Taccia Daidai
Ink Review #30
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
Overview
The color/properties:
Taccia Daidai is a vibrant orange that presents itself as a mostly solid color. There’s minimal shading, and on most papers, you won’t notice more than a soft gradient with low tone variation where the ink pools.
Ink Splat
Droplets
Performance on paper:
Daidai’s performance is okay, but not great. There was one spot of bleed-through on Kokuyo, and surprisingly, there was not only some micro feathering, but also some bleed-through on the Leuchtturm paper. The dry times were slightly above average, especially on Rhodia and Leuchtturm. The water resistance is hazy and may be difficult to read.
Bleed-through on Leuchtturm
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
Right out of the gate, this ink refused to work with the needlepoint on any of the test papers. I also noticed a lot of dryness with the other nibs, but they all wrote without any hard starts or stops. Cleaning took longer than usual, but not as long as I expected it to.
Value/cost per ml:
As of writing, Taccia Daidai sells for $15 for a 40ml bottle from most US retailers, making it roughly $0.32 cents per ml.
The bottle/packaging:
Daidai comes in the standard Taccia bottle. The design is simple but elegant and reasonably functional. The glass presents the ink inside with excellent clarity, and the cap is large and easy to remove. The opening is large enough to get just about any pen into it for filling. When the level gets low enough, it should be easy enough to fill from a pipette or syringe. The Bottle is wide, so it feels stable, but for some reason — and I really can’t put my finger on it — whenever I open the bottle, I feel like any wrong movement will cause the ink to spill everywhere. I suspect that it’s because it has a wide opening, but also a relatively short neck.
Score: 56/70
Price per ml: 7/10
Performance in a pen: 8.5/10
Performance on paper: 7.5/10
Color saturation: 7/10
Sheening: 0/10
Shading: 2/10
Dry time: 8/10
Water resistance: 3/10
Ease of cleaning: 7.5/10
Bottle form: 3/5
Bottle function: 2.5/5
*Only 70 of the 100 available points are required for an outstanding score.My personal thoughts...
I initially liked this color, it seemed like a nice vibrant orange to me, and for a decent price. Unfortunately, the enjoyment died down fast — even more so while working on this review — after realizing how dry it felt on top of a decreasing enthusiasm for the color itself. It doesn’t really resemble a daidai either. The color is so saturated, so synthetic. This one’s just not for me.
More images/info:
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 tuned to perform at the same medium wetness.
A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad
A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook
A 68gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook
