ALTHOUGH the Mid-Autumn Festival is nearly two months away, the Dragon-i chain of Shanghainese cuisine restaurants has already launched its line of mooncakes with a touch of luxury.
In addition to Dragon-i’s seven “All-Time Favourites”, the chain also launched five new mooncake flavours as well as variations of its Classic Jade Pandan Series.
The new flavours consist of Green Tea Azuki Custard, Mocha Infusion, Coffee Indulgence, Trio Endurance and Exotic Mixed Fruits and Nuts.
Dragon-i chief executive officer Henry Yip said there were also new variants for the restaurant chain’s successful Classic Jade Pandan series, including single yolk with custard and single yolk with yam.
These new flavours can be mixed-and-matched in a Limited Edition Mooncake Gift Set, complete with a box embedded with Swarovski crystals.
However, only 3,000 of these boxes will be sold across all 18 outlets owned by the chain, including its outlets in Singapore.
“I got the idea for the Swarovski crystals from a box of chocolates I bought overseas, but that cost the equivalent of RM300.
“What we’re emphasising here is quality over quantity, but at affordable prices,” said Yip.
The Limited Edition Mooncake Gift Set, according to Yip, will cost RM98 and will contain four mooncakes of one’s choosing.
Professional touch: Ng demonstrates how to dust a newly-made mooncake to Miss Malaysia Tourism 2012 finalists
Ng said they had been testing different flavours since the end of Chinese New Year.
“It does not only take time to devise successful new recipes, but we also need to order our ingredients and supplies ahead to ensure that our products are affordable,” he said.
However, Dragon-i will only be making limited numbers of the five new flavours and Jade Pandan yolk with yam variant due to their painstaking hand-made process.
“The new flavours and the Jade Pandan yolk with yam variants can be selected for the limited edition Swarovski-embedded box.
“However, response to our ‘All Time Favourites’ was good enough such that we are raising our output to 50,000 this year,” Yip explained.
For details, call 03-7722 1888 or visit www.dragon-i.com.my
