Tea factories, particularly formerly government-owned factories, produce many cakes using recipes for tea blends, indicated by a four-digit ''recipe number''. The first two digits of recipe numbers represent the year the recipe was first produced, the third digit represents the grade of leaves used in the recipe, and the last digit represents the factory. The number 7542, for example, would denote a recipe from 19''75'' using ''fourth''-grade tea leaf made by Menghai Tea Factory (represented by ''2''). There are also those who believe that the third number indicates a recipe for a particular production year. | Tea factories, particularly formerly government-owned factories, produce many cakes using recipes for tea blends, indicated by a four-digit ''recipe number''. The first two digits of recipe numbers represent the year the recipe was first produced, the third digit represents the grade of leaves used in the recipe, and the last digit represents the factory. The number 7542, for example, would denote a recipe from 19''75'' using ''fourth''-grade tea leaf made by Menghai Tea Factory (represented by ''2''). There are also those who believe that the third number indicates a recipe for a particular production year. |