gap between sweet, dairy-forward white chocolate and deeper cacao-bean chocolates.

Standard white chocolate is frequently criticized for being flat, excessively sugary, and lacking complexity (but check out our favorite white chocolate bars, which are not).

Caramel and dulce de leche can be tricky to work into delicate pastry mediums because of moisture, stickiness, or instability at room temperature. Blonde chocolate solved these culinary challenges by bringing three essential qualities to the table:

• Nuance Without Cocoa Solids. Blonde delivers deep, roasted, nutty complexity while retaining a completely cocoa-solid-free profile, keeping the color light and allowing delicate companion flavors to shine through without competing against the assertive bitterness or tannins of dark chocolate.
• Structural Utility in Pastry. Because it behaves with the same exact temper, snap, and fluid fat structure as premium couverture chocolate, chefs can use it seamlessly for truffles, ganaches, glazes, mousses, and enrobing without having to juggle the high water content of liquid caramel sauces. (See What Is Couverture Chocolate.)
• An Exceptional Flavor Bridge. Blonde’s savory, buttery undertones bridge beautifully with contrasting ingredients that struggle next to ordinary white chocolate, making it an extraordinary pairing partner for tart fruits such as passion fruit, raspberries, and apricots, as well as for roasted coffee, espresso, sea salt, toasted pecans, whiskey, and Bourbon.

Today, blonde chocolate has expanded far beyond Valrhona’s original couverture to become a recognized chocolate style across artisan chocolatiers worldwide, offering dessert lovers a sophisticated alternative that is warm, savory-sweet, and thoroughly distinctive.

Get a bar!
 

[11] Chocolate chip cookies made with Callebaut Caramel Aura baking chips (photo © Barry Callebaut).
 
 
5. WHERE TO FIND BLONDE CHOCOLATE

Here are a few places for starters. If you’re going to try blonde chocolate, start at the top. Less expensive bars won’t give you the best experience (with the exception of Trader Joe’s).

In alphabetical order:

• The Chocolate Season: Blonde Bar With Cacao Nibs (photo below).
• Läderach: Blonde Caramel Tablet and Blond Almond Frischoggi.
• Trader Joe’s private label blonde chocolate bar is made by an Italian producer. Find it on Amazon; at Trader Joe’s it’s just $2.99.
• Valrhona Dulcey Chocolate Bar: Valrhona, Amazon, and Worldwide Chocolate.

 

[11] A blonde chocolate bar with cacao nibs (photo © The Chocolate Season).
 
 

†Valrhona Dulcey® vs. Valrhona Orelys®. Valrhona describes Dulcey as buttery and caramelized (think toasted shortbread, warm milk caramel, and a very smooth creamy finish), while Orelys’s muscovado-driven sweetness yields a molasses-like depth, deeper color and muscovado’s characteristic light licorice notes. For pastry, Dulcey pairs with fruits, nuts, vanilla, and straightforward caramel desserts; while Orelys’ darker sugar profile was created to stand out with coffee, warm spices, banana, citrus, or berry flavors. See the different types of sugar.

‡The better milk and dark chocolate bars state their percentages of cacao. A top milk chocolate bar can be 45% or higher; dark chocolate can range up to 100% (no sugar is added). Connoisseur-quality bars are typically 70% cacao, the percentage which shows the finest bars to their best advantage. Here’s more about the percentage of cacao.
 
 

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   ]]> https://blog.thenibble.com/2026/09/10/have-a-mooncake-tea-party-for-chinas-mooncake-festival/ Thu, 10 Sep 2026 23:32:41 +0000 https://blog.thenibble.com/?p=153298
Continue reading "Have A Mooncake Tea Party For China’s Mooncake Festival" →]]>

[1] A plate of red bean mooncakes (photo © Omnivore’s Cookbook).

[2] Traditional mooncakes with a pot of Chinese tea (photo © In Pursuit Of Tea).

[3] A stack of mooncakes with both traditional and modern designs (stack adapted from Vogue).

