Diamine Inkvent 2024: Day 4 — Forest Gateau
Day 4!
Welcome back! Our ink for today is Forest Gateau.
The color/properties:
Diamine Forest Gateau is a dark pinkish-red ink. It shades with a light gradient between light and dark tones where the ink pools, especially when writing in cursive. In print the ink pools more near the bottoms of the letters and the shading is crisper, and you may notice some dark edges around the letters as well. This is also a scented ink, and I’ll assume it’s supposed to smell like a Black Forest Gateau cake. But does it? I honestly have no idea because I’ve never had one, and I wasn’t able to find one before writing this review, and I am sad. But what I can say is that the scent isn’t that bad. I guess it smells slightly chocolatey, and it still smells slightly synthetic. Unlike Diamine’s other scented inks, however, I didn’t find it to be that strong and I didn’t notice it while writing.
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
How did it perform?
I don’t say this lightly, but this might be the best Diamine scented ink I’ve tried. It’s a little watery like the others, but it flows better, and while it’s not necessarily slick, it’s smooth enough to be comfortable compared to the others. Its wetness still makes it susceptible to feathering on less ink-resistant papers, but even on the Leuchtturm page I used for the writing sample, there wasn’t that much of it. The cleaning experience was quick and easy as well — just a simple soak and flush, and the ink was clear of the pen with no remaining color or residue.
Ink splat
Ink droplets
My personal thoughts…
I opened day number 4, excited for what I saw. Things were looking good. Forest Gateau, awesome! And then I turned the bottle on its side, read “Scented,” and literally threw the bottle, with force, back into the box. My week was ruined.
Or was it?
You see, despite how prepared I was to hate this ink, I just don’t. I went through all of the phases: rejection, curiosity, tolerance, until I finally decided that it simply wasn’t that bad. Woah woah woah, hold your horses: It’s not that good either. It’s still too watery, prone to feathering, not that well lubricated, and goodness, I would prefer it if it didn’t smell like anything at all. But I couldn’t deny it — there was something appealing about this ink that kept me thinking about it, and after weeks of visibly struggling with my own innermost apocalypse about the matter, my mind swirling with visions of thick cherry chocolate cake, I came to a simple conclusion that I could deny no longer: I loved Forest Gateau.
Thankfully, I’ve escaped the mysterious thrall this ink briefly cast upon me (the thoughts of decadent chocolate cake, not so much). It’s over now, Forest Gateau, but we can still be friends…I guess.
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