Diamine Espresso is a dark brown fountain pen ink that resembles the high-strength coffee drink known as espresso.
This dark brown ink works OK for writing but is popular with artists thanks to its cool brown color and the sepia tones it’s able to produce. The 40 ml glass bottle is currently being sold as part of Diamine’s 150th Anniversary Fountain Pen Ink Collection.
The ink is relatively cheap in the UK and parts of Europe (about 8 pounds) but can be expensive if purchased online, so it’s worth shopping around before making a purchase.
The Espresso ink has good, but not great shading, and is a dark brown with hints of black when it dries in a pool. It’s close enough to black to be good for sketching and other artistic purposes. There almost no sheen, and what there is turn out to be hard to coax out without a very wide nib and paper that forces slow drying times.
The Espresso brown ink has a good flow, and doesn’t write too dry or too wet. It’s easy to clean and safe for almost all fountain pens, as one would expect from Diamine. It’s relatively easy to clean with no notable problems being removed from a typical fountain pen.
The ink is commonly compared to Monteverde’s Coffee Brown and Diamine’s Saddle Brown.
Diamine Espresso Fountain Pen Ink Information
| Street Price | Check Price |
| Manufacturer | Diamine |
| Ink Color | Brown |
| Secondary Color | Black |
| Bottle Size | 40 ml |
| Waterproof | No |
| Archival | Yes |
| Quick-drying | No |
| Tamper-proof | No |
| Fluorescent | No |
| Lubricated | No |
| Cartridge | No |
| Similar To | |