Maxim’s Mooncakes and Asia’s 50 Best Bars venue launch Mid-Autumn afternoon tea in Taiwan

Hong Kong Maxim’s is turning mooncakes into “flavor luggage” for a Mid-Autumn campaign in Taiwan, combining an immersive pop-up with a new afternoon-tea collaboration.

The “Mooncakes, All Aboard!” pop-up runs through Sept. 25 at Taipei’s Zhongxiao SOGO. Inspired by a Hong Kong-Taiwan express train platform, the space uses Maxim’s burgundy brand color, warm wood, metal details and leather suitcases to create a setting for browsing, photographs and gift shopping. Mooncake products include custard lava, double-yolk white lotus-seed paste and the Pearl of the Orient gift box, along with other new products.

Customers who spend at least NT$2,000 in a single purchase at the Taipei pop-up can try a claw machine once. Prizes include a two-person Maxim’s mooncake sensory afternoon tea or a mooncake gift box. A limited-time counter at Taichung’s Top City mall runs through the same date and features a capsule-toy machine for qualifying purchases.

For the first time, Maxim’s has partnered with EAST END, the hotel bar recognized as Taiwan’s first venue on Asia’s 50 Best Bars list. Their two-person afternoon tea pairs four Maxim’s mooncakes with four savory finger foods inspired by Hong Kong café dishes, Cantonese dim sum, nostalgic shrimp toast and typhoon-shelter seafood.

EAST END’s cocktail team designed alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks around the mooncakes’ egg, cocoa, fruit-acid and tea notes, drawing on Earl Grey and Hong Kong yuenyeung milk tea. The set costs NT$1,280 plus 10 percent and is available through Sept. 30. The promotion is presented as a way to make mooncakes part of a broader seasonal dining experience, not only a Mid-Autumn gift.