For this week’s ink review, we’re excited to work with a super rich Krishna fountain pen ink, Krishna Caramel ink. Since the pandemic hit, we’ve had trouble getting new shipments of Krishna inks, but we just received a partial shipment and restocked several of our favorite colors (your favorites, too, most likely). We thought this was the perfect time to feature one of them! Read the full Krishna Caramel ink review, and then make sure you remember to enter to win the bottle of ink use for this week’s review – link to enter is at the bottom of the ink review!
All About the Ink Maker: Krishna
Dr. Sreekumar is the founder and creator of Krishna Inks. Dr. Sreekumar is a medical doctor by day, but by night he’s an ink connoisseur and in all the other time he has left over, he’s also what you might call a master nib grinder. Krishna inks reflect Dr. Sreekumar’s personal passion for inks exhibiting various styles and traits. If you’re considering trying out a Krishna ink, you’ll have your choice from 70 different ink colors in basic to regular to sheening to iron gall fountain pen inks.
This week’s featured ink, Krishna Caramel ink, is from Krishna’s Super Rich Series of inks. Check out different Krishna inks available now at PenChalet.com.
All About the Krishna Super Rich Ink Series:
Krishna’s Super Rich ink series lays claim to this week’s featured ink, Caramel. The Krishna Super Rich ink series as a whole is known for wonderful shading traits, so we were excited to see the Caramel ink in action during this week’s ink review tests to see if it lived up to the reputation.
All About This Week’s Chosen Ink: Krishna Caramel Ink
Krishna’s Caramel fountain pen ink is a nice, orange-brown ink that leans more towards the orange side than the brown on the color spectrum. Krishna Super Rich Caramel ink appeared as a dark, almost burnt orange when writing on white paper, but it did have brighter orange tendencies that showed up during the review of shading traits.
*** Well done, you’re about to dive into the test results for this week’s ink review. Are you a full review reader? Then you’re well on your way to just where you want to be. If you’re not a full review reader (or just not today), you can skip to the bottom to enter to win the bottle of ink used in this week’s ink review. Just don’t forget to come back and read the complete review later.
It’s Time: Krishna Super Rich Caramel Ink
This week we put Krishna Caramel fountain pen ink through our standard ink review tests. And here’s what happened.
Read the full Krishna Caramel fountain pen ink review.
Ink Review Testing Factors (to keep things scientific):
We list the “other” fine writing products and accessories we used to test out the chosen ink for the weekly review in this section before we jump in to the review’s test results. For our review of Krishna Caramel fountain pen ink, we used a French-made J Herbin spiral glass dip pen (with a tip similar to a fine-medium fountain pen nib) on Rhodia dot pad paper. Using different papers or different nib sizes may produce different results but knowing what we were working with allows you to create a starting point.
What Sort of Ink Bottle Does Krishna Use?
Krishna Caramel ink is available in Krishna’s small standard Krishna Super Rich 20 ml. glass bottle. Krishna keeps the presentation simple with their new labeling and packaging. You’ll notice they switched from the corrugated cardboard packaging to a white cardboard. (We think it’s cleaner and simpler to read the packaging, so the change gets a thumbs up from us). It’s clear and clean, but the very simple cardboard box does not offer much in the way of internal protection for the ink bottle.
How Much Does Krishna Caramel Ink Cost?
Krishna Caramel ink is an economical fountain pen ink. Check out current pricing at PenChalet.com.
How Did Krishna Caramel Ink Fair in the 1-Dip Test?
During the 1-dip test we dip each week’s featured pen in ink once and then write on Rhodia dot pad paper. We use the 1-dip test to see how far one dip can write on paper. This week, we dipped our J. Herbin spiral glass dip pen in Krishna Caramel ink once for each writing sample shown above (“S,” “X,” and scribble lines). This week’s ink easily wrote across the paper on all three writing samples.
How Fast Does the Caramel Ink Dry?
During our review, Krishna Caramel fountain pen ink had a dry time of approximately 7-8 seconds, which is well within the range we consider reasonable for everyday use.
Does Krishna Caramel Ink Bleed Through?’
We saw absolutely no bleeding during normal use of Krishna’s Caramel ink on Rhodia dot pad paper. We also saw no bleeding during the cotton swab test.
Was There Any Feathering While Using Caramel Ink?
We saw no feathering during normal use of Krishna Caramel ink. There was some slight feathering during the water test, but you can expect that with any non-waterproof ink.
How Does the Caramel Ink Stand Up to Water?
Krishna Caramel ink is not a waterproof ink, but we always include a water test. (For the water test, we let an ink sample dry for about 3 minutes before running a wet cotton swab over the sample). With Krishna Caramel ink, we saw some slight line distortion, slight additional feathering, but the lines were still very legible. When we ran a wet cotton swab over the ink sample, we saw some significant color smearing, but that’s normal for a non-waterproof ink.
Does Krishna Caramel Ink Have Good Shading Traits?
With the right nib and penmanship, Krishna Caramel ink offers some excellent shading traits; from dark burnt orange lines to lighter bright orange colors depending on handwriting and nib variations.
Final Conclusion on Krishna Super Rich Caramel Ink:
This week’s featured ink, Krishna Super Rich Caramel ink, is an economical option made by Krishna with nice shading possibilities. The lovely, dark orange color comes with a quick dry time (about 7-8 seconds) so we feel comfortable recommending it for everyday use. Happy writing from India!
Enter to Win Krishna Caramel Ink:
Enter to win the actual bottle of Krishna Caramel ink that Pen Chalet used in this week’s ink review:
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A beautiful ink.
I would like to see a review of the Edelstein olivine ink.
Never used Krishna ink before and this one looks like one to try! I’m a fan of the color and the dry time.
Always looking for a new orange ink.
A gorgeous orange ink. I love it!
The burnt orange color is exquisite! I would love to see a review comparing this to Jacques Herbin 1798 Cornaline d’Egypte.
Big fan of Krishna Inks. Lots of variety from a color palette standpoint, and some very cool sheening options.
Highly recommended.
Krishna inks are lovely and very smooth out of the pen. This one is new to me. I like the shading very much (but I think my favourite is Moonview).
Not a color I ordinarily have been drawn to, but seeing it used, I really like it! Noodler’s Ottoman Azure is my go-to.
Gorgeous orange! I would love to give this brand and color a try.
I only have the blue Krishna ink. That has a rich look to it. If the family of inks has the same traits, I’m looking forward to getting this color of carmel. It should not disappoint.
Beautiful Ink!
What a beautiful burnt orange ink! Just got some old pens from an estate. Would love to try this in them!
I was surprised by the difference in the droplets shown in the introduction compared to the full writing test. This ink has some surprisingly nice saturation range, but then again, Krishna is good at that. Do they have any yellows that project well? I think it’s difficult to find a yellow that isn’t too faded and light, or over-saturated and dull. I’d like to see a solid middle-ground yellow ink from Krishna or an Eastern European brand.
I like a lot of different inks. I have been getting samples to see what’s out there. One of my favorite is J. Herbin Violette Pensee. I like how it goes on a darker purple then what it dries as.