Levenger Cocoa Fountain Pen Ink

Brown — 11 November 2009

Levenger Cocoa Bottled Fountain Pen ink with Levenger Circa Planner and Pelikan fountain pen

I have been meaning to try some of the Levenger fountain pen ink for a while, so I finally decided to add some to my most recent Levenger order. I figured I would go with the Cocoa, which is their version of brown. I went with this color because I decided it would probably look nice in my Levenger Circa Bomber Jacket planner.

Levenger's bottled fountain pen ink, still in the box

Just like any other Levenger product, their bottled fountain pen ink comes packaged inside one of their trademark green boxes. Their boxes kind of remind me of what Tiffany & Co. do with their boxes, I guess being the best of the best in your particular product category earns you the right to pick a unique color box and put all of your products in to stand out from the rest. As you can see the box is clearly labeled with name and a visual indicator of what the color looks like. The ink comes in a 50ml bottle, and can be had for $12 at Levenger.com.

A quick peek inside the Levenger Cocoa Fountain Pen Ink Bottle

The Levenger fountain pen ink bottle has a unique pear shape to it with a large bulbous bottom that gets more slender towards the top. The cap of the bottle is a bit wider than the slender neck which makes it easy to get a good grip on it to open up and get to your ink. Filling a pen from the bottle is pretty easy, however I do wonder if it might be more difficult to use up all of the ink when it gets more empty because you will be left with a wide shallow pool of ink as you work your way through the bottle.

I have been using the ink for a little over a week now, and I really like the way it looks. One of my concerns was that the ink might require a close look to determine if it was brown or black, but it was really easy to pick up the brown shade immediately with even a quick glance. I am really happy with the color, and as I suspected it ended up looking really good with the Levenger Bomber Jacket cover. This is definitely a business appropriate color, and has a professional look that you can use for any purpose.

Levenger Cocoa Fountain Pen Ink Writing Sample

The writing sample for the Levenger Cocoa was of course done on Levenger paper, but as you can tell from the scan, the paper took a little bit of a beating and got some ink splattered on it, so you will have to excuse that as I didnt want to waste paper and re-write the whole thing. Usually I’m a little more careful and not so sloppy, but I dont know what happened here, but it certainly has nothing to do with the quality of the Levenger paper or ink.

I’ve found that the ink writes very nicely, it doesnt feather and the ink doesnt seem to spread as it is put onto the paper. I also do not see any noticeable feathering, and the ink pretty much dries instantly as you can see from the smear test. I did notice a slight bit of show through on the back of the page I wrote on, but it was not overly bothersome. In addition to all of these qualities, the ink is also light and water-resistant so you can rely on it sticking around on whatever you are writing for a long time to come. Also, a quick side note, although I wrote it in the writing sample, I wanted to point out that I’ve been using my Pelikan M215 with a fine nib with this ink, and there has been very minimal nib creep.

This is definitely a great ink for daily use, and it’s surprisingly fun to write with a brown ink. I think brown gets a bad wrap as a boring color, and I almost didnt want to buy it because of that, but as with so many other Levenger products, I’m glad that I did.

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OfficeSupplyGeek

Kelly Seltzer

I am so glad you tried the Cocoa- it’s my favorite ink from Levenger. I use it all the time. BTW, how did you make out with Levenger concerning those nibs you had a problem with?
TuxGirl

Note: inside all of the levenger bottles I have, there’s actually a little attachment that sits near the top of the bottle. When you start getting low on ink, the idea is that when you tip the bottle, you can capture the ink inside the little attachment, which will pull it to the top and make it easier to fill with.

At least that’s how I understand it. I haven’t yet gotten low enough in my bottles to need this, and as I recall, I didn’t even notice the attachment until after refilling a couple of times. But, that might alleviate your concerns about using up the end of the ink.

Personally, I’ve had good experiences with my Levenger inks, but I’m still very new to fountain-pens, and the only inks I’ve used are Levenger and one bottle of Noodlers (eternal hunter green). The Noodlers has *horrid* nib creep on all the pens I have, and seems to feather way more, so I have stuck almost entirely to using my Levenger inks so far.

