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7 Lunar New Year candies and cookies popular in Hong Kong, from Ferrero Rocher chocolate to Shanghai’s White Rabbit Creamy Candy, and their origins

For many in Hong Kong, Lunar New Year celebrations mean eating Ferrero Rocher and a certain Danish brand’s butter cookies, and rock-hard Swiss fruit chews

We look at the origins of the cookies and confectionery, imported and made in Hong Kong, that people will be eating as they welcome the Year of the Dragon

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White Rabbit Creamy Candy is commonly eaten in Hong Kong around Lunar New Year. We look at these and other sweet treats popular over the holidays, and their origins. Photo: EPA

Published: 7:15am, 10 Feb 2024Updated: 7:35am, 10 Feb 2024

They are as much a part of Lunar New Year traditions as the likes of sticky new year puddings, melon seeds and glutinous rice balls, chosen for their auspicious associations – who, after all, doesn’t want to live the sweet life?

We take a look at four of the most iconic snacks from around the world that have ended up being Lunar New Year staples in Hong Kong, and unravel their origins.

Bonus: don’t miss the three iconic made-in-Hong Kong sweets at the end!

1 Kjeldsens butter cookies

Kjeldsens butter cookies are a popular treat among Hongkongers at Lunar New Year. Photo: Kjeldsens

Origin: Jutland, Denmark

Daanmak lam goon kook kei (“Denmark blue tin cookies”) often sit alongside Ferrero Rocher (see below), as one of the most recognisable gifts sold in the lead-up to Lunar New Year, so common is it to see pyramids of the iconic navy and gold boxes lined up in supermarkets and even convenience stores.

Legend has it that the late businessman and politician Sir Roger Lobo was the man responsible not only for bringing the brand to Hong Kong in the 1960s, but for suggesting they transport them in tins rather than the original cardboard packaging.

These tins now have a place in the collective memory of many households, and not just in Asia. The hardy containers, when emptied of their sugary bounty, make the perfect storage vessels for sundries and knick-knacks.

A common joke plays on the tragedy of opening a tin and not finding it filled with actual biscuits, but instead a whole sewing kit.