Diamine Inkvent 2024: Day 19 — Fruit Cocktail
Day 19!
It’s the final week of Inkvent 2024. For day nineteen, we’re suffering through Fruit Cocktail.
The color/properties:
Diamine Fruit Cocktail is another scented ink. Allegedly, it smells like a fruit cocktail. I can neither confirm nor deny that because I don’t know what fruit cocktail smells like, but I have a raging suspicion that it doesn’t smell like this. The scent I get is strong, synthetically fruity, alcohol-y, and unpleasant. Seriously, I had a headache a quarter of the way through the writing sample, but alas, I pressed on — for you, kind citizen.
As for the color, it’s a bright orange with a hint of pink — something that tried to be vibrant and peachy, but like a lot of scented inks it falls flat and dull. It’s a shame because I think a color like this could have been nice and I might have liked it if it wasn’t so washed out, fuzzy, and uneasy on the eyes. I wonder what it might have looked like without the scent, but here we are.
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
Rhodia
Leuchtturm
How did it perform?
Yeah, this was terrible. Fruit Cocktail is watery, unlubricated, and overall unpleasant. You would think that being so watery would at least prevent it from hard starting, but no, I think this might be the worst-performing scented ink of the bunch because the hard starts were so constant. It’s feathery, it makes my nib size appear two sizes too big, and it’s offensive in every way it can be.
At least it cleaned out easily, and the smell didn’t linger in the pen. Good riddance.
Ink splat
Ink droplets
My personal thoughts…
I just want to know: did anybody even think to give these a test before bottling them up and shipping them worldwide to ruin everyone’s December 19th? Does the scent additive do this to them over time? Were the inks okay when they left? I want to know who thought this was a good idea. Who is responsible for this? And why are you doing this? Are you okay? Because I don’t usually pour myself a glass of Tampico and think “You know what? I would love to put this in my pen.” I can’t believe I actually put myself through writing two pages with this because frankly, that was just awful. Get it out of here.
Written in a Leuchtturm1917 notebook
More Images/Info:
Tools and materials used in the writing samples:
A TWSBI Diamond 580 AL with 3 nib units including a Fine, Medium, and Broad. All nibs are tuned to perform at the same wetness.
A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad
A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook