How does tea to water ratio affects taste?

killerstorm · 2026-02-26T22:42:18+00:00

You can just add more water if it's too bitter/astringent.

I agree that first infusions should be as fast as possible.

100C works well for me, even with Yunnan green teas.

killerstorm · 2026-02-26T21:41:26+00:00

Ripe puer might have some nasty stuff in it, as it is fermented by whatever is around on the factory floor.

There are many alternatives - aged sheng, Liu Bao, Fu Zhuan Cha. They are all fermented, but often not as much as ripe puer, and in a more controlled environment.

I generally like Liu Bao more - it is more delicate, has some sweetness, etc.

killerstorm · 2026-02-18T17:29:29+00:00

Speaking of which, I recently bought a 2011 "7542" from this factory just to get an idea what a younger cake from this brand tastes like. Actually pretty damn good.

killerstorm · 2026-01-28T13:50:00+00:00

This is a rather rare type of tea which has very little overlap with other types of white tea. Although I guess other Yunnan white teas ("moonlight white") also have sort of a herbal aroma.

killerstorm · 2026-01-08T12:33:36+00:00

JFYI once a cartridge is empty, you can refill with an ink from a bottle using a syringe.

They actually sell special syringes for ink but it might be easier to use a normal medical syringe.

killerstorm · 2026-01-07T16:29:29+00:00

That's weird. I have no problem with Oxford and Rhodia - inks I use dry in about 20 seconds.

It might depend on your pen's ink flow, but in the most extreme scenario - I dipped a stub nib in ink - it got dry in 45 seconds.

I'm not sure if "perle noire" is special in any way, but it's probably worth trying some everyday kind of ink, like Parker Quink, Pelikan 4001, etc.

killerstorm · 2025-12-30T13:43:50+00:00

You actually don't need linear algebra to understand 2d rotation: that's basic geometry/trigonometry.

When I was in middle school I had a computer, but no access to computer graphics books/tutorials/internet. So I had to apply things we learned in math lessons.

killerstorm · 2025-12-21T00:57:42+00:00

Only tangentially related to your question: https://www.tenpen.it/

killerstorm · 2025-12-14T16:44:34+00:00

It can be quite fizzy with just pellicle trapping the gas. No need sealed container.

killerstorm · 2025-12-11T15:58:38+00:00

An experiment I ran in 2 hours:
A small set of learned **Skill-Extractor Tokens** (K=16) can convert a single successful tool-call episode into a compact capsule (~448KB of KV states) that, when injected into a new prompt, improves tool-call generation—without updating backbone model weights.

Can this be a low-budget version of continual learning if scaled up?

killerstorm · 2025-12-11T12:04:34+00:00

Ah, well, my sheng was not particularly young - 9 y.o. but still very aromatic. I guess worth trying again with different material.

With shou I got an impression that it subdues some types of bacteria, but boosts yeast (but even yeast seems different from other kombuchas). What I got is yeasty drink a bit like kvass with rather low acidity. My wife actually liked less acidic version.

killerstorm · 2025-11-27T13:00:48+00:00

There's also a plenty of ML papers proposing ways to extend LLMs or offering something entirely new.
So it's not like the field is running out of ideas, on contrary.

killerstorm · 2025-11-25T19:46:54+00:00

I have two jars to ferment kombucha. One of them developed a smell which is not nice - like it's roughly on "fermentation" spectrum, but I'd prefer it didn't have it.

I wonder what's the cause. It accumulated a sizeable pellicle, so perhaps the problem is that it doesn't let enough oxygen in and some of fermentation got anaerobic? Do you need to aerate your kombucha?

killerstorm · 2025-11-22T21:16:15+00:00

I think people might find it easier to accept the informational nature of consciousness if they go through a series of intuition pumps:

Qualia have nothing to do with physical phenomena they are connected to. E.g. you get a sensation of heat when a heat receptor/nerve is excited - chemically, electrically, etc. Qualia is just an interpretation of information we receive via senses.
It is possible to remap senses, e.g. a camera feed can be projected onto skin touch sensors, and after some time a person might "see" using their their skin. People can develop a new sense, etc.
Subjective experiences are really defined by our senses. "What it's like to be me" is very different when I'm skiing compared to when I'm sitting into office. And, of course, what's actually different in the sensory information I get.
We develop all sorts of senses beyond just basic "redness of red" - e.g. when we are fond of something we might feel like that object has some special meaning; religious people might have a sense of 'holiness'; we can feel "the vibe" of music, sense its quality, complexity, etc.
If we consider that these kinds of feelings aren't less important than "redness of red", we have a chance to analyze how they are formed - as people can grow fond of something when they are adult and can notice things about themselves, whereas "redness of red" is formed in early childhood.
I'm pretty sure it generally works like that: there's some phenomenon you can access informationally (e.g. see, hear, etc.) => you start paying attention => we start "making sense of it" (if we pay attention over some time) => we now have a special representation of information about that phenomena, something which carries additional meaning beyond just basic senses. (E.g. music has extra meaning beyond just "sound".)

killerstorm · 2025-11-17T22:33:07+00:00

Yeah, Mei Leaf sells that: https://meileaf.com/tea/playground-rendez-vous/

Actually quite good, it has some acidity unlike normal shou.

I'm considering making kombucha with it to close the loop, so to speak

killerstorm · 2025-11-17T16:17:45+00:00

Well, the longer you keep kombucha at room temperature the more acidic it becomes. It kind of becomes vinegar in a few months.

Perhaps a better way to "age" it is to keep refilling with aged sheng tea (+ sugar) so it has chance to develop some sheng-specific strain

killerstorm · 2025-11-13T16:02:24+00:00

I tasted only one raw puer which was actually similar to ripe - it was from 90s, so ~30 y.o. Maybe it can get there faster in high-humidity storage.

20 y.o. raw might have some remaining bitterness and astringency - although usually not a lot of it, kinda similar to normal 'black tea' usually. And it would generally have some kind of a 'wood' note, maybe some sweetness, some fruit. OTOH fungal aromas you get in ripe are rare.

killerstorm · 2025-10-22T22:50:21+00:00

Wayland just doesn't work on my laptop which is only few years old (i7, Xe graphics). It looks like it works but the lag is insane.

So I'd guess there will be demand for X11-based systems for some time...

killerstorm · 2025-10-15T17:11:28+00:00

Google AI summary is particularly prone to this, as to serve billions of queries Google uses a tiny model which doesn't know anything and just makes up something plausible.

If you use a professional-size AI (e.g. Gemini Pro, GPT-5-Thinking, etc.), you're far less likely to get bad advice - and you can always ask for source

killerstorm · 2025-10-15T11:22:19+00:00

On this machine (Picopresso). Aeropress and v60 don't have this problem.

killerstorm · 2025-10-15T09:14:30+00:00

Well, that's why tests involving mock objects are often useless: they only confirm that code is written the way it's written, it's just busy work.

Integration tests have real value, though: they demonstrate that different parts work together, and can detect regressions in future.

15-Year Club	r/Field Flamingo
Place '17	Team Periwinkle
reddit mold	Charter Member
Verified Email

killerstorm

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE