I was hoping one of the CIELO contributors or anyone that's had good results could comment on my cactus paste consistency.
I had a bad first try at CIELO tek which I'm sure was too much water in the paste making or my powder just had too much extra crap in it. This time I sifted my powder and reduced my batch down to 20%. I started ~30mL water (very sandy clumpy), then added 5mL increments until ~45mL as pics attached. Is this still too much water?
My resulting pulls were much darker than my first trial so I'm optimistic.

I’d say go for it. This tek has a learning curve, which looks like you’re moving higher on.

Looks a little moister than mine, but the tek is pretty robust: Loveall says his is like mashed potatoes, mine is like cookie dough or playdough. A second confirmation point is how your paste looks by the last pull, I like mine to be like applesauce during my later pulls, indicates more surface area is in contact with solvent. Kinda counter-intuitive, because you’d think it creates a lot of sediment went poured off, but if your water was not excessive the particles stick together during the rest period and don’t flow into pull filter.

Make sure you let your combined pulls settle for an hour at least, filter or decant off any sediment or water; if cloudy/hazy, filter & settle til clear… then move on to salting. When you filter your crystals, be sure to rinse your jar and product well with fresh EA, you don’t need a lot, but you want to wash away the used EA.

Not sure how much powder you're using, but I recommend learning with 15g runs until you get pure needles or powder in your filter. There is a link in the notes on the wiki to my post explaining how to adjust ingredient amounts for a smaller amount of cactus powder.

Stick with it, learn from your mistakes, you will nail it.

Thanks so much Cheelin,

Hmm mine wasn't congealing at all yet on the 6th pull, but looking at it now it's definitely like an applesauce. I did wait 2min in between each pull and lightly stirred when adding fresh EA. I couldn't even lightly press down my paste, as at this amount my french press go down far enough, but that sounds like more of an advanced maneuver anyway

Wow can't believe how easy this was after getting the paste corrected. Just settling now after mag-stirrer for an hour.

Agreeing with Cheelin. Starbob's cactus looks a little moister than what I usually arrive at. These photos I'm posting are cactus paste using 50 grams of Pervian Torch powder, 12.5 grams lime, 150 ml purified water. Notice I can push it into a ball and pick it all up with a spoon. And with all these discoveries and troubleshooting over the past several weeks, I believe one of the reasons for my "great success" (haha Cheelin) is the relative dryness of my paste.

What could we use to absorb excess water at this stage? Not a chemical dry that might be difficult to control. Something that we could just eyeball to get the right consistency.

Makes sense to me to spread out the paste on a plate into a thin layer for more surface area, then microwave or hairdryer off some of the moisture.

Here’s a trick for doing your final squeeze: unscrew the french press plunger from the screen assbly, push screen down with spoon, drain that extra 10mL of goodness.

Lol, Hiya Fi-Yev!

On a 5g run, with water and lime scaled down to 5% of tek, the paste can handle, at least, +/- 33% water. You really have to work at it, to get your paste too wet.

But, if you think your paste is too wet, how bout just adding a teensy-weensy tad of cactus powder? A tiny tad, then mix it in, then maybe another.

Did not my friend tell you so? Spread the good word.

I ended up with a modest amount I consider a success given the 20g powder I'm using was PC with wax layer and not dark aged. Haven't weighed it but I doubt it's more than 15mg. Tasted acidic, not bitter, not sour. I'll give it another go with less moist paste and a more potent powder. Thanks for this awesome tek.

Loveall, Shroombee, and all the early guys deserve the credit. Glad you learned how to do the tek, Hoping your next run delivers the real deal.

I think adding more lime is a good way to make the paste less watery. Cheelin has shown that more lime could be an improvement to our current ratios.

The microwave will make the paste runnier. Seems counter intuitive, but it breaks down the plant matter resulting in a runnier paste despite the water evaporation. Eventually with enough water removed it stiffens up again. However, we don't recommend using the microwave anymore since both Cheelin and I saw lower yields. If the paste is too stiff you can add water.

If you do the passive slow xtalization (minimal stirring) you get needle xtals instead of a powder (as you may know already).

starbob, your example has been added to the TEK as an example of what a paste that is too whet looks like. Thanks for your contribution