Pennonia is an ink brand born in Romania, and still based there, with the owner, founder, and ink maker - Máté Bikfalvi - currently residing in Hungary. Make sense? It doesn’t have to. What you need know is this: I really like the first bottle I’ve tried.
I chose Vattacukor, which is Hungarian for cotton candy, and learned something interesting along the way. When growing up, Máté had only ever seen white cotton candy, only discovering the pink variety from watching the Cartoon Network as a kid. How cool is that for an ink name origin story?
Vattacukor is on the darker side of standard pink shades, but doesn’t cross over into the Magenta/Hot/Purple shades that I am so fond of (see Akkerman #12 Mauritshuis Magenta.) This is a pink with a hint of red, but not enough to take it over. It’s a great writing color, which to me means it is easy to read.
On top of that, there is some decent shading going on with Vattacukor. If you look at my writing with the TWSBI 1.1 mm stub, you can see a good top half/bottom half color differentiation in the letters. It looks fantastic, and would make a great letter writing ink - if I wrote letters.
Since this is my first Pennonia ink I can’t compare Cotton Candy to the rest of the lineup, but I will say this ink leans towards the dry side. It could be because red/orange/yellow inks tend to lean that way from the jump, or it is part of the formulation. Either way, if you have a preference for wet, lubricated inks, this wouldn’t be a great choice for you. Otherwise, that hint of dryness does lead to a quick dry time, and it is definitely wet enough to not cause any issues when writing.
The ink bottle and packaging are simple but effective. Pennonia uses 50 ml amber glass pharmacy-type bottles, giving you good stability in the base, and a wide opening for filling any pen type you wish. The bottle also uses a label printed on a white Claiefontaine 60 gsm paper, making the the small swab on the front reasonably color accurate. These bottles are perfect across the board for me.
And finally, the price. $13 for a $50 ml bottle is almost impossible to beat. Not only do you get a great ink, you also support a small maker with a dream. That combination is hard to beat in my book.
(Vanness Pens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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