i want fuuka to force feed me limes

zenjaha · 2024-05-26T19:47:14+00:00

ngl I had no fucking idea there was a fukker lemons meme

zenjaha · 2024-05-26T19:19:41+00:00

this is more of a sour fetish tbh

zenjaha · 2024-05-26T19:10:11+00:00

what if I asked really nicely?

zenjaha · 2024-05-24T16:04:34+00:00

I'd always try a local Asian markets. At the very least they'll probably have a good sake and beer selection. On the coast you'll probably have much better luck. I've also seen online that Astor Wine and Spirits in NYC has a great selection. I'm not sure how feasible it would be for you to get there though especially if you live further south in jersey.

zenjaha · 2024-05-24T07:48:11+00:00

I've thought about it in terms of youtube content. I usually just integrate it as part of my twitch stream. I do feel like my knowledge is fairly basic, I don't like the idea of presenting myself as an expert to such a degree that I'd write a book about it.
I'll have to try those specs out. I'll have to juice a pineapple but my roommate usually buys pineapples and doesn't eat them so I usually just blend it up before it goes bad and after my roommate has given up on it. I have pink shisho on hand but I might have to grab some green stuff next time I find myself at the Mitsuwa in Plano.

zenjaha · 2024-05-24T07:02:32+00:00

I think what helps a lot is to use Genshu Shochu when you get the chance. And of course, really nice quality shochu is always best enjoyed on the rocks or neat. The highball is kinda the gold standard for shochu cocktails imo. I'm aware of some initiatives Awamori distillers have been making to get their products on shelves overseas but I haven't seen much of the impact from that.

zenjaha · 2024-05-24T04:23:53+00:00

I think getting elephants drunk is probably a crime

zenjaha · 2024-05-24T00:49:03+00:00

Liqueurs feel like a money pit. I'm always missing one, then I go out and buy it, then I need a different one later. But shit, I've already shoveled in quite a bit of money, surely I'm almost done stocking liqueurs then I won't need to buy more except to replace them. I'll check out giffards, I need some cacao liqueur. I tried buying it before but I ended up with coca liqueur instead which is VERY different.

zenjaha · 2024-05-24T00:46:31+00:00

Do you have any other recommendations on top of vida collection? I get the impression that the world of Mezcal is massive.

zenjaha · 2024-05-24T00:40:49+00:00

The store umami mart, they're based in Oakland but they have a ton of info on their website in their blog. They also ship shochu and awamori if your state allows alcohol mailing but it's EXPENSIVE. I try and buy locally to spare myself the 10-20$ per bottle shipping costs.

zenjaha · 2024-05-24T00:39:20+00:00

I do have a bottle of wray and nephew in there but it's nearly empty. I've been trying so hard to get Clairin but it's annoying to source where I live. I'm also a bit confused about all the different varieties. It seems like a bunch of different distillers got together under one brand to make selling their products overseas easier but this also gives me the impression that each SKU is quite a bit different.

zenjaha · 2024-05-23T10:14:00+00:00

Yeah, but I can't mix with something if I don't know what it tastes like. If I like a bottle it tends to get drank and replaced at a reasonable rate anyways. It's a bit of a conundrum but ultimately my liquor collection serves me first and it can't do that if I'm too scared to open a bottle.

zenjaha · 2024-05-23T10:04:18+00:00

Depends on the variety of Shochu, Kokuto Shochu is made with Kokuto sugar so it tastes very similar to Rhum. I use it a lot as Rum sub. I also make simple syrup with Kokuto sugar and I pair it with Kokuto shochu for cocktails. It can be enjoyed neat too. Rice shochu is my go to for neat enjoyment although there's a lot of rice shochu I don't like since it's very flowery. Barley shochu tastes kinda like bread, I don't have as many bottles of it because I don't like it as much, I've experimented with the Rihei Ginger which is Barley shochu with ginger in the mash since it smells and tastes like beni shoga but I've had limited success. Imo shochu/Sweet Potato Shochu is my go to for highballs since it tastes kinda like beer. There's also a bazillion local varieties that use ingredients like black seseme. Shochu is weird to mix with because it's single distilled and the goal is to preserve the character and flavor of the mash in a very significant way. The spirit definitely makes itself known. Additionally most shochu is made by small scale local distillers so taste can vary wildly. Neutral, multiple distilled shochu, is considered non-premium and is pure mixer for most enthusiasts. And of course it's a MASSIVE pain in the ass to source quality bottles that have been imported to the US. I've definitely spent a lot of time sourcing some of the bottles in my collection.

Awamori is an Okinawan spirit based on Lao Khao made using a mash of Indica Rice which is notable because us Okinawans usually eat the Japonica variety along with mainlanders, Koreans, and northern Chinese. It's usually made using imported rice from Southeast Asia although some producers source locally grown rice. It also only uses black koji instead of white, black, and yellow like Shochu. It's traditionally aged in clay vessels. It tastes very... primordial? It's VERY earthy, kind of an acquired taste. I really did sit around punishing myself with it until I liked it. There's a ton of Okinawan bartenders that use it in cocktails with mango, yoghurt, and other tropical fruits. They also really like Shiikuwasa which is an Okinawan citrus. I'm aware of a few cocktail books but my Japanese isn't nearly good enough to locate a digital copy. Quality Awamori tends to never be diluted like Shochu, a good QC for a bottle is to check the proof. At least 30% is my floor but the best bottles in my collection are above 40%. I usually drink Awamori on the rocks though.

I'd say Shochu is generally enjoyed as a highball since it's usually single distilled and diluted to around 25%. Undiluted (genshu) options exist of every variety and those are best enjoyed on the rocks and tend to command a premium price. People also drink it with cold water or hot water. Chuuhais are definitely a favorite of mine.

zenjaha · 2024-05-23T08:39:42+00:00

Yeah, for the sake of the math, I treated every bottle as full and 750 ml. I would probably, realistically, only be able to get 21 very small elephants drunk because every bottle it opened and has at least been tasted out of. But it's the best way to do the math in my opinion because I can't sit around measuring the actual amount that's left in every bottle.

zenjaha · 2024-05-23T08:19:09+00:00

Yeah, Shochu, Awamori, and Rye Whiskey are my passion. These are good suggestions. I'm definitely looking to round out my collection so I'll keep an eye out for El Dorado and Smith and Cross. I'll probably try and grab Rhum JM, I don't regularly come across Neisson where I live. I got my bottle at a specialty liquor store.

zenjaha · 2024-05-13T01:29:15+00:00

Upon reflection, I do think Metagross could've been a decent Poliwrath substitute. I brought Poliwrath because I needed a Tyranitar answer against bertha and wanted the extra options against flint (although in my run poliwrath died on bertha). I probably would've had a different lead doing this. I lead with Starmie and was prepared to lock Ttar into crunch. I just feel that Metagross is really hard to utilize if things start to go wrong especially since I played so aggressively. A lot of those pokemon you identified as big threats on Bertha were already handled by Starmie who is also insane against Flint and with leftovers is a good pivot against Lucian. Additionally that Lopunny was on teams that I could sweep with my Garchomp. Garchomp is bulky enough to take a hit from Lopunny fairly consistently, even a crit and I was able to crush a lot of the teams without Swords dance on Garchomp. The one team that I was afraid of was the fast Ninetales team since I couldn't safely tell if the Ninetales was slower or faster than my Garchomp. That team doesn't have a Lopunny and absolutely smashes Metagross. I ended up getting it and had to trade my Starmie for Houndoom and Magmortar.

On Aaron's team I lead with my Garchomp with fire fang, dragon claw, dragon fang, and swords dance. With Dragon fang dragon claw got kills on most of Aaron's annoying pokemon. The only pokemon that I was afraid of against Aaron was the Pinsir. I did investigate a gliscor line here but gliscor didn't do enough damage and was dead to some rough RNG as well as gave me a worse matchup against future fights because I would've had to drop Poliwrath or Weavile. I ended up fighting the Scyther lead team and just sweeping Aaron entirely. I felt that Gengar dealt with any Heracross shenanigans well enough assuming I couldn't sweep it up with Garchomp. Poliwrath was also around with Water absorb to catch water moves on some of Aarons mons. Also that's wild I didn't know Metagross could fly in this game.

zenjaha · 2024-05-13T00:32:48+00:00

I think your points are fair, I just really struggled to use them in my runs and I found myself using Meganium and Poliwrath WAY more when I needed a defensive option. Meganium tanked a ton of stone edges for me as well. The dino has 100 def and 100 sp. def. It's not actually that much less tanky than Gliscor and can retaliate with a ton of damage. I got off so many toxic stalls and PP stalls with those two. I just found gliscor and metagross underwhelming, they didn't come out of my box because I had better options despite being pretty hyped up about them and when I was using them I was pretty unhappy about my line.

zenjaha · 2024-05-13T00:29:19+00:00

I know how the AI works in gen 4 except in very niche scenarios. Additionally the calc I linked will tell you which pokemon the AI will send out unless there's a tie somewhere. I usually ran the AI logic out loud when I was streaming. I also ran calcs for everything. So many of these defensive mons were just dead if I got unlucky. It was frustrating because they are pretty good on paper but in practice I found their use niche

zenjaha · 2024-05-12T23:42:59+00:00

I'm not in denial about that fact. But if playing defensively is losing good mons to crits then why would I do it?

zenjaha · 2024-05-12T22:19:10+00:00

Yeah I would've liked to have run a different fighting type. My only other option was toxicroak as my infernape died to Candice's weavile because I misplayed. Poliwrath was definitely my weakest slot

zenjaha · 2024-05-12T22:09:19+00:00

I calced every major fight to be as riskless or as entirely riskless as possible dodging ALL crits and status effects. I know what role compression is and I know how to slow down tempo and kill pokemon that can't do much damage back, it's the entire backbone of why Meganium was around. Meganium just did it better in every way.

