Inventory-led tasting can discover a promising blend direction, but deliberate optimization should begin only after that direction is expressed as a named, versioned sensory target.
Premature target definition can suppress genuine discovery. Keep exploration and optimization as explicit modes, and open a new target version when evidence justifies changing direction.
Lost Lantern reports both theme-led projects and blends discovered by tasting available casks. This reconciles exploratory discovery with target-led formulation: discovery may be open-ended, but once a promising direction is selected, a target is needed to judge whether later changes improve or merely alter it.
Synthesized from the Lost Lantern source cluster processed on 2026-08-29; should be tested in the consumer pilot.
A Zettel is one durable idea in your own words—not a quotation, source summary, or draft-book claim.
Atomic idea
State one complete idea. It should be understandable on its own and specific enough to connect to other notes.
Reasoning
Explain why the idea is true or useful in Rationale and Implications. Record meaningful objections or exceptions in Counterpoints.
Provenance
Connect one or more Literature Notes. Direct source relations are legacy-only; trace evidence through the literature-note and excerpt chain.
Connections
Apply approved Tags for retrieval and one or more Themes only when the note genuinely advances those interpretive threads.