The mooncakes are classified according to their place of origin as Chiu Chow, Hong Kong style, Canton style and Beijing style.

Cantonese-style mooncakes, which are more prevalent in Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi and other regions, are usually round or square in appearance, with a more delicate pattern, and its most important feature is its thin skin and thick filling; the fillings it adopts are usually lotus seed paste or salted duck eggs, so its flavors are mainly sweet and salty.

Teochew mooncake, also known as Neighborhood Mooncake, is popular in Guangdong Chaoshan area. It is usually round in shape, flat in body, with both sweet and salty flavors, mainly made of green bean paste, red bean paste, egg yolk and seafood, and with a crispy outer skin.

Beijing-style mooncakes, which are mainly prevalent in Beijing, Tianjin and the surrounding areas, are very similar in appearance to Cantonese-style mooncakes, but they are more compact; the flavor is generally sweet and light, characterized by the heavy use of sesame oil, and the texture is very crunchy.

Hong Kong-style mooncakes are an offshoot of Cantonese mooncakes, giving birth to the new school of Cantonese mooncakes, such as creamy mooncakes and iced mooncakes. The four most famous brands of Hong Kong-style mooncakes are Wing Wah, Maxim's, Heng Heung and Tai Pan, all of which are mooncake companies with large production scales, and each company has its own variety of mooncakes.

Shelf life of mooncakes

Mooncakes have a shelf life of 20 to 90 days. The shelf life of mooncakes is mainly affected by the filling, but also by the packaging, fruit-filled mooncakes can generally only be kept for about a month, bean paste, red dates and other sweet sugar filling slightly longer, iced mooncakes have the shortest shelf life, just only 15 to 20 days, but also need to be kept in the refrigerator.

The shelf life of different brands of mooncakes varies, with the longest shelf life of 90 days, the shortest only ten days, and some labeled 45 or 60 days. Because mooncakes still retain a certain amount of moisture and oil after baking, the shelf life can't be as long as dehydrated foods like cookies.

The length of the shelf life is governed by a variety of factors such as the quality of raw materials, the production environment, production equipment and packaging technology, especially the impact of the production environment and packaging materials on the shelf life. Modern factories operate under sterile conditions, eliminating sources of contamination, so mooncakes produced and packaged in this environment have a longer shelf life.

While the handmade production, although it can achieve hygienic conditions, but can not achieve the degree of asepsis, more or less will be infected with bacteria, so even with the same packaging, the shelf life will be shortened.