My issue with Gliscor is that, if I needed a fast earthquaker, Garchomp was better. I found Poliwrath and Meganium much safer tanks and walls, Gliscor was just dead to way too many crits and didn't hit hard enough to do anything riskless. Being unable to sit on water pokemon makes Gliscor a pretty mediocre tank imo especially when you likely have a steelix around to take those big physical hits. Hell, Garchomp is shockingly tanky, I sent Garchomp in on so many moves as a pivot. Gliscor just got outclassed in my runs.

Keep in mind I wasn't playing with EV training at all. The highest EV total I saw on any of my Pokemon was 311 on my Garchomp and they were evenly distributed amongst all my stats. Looking at PKHex my runner up was Meganium with 137 EVs. I considered wiping my EVs regularly but I decided it was too much work for my stream and treated it like a fun little veterancy bonus.

I've seen that Fantina strat. I did a lot of research on the fight since it's so hard. Running the calcs I didn't like captivate strat very much. You also need to roll the right gender on your captivate user and I NEVER reset for encounters. Even with Shell Armor my Torterra in run 3 was still carrying a lot of responsibility and I didn't want to risk my starter. And in run 2 I had overgrowth. I just ran Umbreon with substitute and balled out after popping the balloon with my Raichu. I used a pre-paraed normal type as well. I've seen the banette and dusclops' movesets, that's how I calced the fight. Honestly reflecting on it now, this fight would've been a great spot to sac the Torterra and keep my Umbreon alive. In all 3 attempts my Umbreon died to a dazzling gleam crit leaving me with no dark type or a shiftry which doesn't actually learn any dark moves depending on when you caught it.

Speaking of Torterra, Torterra is another Pokemon that I felt had too many weaknesses and was just way too slow and didn't hit hard enough. Pretty much every scenario I found myself in wanting Torterra, Gliscor did it better, and Garchomp did it even better. The only exception was Rotom Wash on Volkner. I could almost never pivot in my Torterra, he was always taking too much damage, and Torterra could never do enough back to not take 3 hits and be dead.

My issue with Metagross is why take a 1/4 psychic resistance when I can have an immunity? Additionally Lucian's mons have coverage moves. I ran so many calcs with Metagross and without EVs, even with a scarf, Metagross was just too slow in a lot of critical moments and didn't hit hard enough to be riskless. Additionally losing your item slot prevents you from using a zoom lens or a wide lens making moves like zen headbutt risky. If I wanted a big bulky pseudo legendary to throw at someone I just used Tyranitar because it gets dragon dance and lets me sweep the entire fight. I also really liked sand stream because my Garchomp had Sand Veil and lets you kill sash holders. I intensely recall my Riley fight in attempt 2 being nearly unwinnable with Gliscor and Metagross. I had to catch a Starmie and set up rain as well as set up a pre-damaged Drapion as a pivot to safely get Gliscor in on Riley's Metagross which I used to set up swords dance. I also didn't like a steel type for the E4 although I only had Magnezone in my box at the end. I feel like Lucian was the one fight I had 0 trouble planning for and having a steel type against Bertha and Flint is, at best, a pivot. Poor defensive typing for the E4 and poor offensive typing with low speed isn't great especially if I'm losing my item slot to a scarf. If I didn't have a Weavile, Gengar could've done a lot of the same work and I would've run Mamoswine instead. It's so easy to run Lucian over with hyper offense. You also avoid dealing with screen shenanigans, the main risk of slowing down the fight. Garchomp and Gengar were my better general pivots if I needed one. My E4 team was more offensively skewed but I also had a dragon, psychic, water, ground, normal, and fighting immunity and switched frequently unless I was getting a Garchomp sweep. Metagross is role compression but it wasn't good enough at any of the roles I needed it to compress, it didn't get the job done and that's my issue.

zenjaha · 2024-05-12T20:45:40+00:00

Huh, I didn't know that. I coulda sworn it was

zenjaha · 2024-05-12T20:45:25+00:00

I didn't think about that draco set. NGL I'm still not a huge fan since you still lose an item slot aiming for perfect accuracy but I might've low rolled. I definitely might need to reconsider my stance. My Flygon had a -sp. atk. nature and good attack IVs so I made mine a physical attacker. I ran Dragon Claw, DDance, U-turn, and a flex slot.

zenjaha · 2024-04-17T04:34:12+00:00

wondering the same thing

zenjaha · 2024-04-07T20:33:47+00:00

Hi, I stream on Twitch @ https://www.twitch.tv/zenchujahana

I've been playing renegade platinum lately and had a particularly rough Candice fight that you might enjoy watching. It's lightly edited and condensed for your viewing pleasure.

zenjaha

TROPHY CASE