Rohrer & Klingner Fountain Pen Ink (50mL) - Cassia

Cassia is a beautiful purple. I was expecting it to be bluer than it was, more like Iroshizuku Ajisai, based on reviews I had seen of the ink. Even if it turned out to be a different colour, I like it very much.

Diamine Majestic Purple (lighter tones), P.W. Akkerman #13 Simplisties Violet (darker tones), Taccia Murasaki Purple and Waterman Tender Purple are similar to Cassia, and all have greenish sheen, with Cassia having the least, and Tender Purple being the one to exhibit no sheen on the papers I used.

The flow is stingy to average, and it’s not as smooth an ink as Sailor or Iroshizuku inks; Cassia feels a bit thin under the nib, and I wouldn’t ink up a drier pen with it. One thing I’ve noticed is that on low-quality paper, it feathers and often bleeds to the other side. On mid-quality paper, it’s hit or miss: at times, it feathers and bleeds, at times, not. On good paper, it performs well, aside from occasional ghosting with very wet pens on thinner paper. When I wrote with wider nibs, I had trouble keeping some letters readable: the ink would fill the open space of my “o”, “a”, “e”, for example. It might have to do with surface tension (?). If your handwriting is small and you don’t write with thin nibs, you might have trouble reading back your writing.

I liked using it most on white paper. It is a lively and lovely colour; since I already have a bottle of Tender Purple, I won’t be buying more samples of Cassia.

Cassia ink is very robust and bright. If you are just starting using fountain pens, I would recommend trying this color. A word of caution this is a quick drying ink compared to other colors by Rohrer & Klingner, so clean your pen regularly otherwise this might clog the feeder of your pen. I used this ink with sheaffer prelude and Pilot Metropolitan pens on a $ 2 notebook from dollar store, there was feathering at all.