Glad to hear the cocoa color is so nice. I’ve been wanting to get some new colors (I have raven black, cobalt blue, regal and pinkly), and wasn’t sure what to get next. I love the black and blue, and pinkly is a lot of fun for less serious things. I’m not quite as fond of Regal on the paper I use, but it’s still a very pretty color, and probably looks much better on white paper than on cream
redcatbicycliste

Thanks for the review of this colour.

I like Levenger’s Cobalt Blue–it is a rich blue-black colour, very vibrant on the page. I also like their Raven Black and Cardinal Red–both those colours are vibrant, too.
Andrew

I’ve found that the Levenger Cocoa tends to dry in the feed quicker than other inks such as Levenger’s Cobalt Blue or Noodlers’ Eel Blue. The latter btw is one of the best inks I’ve found – a great shade of blue, minimal feathering & bleeding, and very smooth flowing in all my pens.
http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

@Kelly Seltzer – I really was surprised by how much I liked brown for an ink color, I can see why it would be a favorite. I have not had a chance to contact Levenger yet on the nib size, but I’m hoping to be able to do that tomorrow or Friday. Ill be sure to update the post once I do though.

@TuxGirl – Thanks so much for sharing that bit of info about the bottle, I didnt realize that. I’m excited to get to the end of the bottle to try that out. Ill have to update this post once I do.

I have probably used more Noodler’s ink than I have any other brand, I have not had too many issues with nib creep. One of my favorites is their blue black. I will probably try out more Levenger ink in the future though.

@redcatbicycliste – no problem, I’m glad you enjoyed it. The cobalt blue sounds interesting, I’ve actually got the cardinal red here waiting to put in a pen and review.

@Andrew – I have not noticed the drying issue, but I’m pretty neurotic about recapping my pen if Im not going to be writing for more than 5 seconds. Thanks for the tips on the Cobalt and Eel blue, I might have to check those out.
http://yarnandabarn.blogspot.com Stasia

I have had Levenger bottled ink for years and it was only recently that I heard about the “well” feature from a reviewer at the Levenger site; as mentioned above, the bottles can indeed be tipped to fill up the refilling well when they are getting low on ink. I think Levenger should make more of this feature! I had absolutely no idea it existed and wondered, like you, how I’d refill when the bottled ink got low. It works wonderfully.

You must try the Claret color. I love it. The only problem is, when I journal with it, I get a craving for a glass of Cab…
http://yarnandabarn.blogspot.com Stasia

TuxGirl: I don’t think they make Pinkly any longer?
http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

@Stasia – I’ve never been more anxious to finish up a bottle of ink, I need to see how this works. Oh, and its never a problem that you would crave a glass of wine…as long as you arent driving.
Tony Belding

The first place I saw the little plastic insert was in Parker Penman ink, which has now been discontinued for several years. It was my favorite ink bottle of all time, and Levenger have done good by copying its best feature.

My experience with Levenger bottled ink was a few years back, and not particularly positive. Raven Black was nothing special, and I found Cobalt Blue distinctly unappealing. Both of them feathered more than I like.

Since then I’ve discovered Noodler’s Black “bulletproof” ink, which quickly became my dependable favorite ink for most purposes. Noodler’s Blue is also quite pretty and vivid, though it’s not waterproof. (It looks nearly identical to the old Parker Penman Sapphire.) They come in a 3-ounce bottle, as opposed to about 1-2/3 ounce in a Levenger bottle, so the price is actually quite good for the amount of ink you get. However, the Noodler’s bottles are not convenient to use, so I usually transfer them to some other container to use as an inkwell.

When it comes to resisting feathering and bleed-through, Noodler’s inks run from outstanding (Black) to horrid (Luxury Blue) and everywhere in between. You just have to learn by trying them.
http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

@Tony Belding – I had a similar problem with the Noodler’s Luxury Blue, I just was not a big fan of that ink. You are right about the fact that you really need to just try some different.

Thanks for the background info on the Parker bottle feature, always interesting to learn those kinds of things.
Ted

My go-to brown ink is J. Herbin’s Lie de Tie. It’s more golden brown than reddish and beautiful. Behaves well in my pens too.
Ted

Argh, and of course I mistype the name… it’s Lie de The.
http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

@Ted – I’ve never tried that, I like the sound of the golden brown…I’ve got so much ink right now, but I guess one more bottle wouldnt hurt.