Taste-testing the new-recipe Tsukimi Pie.
According to Japanese cultural traditions, autumn is the time for tsukimi, or moon-viewing, parties, and it’s also become the season for tsukimi burgers, which feature fried eggs roundly reminiscent of a full moon. McDonald’s Japan, naturally, has tsukimi burgers, but each fall they also bring out a Tsukimi Pie.
Since fried eggs don’t work nearly as well as a topping for desserts as they do for burgers, the Tsukimi Pie instead takes its culinary cues from Japanese folktales about rabbits living on the moon and making mochi (rice cakes) up there. So the Tsukimi Pie, since its debut in 2019, has always had mochi inside, plus anko (sweet red bean paste). Last year, though, McDonald’s switched things up for the first time by also adding kinoko, roasted soybean powder that tastes a little something like cinnamon. As a lover of the original version of the Tsukimi Pie, our Japanese-language reporter Maro’s heart wasn’t broken, but it was wounded, as the addition of the kinoko felt like figurative noise that was getting in the way of the interplay of sweetness and saltiness the older Tsukimi Pie had had.
So when word came that the kinoko was gone for 2025, Maro didn’t shed a tear. McDonald’s wasn’t going back to the original recipe either, though, and this year’s Tsukimi Pies, which have just started showing up at McDonald’s branches, have a new guest-star ingredient: butter.
▼ The Tsukimi Pie covers have some nice lunar-themed artwork to admire, in case there’s not an actual full moon in the sky while you’re munching on yours.
Combining anko, the most quintessential indigenous Japanese dessert element, and butter, something that no traditional Japanese recipes call for, might seem like an odd, ill-advised idea. However, anko butter sweets have become a trendy food item in Japan over the last year or two, so this is more a case of McDonald’s keeping up with developments in the Japanese dessert sphere, not them pushing a concept no one has shown any interest in.
Ordinarily, McDonald’s pies are meant to be eaten by simply biting into the top and making your way down. As dessert journalists, though, we felt a more thorough visual examination was in order first, so we opened it up for a look under the proverbial/edible hood.
Right away, Maro was happy to see that this year’s Tsukimi Pie doesn’t go quite as crazy on the amount of butter as last year’s did with the kinako.
▼ This year’s Tsukimi Pie with mochi, anko, and butter
▼ Last year’s Tsukimi Pie with mochi, anko, and kinako
However, while it may only look like a modest dab of butter, it makes a significant impact in the taste, Maro found out after taking a bite.
This isn’t a pie with a hint of butter flavor, or a subtle, buttery essence. Nope, this lights up as BUTTER on your taste receptors, and though the Tsukimi Pie has always been a mix of Japanese and Western elements, this year’s feels like it leaning harder towards the Western-sweets side of the balance.
That’s not a complaint, though. As mentioned above, anko and butter has become a popular flavor mix in Japan, and between the sweetness of the anko, the richness of the butter, and the slight saltiness of McDonald’s pie crust, Maro found a lot to like here. However, the extra richness from the butter does make this noticeably heavier-feeling than the previous Tsukimi Pies, which could be a negative if you’re planning to enjoy one extra late at night when the moon is shining its brightest.
In a perfect world, McDonald’s would offer the new Tsukimi Pie alongside the original, butter-less version. Judged entirely on its own merits, though, Maro thinks the 2025 Tsukimi Pie good stuff, and with a price of just 190 yen (US$1.30), it’s a great value too, and plans to eat at least three more of them during their limited but undefined period of availability. And if the cravings for the original Tsukimi Pie get too strong to resist, we can always try making our own again.
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