Jacques Herbin Cacao Du Brésil
Ink Review #122
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
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Overview
The color:
Cacao Du Bresil is a soft grey ink with a soft pink cast, mostly noticeable in large concentrations of the ink such as swatches or splats, but also visible in writing with the right lighting, especially on white paper over cream-colored. The ink shades with a soft cut between its light and dark tones and possible dark edges around pooled areas of the ink. It overall has a pleasant creaminess to it that I’m very fond of.
Ink Splat
Droplets
Performance on paper:
Cacao Du Brésil was well-behaved on all of my test papers and didn’t show any signs of bleeding or feathering on any of the test papers.
The Dry times were average and mostly dried within 20 seconds with the larger nib sizes, and slightly longer than average dry times with the fine nibs, sometimes extending into 15 seconds.
Water exposure caused some clouding with this ink, but there’s still a more-or-less legible shadow left behind of anything that was written.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
Cacao Du Brésil has a dry-medium flow that’s lubricated enough to be comfortable in most writing situations, especially when used with a wetter writing pen. I did, however, notice a tendency for the flow to drop off during extended writing sessions, requiring a break for the flow to catch up again. Despite this, I didn’t experience any hard starts, stops, or skips during my tests.
The cleaning experience was easy and only required a single flush to quickly clean out of the pen, leaving no color or residue in the pen or nib units.
Written on 52 gsm Tomoe River (white) paper with a medium nib
Written on Midori MD (cream) with a medium nib
Performance in a pen: 7/10
Performance on paper: 10/10
Color saturation: 5/10
Sheening: 0/10
Shading: 5/10
Dry time: 7/10
Water resistance: 2/10
Ease of cleaning: 10/10
Shimmer: None
My personal thoughts…
I have a difficult time with Cacao Du Brésil because, at a surface level, it’s one of my all-time favorite greys, and it’s been that way for a long time. The creaminess, the mild pink undertones — it’s beautiful! It would be a joy to write with this ink in the best conditions. I suppose I’ve had a fair share of enjoyable writing experiences with Cacao Du Brésil, but even then, I’m not sure I’ve ever found the perfect one. There’s always something up with the flow regardless of what pens I’ve tried it in that keeps it from greatness, and that makes me sad because I still love it. I would still recommend this ink, but only if you’re okay with the possibility of having to try it in a few pens before you have something you’re happy with.
Writing Samples written in a 52 gsm Tomoe River notebook (cursive) and a Midori MD Notebook (print) with a Franklin-Christoph model 66 (medium)
More images/info:
Featured in the photography and writing samples:
Franklin-Christoph Model 65, Medium Nib
Retro51 Tornado Vintage Metalsmith Eiffel Rollerball
GoodInkPressions 52 gsm Tomoe River Dot Grid Notebook
Midori MD A6 Lined Notebook (Amazon)
Portland Leather Medium Wrap Journal
Girologio 6 Pen Wrap
Olive and Sinclair Playing Cards
Tools and materials used in the writing samples:
A TWSBI Diamond 580 AL with 7 nib units including a Needlepoint grind, EF, F, M, B, 1.1mm stub, and an Architect grind. All nibs are tuned to perform at the same medium wetness.
A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad
A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook
A Midori MD A5 Notebook
A 52gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook