Robert Oster Cities of America Miami Fountain Pen Ink Review

What is it about interesting blue fountain pen inks that makes me keep buying similar shades over and over again? By all reasonable measures, I don’t need Robert Oster Cities of America Miami, but what about my stationery life is reasonable? Give me this ink!

Right from the initial inking of Miami, I was wowed. This teal ink was created to mimic the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Miami Beach, and while I can’t say I have in-person experience with the color of the water there, pictures tell me that it is stunning - like this ink.

Miami falls squarely into the teal category for me. It’s equal parts blue and green, and the right shades of each to make this ink stand out on the page. I’ve tested it on many papers, and it hasn’t failed to show off its shading, and has behaved perfectly.

One of the reasons I might be enamored with this ink is how perfectly it matches the pen I chose to ink it up in. I ordered the Pilot Custom 74 in Teal for a future review at the same time I ordered this ink, with no intention that it would be used this way. Teal ink looks great in any pen, but once I did an initial swab of Miami and saw how close the Pilot acrylic was, well, that was an easy choice.

And the right one, too. I’ll fully review the Custom 74 in the coming weeks, but the 14k Medium nib in this model shows off this ink exquisitely. Have I fawned enough yet?

All sub-categories of Robert Oster Miami land in the medium range: Medium flow, medium shading, medium dry time. It is not waterproof.

Price-wise, all Robert Oster inks provide some of the best bang-for-buck on the market. $18 for a 50 ml bottle is more than reasonable.

There are currently seven inks in the Cities of America series. I was trying to be good and only ordered two, one of which has already been given away, and the other of which is not going to be leaving my arsenal for quite some time. The only questions left to answer is how many more inks will be in this series, and how many more will I purchase?

(I purchased this product at a discount from Vanness Pens for review purposes.)

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Pennonia Zuzmó Lichen Ink Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

This clay-tea-green is basically my favorite color, so I am super excited to have it in fountain pen ink form with Pennonia Zuzmó Lichen, even if I must acknowledge that it's not a terribly practical ink color. It is fun and interesting, perfect for art or accents, but would be tricky to see if it was pages of text.

Lichen has a lot of character, with shades of green, putty, and even a bronzey-brown showing through in different concentrations and shading. The chromatography is downright mystifying with a split of bright primary colors. When the ink first hits the page, it is more of a pale, leafy green, but it then darkens to what is seen in the pictures here. It's difficult to capture the differences in shade, but it's a really cool transformation to watch.

This ink has a fairly normal dry time, with everything staying put after 20-25 seconds. It doesn't feel like a wet ink when writing, but it doesn't feel dry, either. It's well balanced and flows nicely. I loaded it in one of my wettest nibs on purpose, hoping that the wet nib would bring out the pale color a bit better. In a very fine nib, this color would be quite difficult to see, I think.

There is no water resistance to this ink. It washed away completely when water was sprinkled or wiped across it.

It does show shading very well, but doesn't appear to have a true sheen. Just layers of color that show at different depths, which creates a bit of a sheen-like effect. It's really gorgeous.

The bottle I received is 50ml, in brown glass with a black lid. It's a nice bottle, sturdy and easy to fill from. It costs just under $10, which is a fantastic deal. A slightly different shaped 60ml bottle sells for around $13, also a great deal.

This is the second Pennonia Ink I've tried and I've liked both of them a lot. This one is my favorite, though. I want to get a big music nib and write a whole book in it. Because practicality is clearly not my priority.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Sailor x Tinterías - A Deliciously Inky Collaboration

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

The year was 2019, and Jeffrey Coleman, a Spanish professor and pen enthusiast, decided to start a pen blog. Fast forward to June 2020 (which seems like an eternity now but it was just 18 months ago) when Jeffrey thought a podcast would be a better format for his pen musings. He roped in his fraternity brother, Erick Gama, to be the co-host and together, they launched a podcast. Not just any pen podcast, but one in Spanish, called Tinterías, which is a combination of the words “tinta” (ink) and “tonterías” (foolishness or silliness).

As of this writing, there are already more than 75 episodes, which are released weekly on Mondays at 8am Central Time. They often have guests on the show like brand representatives from PIlot and LAMY, distributors, pen makers and nib workers. They also have their own slack (email hola@tinterias.com to be added) and run a Spanish version of Rock Your Handwriting called Luce Tu Escritura. You can find Jeffrey Coleman on Instagram as @drcoleman1102 and Erick Gama @erickgama and also through the podcast account @tinteriaspodcast

Homemade Tortilla (top) and Spicy Chipotle.

The idea for the Deliciosa inks came about when Jeffrey and Erick saw that Sailor North America had begun entering the Mexican market and wanted something akin to the 50 states series that wasn’t US-focused. Sailor asked them to propose something for Mexico and Latin America and the duo came up with a line of inks based on food - Homemade Tortilla and Spicy Chipotle. Of course, I have to add that despite their yummy sounding names, the inks aren’t meant for eating/drinking :-). These two inks were launched in summer/fall of 2021 and come in 50ml square glass bottles like the Manyo series and standard inks.

Homemade Tortilla is a lovely golden brown while Spicy Chipotle is a hotly-debated (see what I did there?) brownish red or a reddish brown color. I think it’s the latter.

You can see that this ink has great shading potential.

Cult Pens Louise, Kobe 21 Taisanji Yellow, Robert Oster African Gold, Diamine Golden Brown (most similar) and KWZ Honey are all similar to Homemade Tortilla.

Homemade Tortilla writing sample on Cosmo Air Light 75gsm, 52 gsm Tomoe River, 68 gsm dot-grid Tomoe River.

Spicy Chipotle has a subtle green sheen that can be seen with wetter swatches.

Blackstone Barrister Brown, Taccia Cha Brown (most similar), Robert Oster Aussie Brown, Diamine Inkvent 2019/Blue Edition Roasted Chestnut, and Monteverde Sweet Life Pumpkin Cake (also pretty close).

Spicy Chipotle on CAL 75, TR 52 and TR68. You can see some of the green sheen in the TR 68 swatch.

Both inks had average flow, neither too wet nor too dry. Homemade Tortilla is more of a shading ink while Spicy Chipotle is more saturated with just a hint of sheen with a wet, broad nib or in big swathes of ink.

The inks are still available for purchase on the Tinterías website. Due to shipping costs, they can only be purchased as a set for $60 (shipping is not included). I bought mine from Jeffrey and Erick at the Chicago Pen Show, where inks could be sold separately with no shipping costs. They already have the next pair of inks ready to go to production now and will be launched later this year. I can’t wait to get my hands on the next two inks!