"Mike Petro" > writes:

> [...3rd digit means (1) leaf grade or (2) recipe #...]
>
> I personally believe in scenario one, my reasoning is this: the third
> digit can only be one of 9 possibilities which easily corresponds with
> leaf grades. If the third digit is a recipe code then 9 digits might
> not have been enough if there were more than 9 recipes in a given year,
> and I don't see the factories as limiting themselves to only 9
> recipes per year.

Why not? Nine *new* recipes per year might be a lot.

> On the flip side of the third digit issue is the fact that modern
> cakes are seldom made from a single grade of leaf anymore.

Not that I have any specific knowledge, but this seems more cogent to
me, for why would they use names that had no meaning?

By the way, what does "modern" mean in this context?

Is it possible that the third digit meant leaf grade until the
transition to multi-grade compressed Pu'er, and then its meaning
shifted to recipe number within year of origin? The latter meaning
would in a sense be a generalization of the former, for a recipe would
specify the leaf grade(s), right?

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html