💾 Archived View for thrig.me › blog › 2024 › 06 › 06 › on-measurement.gmi captured on 2024-06-16 at 12:20:25. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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The claim on a new package of tea "1 Tsp of Tea Per 8Oz/200Ml Of Water. Heat Water to 205F/95C And Steep for 1.5-3 Minutes." left me wondering whether something had been lost in translation, or do people actually test these things? (Spoiler: no, most of the time, not really.) The temperature seems fine, a bit before a full boil, which one can learn how to judge fairly well by listening to the sound of the kettle, assuming that one can hear it, or by watching the bubbles, assuming you can see them. Or you could boil the water at somewhere around 1,000 meters of elevation on Earth, though 95C and 205F do not exactly line up with one another, and getting yourself, the tea equipment, and the tea to that elevation may be difficult. A more serious problem is the one teaspoon, into which tea does not well fit, unless matcha powder, and a few tries at a somewhat level teaspoon result in roughly 1.3 grams of tea on the digital scale. Maybe they like the tea brewed weak, because other tea instructions advise three to five grams of tea per six ounces of water. The five gram mark may be a little extreme, as around that point the leaves may explode to consume all the space in the teapot, or these days a coffee mug. Also the instructions do not mention whether there is a need to pre-wash the tea to clean off any crud. Many such details is how you get to books written on tea.
/blog/2023/07/22/grumpy-unix-sysadmin-teapot.jpg
In the Star Trek future we are supposed to say "Tea. Pu'er. Cold." and the computer would figure out what we want. Meanwhile, the tea harvest this year was apparently problematic, something about climate change or "put energy into system, win stupid prizes".
