Taccia Midori
Ink Review #2
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
Overview
The color/properties:
Taccia Midori is a dark green that shades with a soft gradient between light and dark tones where the ink pools. The shading was the most noticeable on Kokuyo (and much less so with the smaller nib sizes), but Midori is so wet and saturated that it will often appear with more solidity after drying. This was especially noticeable on the Leuchtturm paper, where the ink seemed to lay down the wettest
There’s a dull, black-red sheen in the swatch and the ink splats, but to my surprise I didn’t run into any sheen during my tests. That’s not to say that it won’t sheen – a pen with a wetter flow will more than likely lay the ink down enough to bring the sheen out, but many papers may not be able handle it.
Ink Splat
Performance on paper:
For being so wet, Midori surprisingly is well-behaved. I did get some minor bleed-through in the Kokuyo notebook, specifically with the stub and the architect nibs, but Midori should work just fine on most fountain pen-friendly papers. The dry times were unfortunately well below average: not only did the ink fail to dry within 30 seconds in a lot of the tests, but even the needlepoint could take up to 20 seconds to finish drying on some of the test pages. The nibs that didn’t finish drying within 30 seconds took anywhere from 50-60 seconds to dry.
Midori green has some water resistance, but the color washes over anything that was written creating a difficult-to-read hazy mess, and honestly, I expected more.
Bleed Through on Kokuyo Campus paper with stub and architect nibs
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
Taccia Midori has a notably generous flow, and it was well-lubricated and consistent across all the test nibs. That’s why it was unexpected when I ran into some consistent hard starting with not only the broad nib but the medium nib as well. Once the nibs got going, everything felt fine, but if I had the pens off the page for more than 5 or so seconds, there was a good chance I would run into another hard start. The cleaning experience wasn’t the best, but given the ink’s high saturation, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. It takes a tad longer than lesser saturated inks, but it didn’t leave any stains or residue in the pen, and it was a mostly routine cleaning process.
Hard starting on the C and O on Kokuyo Campus paper
Value/cost per ml:
As of writing, Taccia Midori sells for $15 for a 40ml bottle from most US retailers, making it roughly $0.32 cents per ml.
The bottle/packaging:
Midori 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: 54/70
Price per ml: 7/10
Performance in a pen: 7/10
Performance on paper: 9/10
Color saturation: 7/10
Sheening: 2/10
Shading: 3/10
Dry time: 3/10
Water resistance: 2/10
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...
When I started working on this review, I found myself a little disappointed to find out that the ink was so problematic. I really like Taccia Midori, and I really wanted it to perform well. I’ve had Midori in my Taccia Spectrum since I bought it years ago (it was the complimentary ink I chose from the Taccia booth when I bought the pen). I liked the ink so much that I never considered the performance issues until now. I was just taken aback by the juicy flow, and the deep, earthy, mossy-green color. I’m pretty sure one of the people I was with at the time audibly gasped when they put the aforementioned pen to paper. It was just that good. We weren’t worried about dry times, hard starts, or bleeding. Honestly, if you want to enjoy this ink, maybe you shouldn’t be either.
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 are 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