I Softness, measured in fingers. A finished rosette gives by three millimetres under a thumb, then returns. Anything firmer is yesterday’s; anything looser is tomorrow’s. GOST 6441 3 mm · 0.4 s
II Sugar is a weather, not a coating. We dust at twenty-two degrees and forty-eight percent humidity. Below that, the bloom skids; above, it weeps. The room is the recipe. Dusting room 22°C · 48 %RH
III The pink is a quieted rose. Two parts cranberry purée, one part apple, beaten until the colour reads as powder rather than fruit — the box wants matte, never neon. Pulp ratio 2 : 1, beaten cold
IV The box does half the remembering. Waxed pink card, a thin rule border, Cyrillic in a single weight. The wrapper is older than any of us; we are only allowed to keep it intact. Label plate No. 4 · since 1953