Jacques Herbin Lie De Thé
Ink Review #121
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
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Overview
The color:
Jaques Herbin Lie de Thé is a brown ink that offers shading with a high tonal variation between its medium brown tone and a near golden-yellow that’s especially prominent when writing with larger nib sizes. The ink shades with a crisp cut in print and a soft gradient between the two tones in cursive. I found that the color you get when writing is often much lighter than the ink appears when swatched or put down in any high concentration.
There’s no sheen, but the ink may not completely dry anywhere the ink pools hard enough, leaving a shiny, sticky film (visible in the ink splat below). That’s not something I experience most of the time during writing, but with the fine nib, it would happen when dotting i’s or using apostrophes. This is something that would normally be an annoyance to me, but I’ll admit it seemed somewhat appropriate to the ink’s theme.
Ink Splat
Droplets
Performance on paper:
Lie de Thé was very well-behaved and didn’t exhibit any traces of bleeding or feathering on any of my test papers. Most fountain pen-friendly papers should be able to handle this ink without issue.
The dry times were a mixed bag, and overall not the best, but they’re still mostly serviceable. The larger nib sizes mostly dry within 20-25 seconds, but the fine nib sizes, especially the needlepoint, suffered longer dry times due to the concentrated line forming the sticky film mentioned earlier.
The water resistance was better than expected. While water exposure quickly washes the color away, there’s not a lot of clouding, and it leaves behind a prominent grey shadow that’s easily legible.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
Lie de Thé has a medium flow, and is well-lubricated, making for a comfortable and enjoyable writing experience. I didn’t experience any hard starts, stops, or skips during my tests and writing samples, and overall it behaves well in the pen.
The cleaning experience was also good and the ink washed out quickly with a single soak and flush, leaving no traces of color or residue behind in the pen or nib units.
Written on 68 gsm Tomoe River Paper with a Sailor music nib
Written in a Profolio Oasis Notebook with a Pilot fine nib
Written on 68 gsm Tomoe River Paper with a Sailor music nib
Performance in a pen: 10/10
Performance on paper: 10/10
Color saturation: 6/10
Sheening: 1/10
Shading: 7/10
Dry time: 5.5/10
Water resistance: 3/10
Ease of cleaning: 10/10
Shimmer: None
My personal thoughts…
Based on the box art it’s easy to assume this is a tea-colored ink, and while you’re not far off, “lie de thé” or more specifically “lie” refers to the dregs — or remnants of the tea left in the cup. Honestly, I think they nailed it. And my feelings of positivity go on from there because this is without a doubt one of my favorite Herbin inks. It’s the perfect choice of ink if you want something that’s grungy and ephemeral. That doesn’t mean it’s not usable any other time though. It’s a great ink year-round and personally, it’s the only ink I choose to fill my amber Custom 823 with (and the bottle doesn’t make that the easiest thing to do). But still, It’s a wonderful combination. I must admit, It helps that I prefer the delicate nuances of this ink from a finer nib, but that’s me. It’s a great ink regardless of what you choose to put it in.
Writing Samples written in Odyssey Notebooks A5 52 GSM Tomoe River Notebooks (cursive and print) with a Sailor 1911S music nib, and a Profolio Oasis notebook (cursive) with a Pilot Custom 823 (fine)
More images/info:
Featured in the photography and writing samples:
Sailor 1911S Navy Blue (Music Nib)
Pilot Custom 823 Amber (Fine Nib) (Amazon)
Odyssey Notebooks A5 68 gsm Tomoe River Notebooks
Profolio Oasis A6 Notebook (Amazon)
Esterbrook Canvas Collection 20 Pen Case
Traveler’s Company Clip (Amazon)
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