[4] A traditional mooncake—lotus seed paste and duck egg yolk—from Hong Kong’s most famous mooncake brand, Mei Xim, pronounced MAY-shin (photo © Yami).  

The Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival and Mooncake Festival, is one of China’s most traditional holidays.

It occurs on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar, a time-tracking system that matches both the monthly phases of the moon and the yearly seasonal cycle of the sun.

This year, the festival falls on September 25th in the Gregorian calendar*.

Much like Thanksgiving in the U.S., it’s a time for family reunions, giving thanks for the autumn harvest, and gathering to admire the bright full moon.

Below:

> What are mooncakes?

> Mooncake gift-giving.

> The world of mooncake flavors.

> Have a mooncake tea party.

> Where to buy mooncakes.

> Mooncake recipes.

> The history of mooncakes.

Elsewhere on The Nibble:

> The year’s 15 Chinese food holidays.
 
 
1. WHAT ARE MOONCAKES?

Mooncakes are a traditional Chinese pastry eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. As you can see from the photos:

• Shape: Traditional mooncakes can be round or square. The thin, soft crust is baked to a golden brown.
• Made in special molds, the top has raised designs: the Chinese characters for good luck, flower shapes, patterns, etc.
• Fillings: Traditional fillings are lotus seed paste, red bean paste, or black sesame paste. A counterpoint to the sweet paste, a salted duck egg yolk is often placed in the middle to look like a full moon. Mixed nuts, seeds, or even pork can be added.
• Contemporary versions fill mooncakes with chocolate, fruit jellies, or ice cream, and pastry chefs show off their skills in the design.
• Size: Traditional mooncakes are rich and heavy: dense, sweet, and oily. The standard size measures approximately 4 inches (10 cm) across and 1¼ to 1½ inches (3–4 cm) thick. Mini or bite-sized versions typically measure 1.75 to 2 inches (4.5 to 5 cm) in diameter.
• That means they’re high in calories and fact. But this is a once-a-year celebration: Enjoy it.

 
How To Eat Mooncakes

• Traditionally they’re paired with hot green tea to balance the intense sweetness.
• Tradition dictates cutting the cake into small wedges—often quarters or eighths—to share with family and friends.
• Mini sizes are now made so that you simply cut them in half and share (or not).

 
 
2. GIVING MOONCAKES AS GIFTS

Giving someone a mooncake means wishing them health, happiness, completeness, and a happy family reunion.

You can begin giving mooncakes two to four weeks before the Mid-Autumn Festival. A typical schedule:

• 2 to 4 weeks before: Give mooncakes to business clients, bosses, and extended family members.
• 1 to 2 weeks before: Give mooncakes to close friends and immediate family, so they can eat them during the actual celebration.
• You can still gift them for up to a week after the festival.

Traditional baked mooncakes may keep for several weeks, depending on their packaging and ingredients. The newer style, fresh snowskin mooncakes, spoil quickly and require refrigeration.

Give perishable types closer to the actual holiday date.
 
 

The classic Cantonese-style mooncake usually has a thin, golden-brown baked crust, decorative mold pattern, and a dense sweet filling. Each region has its favorites. Traditional fillings include:

• Black sesame: Used alone or combined with fillings such as glutinous rice (mochi) or salted duck egg yolk.
• Five-kernel/five-nut filling (wǔrén): A textured mix of nuts and seeds, commonly including walnuts, sesame, pumpkin seeds, watermelon seeds, peanuts, or almonds. Recipes differ by region.
• Jujube-date paste: Dark, fruity, and lightly tangy.
• Lotus-seed paste: Often considered the most luxurious classic filling, particularly white lotus paste.
• Mung-bean paste: Smooth, mild, and sweet.
• Red bean paste: Earthier and more bean-forward than lotus paste.
• Salted duck egg yolk: Typically set inside lotus or bean paste; its round golden form represents the full moon. One or two yolks are common, and some elaborate versions use more.
• Savory fillings: Particularly in regional styles: minced pork, ham, dried shrimp, mushrooms, and other savory ingredients.

What’s with the egg yolks?

The yolk tempers the sweetness and gives the pastry a sweet-salty contrast. The best-known Cantonese combination is white lotus paste with salted egg yolk.
 
Regional Variations

Long before modern bakers put a 21st-century spin on them, mooncakes varied greatly across China. Beyond lotus paste and egg yolks, even the “classic” mooncake flavors have varied, with bean-based, floral, fruit-adjacent, nutty, and savory styles. Examples:

• Cantonese: Lotus paste, red bean, egg yolk, five-kernel, mixed savory-sweet fillings.
• Suzhou: Flaky, layered pastry with sweet fillings but also savory minced pork and ham versions.
• Teochew: Often flaky; taro/yam, mung bean, and salted egg yolk are common.
• Yunnan: Can feature rose, nuts, or local ingredients.
• Fujian: Often larger and more rustic, with nuts, sesame, jujube, candied winter melon, and lard-rich pastry.
• Shanghai/Jiangnan: Savory fresh-pork mooncakes are a major seasonal specialty.

 

[7] Purple sweet potato is one of the more contemporary flavors. Here it’s filled with blueberry ice cream (photo © Suncore Foods).
 
The Modern Flavor Diaspora

As mooncake traditions moved beyond China, they evolved in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and overseas Chinese communities. Bakers used familiar local ingredients to appeal to younger generations and customers outside of the community.

First came tropical and other Asian-influenced flavors:

• Durian: A major Southeast Asian adaptation, especially popular in Malaysia and Singapore.
• Fruit pastes: Lychee, melon, mango, and other translucent fruit pastes turned up in contemporary chilled styles.
• Pandan: The “vanilla of Southeast Asia” is, not surprisingly common in Southeast Asian mooncakes. Grassy and vanilla-like, pandan is often paired with lotus, mung bean, coconut, or egg yolk.
• Pineapple: Especially linked to Taiwanese baking traditions, including the popular Taiwanese pineapple cake. In a mooncake, it provides tartness that cuts through the richness; it can be paired with salted egg yolk.
• Taro/yam: Now widespread, if not purely “new.”

 

[8] Matcha snowskin mooncakes filled with red bean paste. Here’s the recipe (photo © Cooking Therapy).
 
The Creation Of Snowskin Mooncakes

The biggest leap forward was the emergence of snowskin mooncakes in Hong Kong in the 20th century.

Unlike the traditional baked wheat pastry, snowskin mooncakes are not baked. They cover the filling with a soft, chewy glutinous-rice exterior (like mochi) and are served chilled.

These lighter, contemporary pastries were especially well-suited to flavors that would feel unusual in an old-style lotus-paste cake:

• Chocolate
• Coffee
• Cream cheese
• Custard
• Ice cream
• Lychee
• Mango
• Matcha
• Molten lava
• Passionfruit
• Strawberry

The lighter style also begat colorful skins: pale pink, green, yellow, purple, blue, and other shades, made with natural ingredients or food colorings. (Matcha, for example, can tint a skin green, while fruit and vegetable ingredients can create pink, purple, or yellow tones.)

Are you ready to have a Mid-Autumn Festival tea party? (We just created the idea; it’s not a thing in Asian communities.)
 

[9] A tray of mooncake molds with different designs (photo © Constellation Inspiration).
 
 
4. HAVE A MOONCAKE TEA PARTY

Get different flavors of mooncakes—including traditional and modern varieties. Put on the tea kettle, pop the bubbly. And decorate.

• String colorful paper lanterns. In many Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations, lanterns brighten the night and symbolize the moon’s glow..
• Eat mooncakes. Sharing round pastries symbolizes wholeness and family unity.
• Gaze at the moon. Gather outdoors to admire the beauty of the full moon, sip tea, and share festive foods.

If weather obscures the sky and prevents moon-gazing, the celebration simply shifts indoors. The cultural essence of the holiday remains unchanged.

Beverages

Because traditional mooncakes are rich, dense, and sweet, the best drinks will have acidity, herbal lightness, or crisp effervescence to cleanse the palate.

Non-Alcoholic Drinks

• Apple Cider with Ginger: Warm or chilled spiced apple cider lightly infused with fresh ginger.
• Green tea or tisane (herbal tea): hot definitely; iced optional.
• Sparkling yuzu or pomelo/grapefruit soda.

Alcoholic Options

• Dry Gewürztraminer, such as an Alsatian: floral and lychee-scented.
• Sparkling wine.

 
Party Soundtrack

The playlist should balance gentle, reflective evening tones with warm, celebratory energy.

Popular Selections

• “Dancing in the Moonlight,” King Harvest
• “Fly Me to the Moon,” Frank Sinatra
• “Harvest Moon,” Neil Young
• “Moondance,” Van Morrison
• “Moon Song,” Phoebe Bridgers
• “Pink Moon,” Nick Drake
• “The Whole of the Moon,” The Waterboys

 
Classical Selections

• “Clair de Lune,” Claude Debussy
• “Moonlight Sonata (Piano Sonata No. 14),” Ludwig van Beethoven
• “Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21,” Arnold Schoenberg
• “Song to the Moon” (aria from “Rusalka”), Antonín Dvořák
• “Vaga luna, che inargenti (Lovely moon, who sheds silver light, arietta),” Vincenzo Bellini

 

[10] These mooncakes from Lady M bridge the traditional and the contemporary, in pistachio, yuzu cheesecake and red bean (photo © Lady M).
 
 
5. WHERE TO BUY MOONCAKES

A starter list:

• Ăn Xôi: traditional mooncakes with Vietnamese-influenced flavors.
• Kee Wah Bakery: lotus seed/egg yolk, red bean, date paste, mixed nuts with ham.
• Lady Wong, elegant packaging.
• Mariebelle: lotus seed and pineapple flavors in contemporary designs.
• Lady M.: Traditional shapes with modern flavors (photo #10, above).
• Weee: This online grocer specializing in Asian foods, has a broad selection.
• Also check at Costco and Walmart.

 

[11] A Vietnamese-style mooncake with festive accoutrements (photo © Mooncakes by Ăn Xôi).
 
 
6. MOONCAKE RECIPES

Prefer to bake rather than buy? Mooncakes are not very difficult to make, but the process has many steps and takes patience.

• Red bean and other flavors from Omnivore’s Cookbook (photo #6).
• An assortment of recipes from different bloggers.
• Matcha red bean mooncakes (photo #8).
• Mini mooncakes.

 
 
7. THE HISTORY OF MOONCAKES

A mooncake—yuèbǐng—literally “moon cake” or “moon pastry”—is a traditional food of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The connection between round cakes, moon worship, and the autumn harvest is ancient, but the precise origin of the modern mooncake is difficult to pin to one date or dynasty. What we do know:

• Early roots: Autumn moon offerings were part of longstanding Chinese ritual. Round cakes became associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival and its themes of harvest and reunion.
• Tang dynasty (618–907): Many accounts place recognizable festival mooncakes in this period, although origin stories vary and should be treated as tradition rather than a fully documented single invention.
• Yuan-to-Ming transition (1368): A popular legend says rebels hid messages inside mooncakes to coordinate an uprising against the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. It’s an enduring story, but historians generally treat it as folklore rather than settled fact.
• Regional development: Over centuries, different regions developed distinct pastries—especially the glossy, molded Cantonese mooncake; the flaky Suzhou mooncake; and varieties from Beijing, Yunnan, Chaoshan/Teochew, Fujian, and elsewhere.
• Modern gift culture: In the 20th century, mooncakes increasingly became premium seasonal gifts. Their packaging, branded collections, and creative flavors have become almost as significant commercially as the cakes themselves.

 
 
The Mid-Autumn Festival spread through Chinese communities across East and Southeast Asia, so mooncakes developed local identities in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and beyond. Asian Inspirations gives a useful overview of that broader regional evolution.

For the origin story—the legend of the moon goddess and the rabbit—see “The Romantic Myth of Moon Fest.”
 

[12] Taiwanese mooncakes and a pot of tea (photo © The Foundry Bakery).
 

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*The 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar falls between September 7th and October 8th in the Gregorian calendar.
 

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