It’s time of the year again for Mid-Autumn Festival and to quote Mr. SGAG:

Learn to work like the MOONCAKE. Nobody cares about u for 11 months, but when it is time for you to shine, make everyone go crazy for u.

— Mr. SGAG (@SGAG_SG) August 26, 2014

Yes, for me, mooncake fall into this category alongside rice dumpling, pineapple tart that I will only remember them once a year, and stay dormant for rest of the year. These are type of festive food that I don’t really have a craving, as compared to say bah kwa, that I will eat it all year round just because I simply love it!

Speaking of mooncake, I know that mooncake are getting more creative these days, when I can see fusion of mooncake and cookie, tart, ice-cream, fruits, custard, with a mix of cheese, chocolate or truffles. Add in a western or hotel brand, slick packaging, and here we are: 4 pieces of small cakes, which can easily sell more than $40 per box. BTW, check out the wide range here for latest, most trendy 2014 selections.

But something more innovation I would like to talk about here, the act of giving mooncake, without giving actual mooncake! Instead, mooncake will be given in form of mooncake vouchers, made by many mooncake manufacturers, and only available in China.

Say if you are a recipient of mooncake voucher, there are 2 ways you can do about it: Redeem the voucher for mooncake if you happen to really want to eat a slice of mooncake, or, if you like me, are not mooncake lover,  you will probably want to sell the voucher to black market and get some cash.

And yes,  in China, there is a black market that willing to accept your gift voucher at a lower face value. And this turn out to be a pretty good economical and environmental sense.

There was a weibo post circulating around for quite a while that best describe the scenario:

1. Mooncake manufacturer print $100 worth of mooncake voucher and sell to retailer for $65.
2. Retailer in turn sell the voucher to A for $80.
3. A give the Mooncake voucher to B.
4. B resell the voucher to black market buyer at $40.
5. Mooncake manufacturer finally buy the voucher back from black market buyer at $50.

In this process, mooncake manufacturer earns $15, retailer earns $15, A earns a favour from B by giving mooncake, B earns $40, black market buyer earns $10. Mooncake manufacturer just print vouchers and nothing else. And we called this? Securitization of mooncake. Reduce food and material wastage and thus environmental friendly.

Of course in reality, mooncake will still going to be around for quite a while. What else can beat that moment of family and friends gathering, admiring the moon, children playing lanterns, while the adults figuring out the taste of fusion of mooncake and cookie, tart, ice-cream, fruits, custard, with a mix of cheese, chocolate or truffles.