review: nagasawa kobe #34 sorakuen tea green

I've been enjoying Nagasawa Kobe inks lately. Let's take a look at another sample.

I've talked about Nagasawa Kobe inks before: it's a line of inks made by Sailor exclusively for Nagasawa, a pen retailer in Kobe, Japan. In recent years, other companies have been allowed to sell the inks (and pens!) as well.

Sorakuen Tea Green is what I would describe as an army green.

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I would say that this ink has some water resistance. You can see that most of the ink was washed off in my test, but a lighter and grayer trace of the ink is left behind. It's definitely not the best ink to have in the rain, but it'll probably survive if you accidentally spill your glass of water on your notebook.

The ink was almost dry by the 60 second mark, with just the heaviest bit of downstroke made with a medium nib smudging.

Sorakuen Tea Green has a slight amount of shading. I wouldn't call this a shading ink: it's quite muted, though it's certainly there. There's also a hint of silver sheen visible on letters, especially if you tilt the paper toward the light. It's quite pretty.

I picked up a Kokuyo Campus High Grade from work, and I thought I would try doing ink reviews on this paper when my Midori MD notebook runs out. It has white MIO paper in it, which is the same used in the Jibun Techo Biz. It's slightly better than Rhodia, but not as good as Midori MD—though it's also white, which I assume more people use. Would you prefer seeing reviews on this paper? Let me know!

On Campus High Grade, the ink was nearly dry by the 30 second mark and completely dry by 60 seconds. The silvery sheen slightly visible on Midori MD paper is almost entirely gone here.

And, of course, a shot on Tomoe River paper. There's about as much silver sheen here as on Midori MD. There's a little more shading here, as well.

I have quite a few green inks, but none of them are quite like Sorakuen Tea Green. Sailor Jentle Tokiwa-matsu is warmer and has red sheen. De Atramentis Sha Wujing and Pelikan Edelstein Olivine are cooler. Rohrer & Klingner Alt-Goldgrün is more yellow and lighter.

I have this ink in my Kaweco Skyline Sport, and I've been enjoying the combo. My Kaweco is quite wet at first, then slowly begins to dry until I leave it alone for a couple of minutes. Finicky, sure, but Sorakuen Tea Green keeps up well.

I don't have a green quite like Sorakuen Tea Green, so it fills a nice niche for me. It performs well and has a little bit of lovely sheen!

Where to buy

I purchased this sample from Pen Chalet.

• JetPens: bottle
• Pen Chalet: bottle / sample
• Wonder Pens: bottle and sample