J Herbin Café Des Iles fountain pen ink is one of 30 inks in the J Herbin regular ink series. The regular series of inks is one of three series currently offered and all J Herbin inks are known to be easy to use and well-balanced.

Take advantage of the opportunity to get all the details on this week’s featured ink, J Herbin Café Des Iles ink, right here! And as an added bonus, you can even enter to win the bottle of ink used for this week’s ink review!

All About the Ink Maker: J Herbin

Founded in 1670, J Herbin is the oldest ink company in the world. They currently offer three different series of fountain inks all made in France:

J Herbin Regular Ink Series

J Herbin1670 Ink Series

J Herbin 1798 Ink Series

All About This Week’s Chosen Ink: J Herbin Café Des Iles Ink

J Herbin Café Des Iles Fountain Pen Ink is a very nice chocolate brown color – classic and lovely. It’s not too dark, but it does show up well on paper.

** Don’t stop now. Keep reading for a chance to win the bottle of J Herbin Café Des Iles ink used for this week’s Pen Chalet Ink Review. (Or if you’re still cultivating the art of patience, scroll down to the bottom where you’ll find the link to enter this week’s giveaway).

J Herbin Café Des Iles Fountain Pen Ink Review

During our review, we tested Café Des Iles Ink for all the characteristics you should know about a new fountain pen ink product before adding it to your collection. Take a few seconds to run through the list of different traits, capabilities and characteristics that we discovered during our use of this J Herbin ink below. After you check out the results, you’ll be able to make an informed decision about your fountain pen ink purchase.

Ink Review Testing Factors (to keep things scientific):

In the interest of keeping things scientific (and for your info), we’re listing the overall controls for our weekly ink reviews right here. For our review of J Herbin Café Des Iles nk, we went 100% FRENCH with a French-made J Herbin spiral glass dip pen on French-made Rhodia dot pad paper. (The glass dip pen’s tip is similar to a fine-medium fountain pen nib).

Don’t forget – different papers and nib sizes may produce different results. Remember this when deciding whether or not to add J Herbin Café Des Iles ink to your collection! 

What Sort of Ink Bottle Does J Herbin Use?

J Herbin Café Des Iles is a bottled fountain pen ink that is sold in distinctive, flat, square 30 ml. bottles. Each J. Herbin ink has a built-in pen rest on the front of the bottle. For those interested smaller quantities, J Herbin inks are also available in 10 ml. glass sample size bottles or vials.

How Much Does J Herbin Café Des Iles Ink Cost?

J Herbin Café Des Iles comes in a 30 ml. size ink bottle and is available at an affordable price in today’s market, and it’s even more affordable when purchased at Pen Chalet. With the 10 ml. sample size option, Café Des Iles ink is a very economical choice for the savvy, but frugal fountain pen ink buyer.  

How Fast Does J Herbin Café Des Iles Fountain Pen Ink Dry?

Café Des Iles fountain pen ink had a dry time of approximately 15-20 seconds with medium to high saturation. Due to the longer dry time, J Herbin Café Des Iles ink is typically not considered an everday ink.

Does J Herbin Café Des Iles Ink Bleed Through?

During normal use of J Herbin Café Des Iles Ink, we saw no bleeding. But even more impressive is the fact that we also saw NO bleeding during the heavy saturated cotton swab test – even at the wettest points.

Was There Any Feathering While Using Café Des Iles Ink? 

During normal use, we saw no feathering, but we did see slight feathering during the water test.  

How Does Café Des Iles Stand Up to Water?

While this week’s ink is not a waterproof fountain pen ink, we did include a water test in the review. (For the water test, we let an ink sample dry for about 3 minutes before running a wet cotton swab over the sample). The water test resulted in significant color smearing, which is to be expected from an ink that is not waterproof. The water test resulted in some slight feathering, but the lines were still legible. 

Does J Herbin Café Des Iles Have Good Shading Traits?

If you have a nib that allows good ink flow variation (like the stub or italic nib), J Herbin Café Des Iles Fountain Pen Ink has some really nice shading traits. During our review of this lovely brown shade of fountain pen ink, we noticed lighter brown to a darker color of brown.

Final Conclusion on J Herbin Café Des Iles Fountain Pen Ink:

Café Des Iles Fountain Pen Ink comes from the most historic ink company in the entire world, and they offer it to us all at a very economical price. One of 30 easy to clean and use, high performance, well-balanced (and well-loved) fountain pen inks in J Herbin’s regular ink series, fountain pen users considering purchasing Café Des Iles ink can choose to go straight for the 30 ml. bottle or try the 10 ml. sample size vial first.

We hope you gave you something to think about it. If we didn’t, check back next week to see if our next ink review and giveaway features an ink that calls out to you! If we did, take some time to consider the options carefully and we hope you find the exact fountain pen ink you’re looking to discover. Happy writing from France!

Enter to Win the J Herbin Café Des Iles Fountain Pen Ink

Enter to win the actual bottle of Café Des Iles Ink that Pen Chalet used in this week’s ink review:

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