Founders siblings Vivien and Howard Wong spent over a year developing the range, which comes in bite-sized balls of vegan Belgian chocolate ice cream, wrapped in a layer of soft mochi and cocoa powder – reminiscent of a Belgian truffle.
The Great Taste Awards
The launch is in response to sample testing in stores across the country and requests from followers on social media. It was also reocognized in the Great Taste Awards, wining a star for its flavor. They have sixGreat Taste Awards stars in total.
This year the brand is launching more flavors and expanding across the UK and overseas.
"The logo on the vegan packaging was designed so that the o’s looked like both Little Moons' mochi balls and also like a moon to mirror the brand name and the product photography," said Howard Wong, founder, Little Moons.
"We wanted each flavor to have its own personality with bold colors and hand painted backgrounds to reflect the intense flavor notes of our product and the artisanal hand finished nature of our mochi.
"Little Moons’ packaging supplier is currently ABC Packaging."
Mochi is a Japanese dessert traditionally eaten over New Year, where it is made in a ceremony called mochitsuki. It is made from a, naturally gluten free, rice flour dough, which is kneaded until it forms a soft and chewy texture.
Vivien and Howard Wong’s love of food began after their parents opened a bakery in London and they set up Little Moons in 2010, creating bite-sized balls of gelato ice cream, chocolate ganache or cheesecake wrapped in a layer of mochi.
The ingredients are made using matcha from the Uji region of Japan and a specific brand of slow roasted Italian hazelnut.
They launched a grocery range in August 2015 at Whole Foods Market and it has since become their best-selling ice cream brand with flavors including Slow Roasted Hazelnut, Cherry Blossom and Espresso.
Other flavors include: Alphonso Mango, Uji Matcha, Sumatran Coconut and Madagascan Vanilla.
Europe & the Middle East
Talking about establishing a start-up, the siblings said the first two years were challenging because no one else in the UK produced mochi ice cream at that time, so they had to be innovative with the production process.
The high density of their gelato means it's not soft straight out of the freezer but leads to a more intense flavor waiting five minutes after defrosting time.
Little Moons now supply over 6 million mochi a year to restaurants across Europe and the Middle East including Yo! Sushi, PingPong, Wagamama and SushiSamba.
Stockists include: Waitrose, Ocado, As Nature Intended, Amazon Fresh, Harrods, Whole Foods, Selfridges, Partridges, Carrefour (Belgium+Dubai), El Corte Ingles (Spain), Franprix (France), Coop (Norway).