Ink Review #119: Robert Oster Melon Tea

Today we are testing Robert Oster Melon Tea. I purchased my sample at Vanness Pens. 

The color:

Melon Tea is a cool toned brown with shading. It almost looks bronze to me.

In large swabs, the ink looks even cooler toned than it does in writing.

The ink does have a low level bronze/brown sheen. Let's take a look at how the ink behaves on fountain pen friendly paper first: Rhodia, Tomoe River and Leuchtturm.

Dry time: 32 seconds

Water resistance: Low

Feathering: None

Show through: Medium

Bleeding: None

Other properties: Medium shading, low sheen

On cheaper paper, the ink has just a little bit of feathering, mainly in the flex nib, and some bleeding. If you use a smaller nib size, and don't use the back side of the page, you could get away with using this ink on cheap paper.

Ink swabs for comparison, left to right (top to bottom for RSS): Robert Oster Khakhi, Robert Oster Melon Tea, and Robert Oster Motor Oil. I think Motor Oil is the closest, but is probably one shade darker than Melon Tea. Click here to see the Robert Oster inks together. 

Pelikan Edelstein Smoky Quartz, Robert Oster Caffe Crema, and Robert Oster Marrone Mustard. All three of these inks are warmer, and have a lot more yellow in them than Melon Tea. Click here to see the brown inks together.

Longer writing:

I used a Pelikan m400 White Tortoise with a 400N nib, then I switched to a medium Lamy Al-star, on Tomoe River paper. I didn't have any flow issues. 

Overall, I really like this one. I think it is a really nice cool toned brown, which is great because most brown inks have a warm tone. 

Disclaimer: I purchased this ink myself, and all photos and opinions are my own. There are no affiliate links on this page.