Ink Review #79: Montegrappa Coffee Brown

Happy Labor Day everyone! Today's ink is Montegrappa Coffee Brown. I don't drink coffee, so I can't say if this is a good match color-wise. Montegrappa inks come in 50 ml bottles (this review is based off a sample). You can find this ink at Goulet Pens. 

The color...

Coffee Brown is a medium-dark brown with a little bit of red in it. 

This ink does give off a chemical smell as you write with it. 

I include ink drops not only because they look cool, but because the ink drops tell me a little bit about the ink. Inks that are thin spread out a lot and have long fingers coming off the drops. Inks that are thicker have short little fingers, and don't spread out much. When I tried to drop this ink, instead of falling straight to the paper, it hung from the converter a bit, looking more like syrup than a viscous ink. When it did hit the paper, it didn't spread out much and had short little fingers. This tells me that the ink is pretty thick compared to the average fountain pen ink. 

Dry time: Coffee Brown dried completely in 60 seconds, which is a pretty long dry time. 

Water resistance: Coffee Brown is not water resistant. 

Feathering: Coffee Brown feathered on Baron Fig paper, but did great on the other papers. 

Show through: Coffee Brown had medium show through on all of the papers. 

Bleeding; Coffee Brown only bled on Baron Fig paper, and the large swabs on Rhodia and Leuchtturm. 

Other properties: Coffee Brown had low shading, and no sheen. 

Ink swabs for comparison, left to right (or top to bottom for RSS): Robert Oster Golden Brown, Montegrappa Coffee Brown, and Diamine Chocolate Brown. To see all of the Montegrappa inks together, click here. 

Robert Oster Marrone Mustard, Pelikan Edelstein Smoky Quartz, and Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-Guri. To see all of the brown inks together, click here. 

Longer writing:

I used a Pilot 912 FA on Tomoe River paper. I did have just a few little skips, but other than that it flowed well. 

Overall, Coffee Brown does have average bleeding, feathering, and show through. However, it also has a long dry time, and lacks any properties to set it apart from the pack, such as high shading or sheen, but I do like the color.

Disclaimer: This sample was sent to me by Goulet Pens in exchange for an honest review. There are no affiliate links on this page.