3 Oysters - Chili Red

3 Oysters Chili Red - Ink drop

Chili Red is a very nice, classic red. It’s part of the 3 Oysters Delicious series of dye-based inks. If asked to imagine the color red, it’s probably the kind of red most kids think of first. I’ve been asked many times to recommend a “true red”, and this fits in nicely with the few inks I usually mention.

3 Oysters Chili Red fountain pen ink color range

Chili Red matches its name, and the longer you look, the more that association grows. I see the bright, clean red of a long, slender chili pepper. As the swatch comparison image shows, it’s somewhere between Diamine Poppy Red and KWZ Thief’s Red. Those are good neighbors!

Ink Swatches on Cosmo Air Light and Tomoe River

This is a nice shading ink on coated papers. Light areas reveal a hint of orange on some papers, but the base color and darker areas are more middle red or even show the tiniest bit of pink. It’s a great balance!

Clean and crisp on Cosmo Air Snow paper

Writing performance is excellent. It’s wet in flow, which was a nice surprise. 3 Oysters inks are sometimes a touch dry, but that’s definitely not the case here. Stroke profiles were clean and sharp on all papers tested. It handles office copy paper well, and show through was very minimal. Drying times were always good, too. This is a nice writing ink.

3 Oysters Chili Red ink writing samples

3 Oysters Chili Red is an easy recommendation, and I’ll include it in the few that I always mention when asked for a classic red. It comes in the 38 ml bottle for US$16 at most online retailers. With the cut corner that allows you to stand the bottle at an angle, I love the bottle, too. Enjoy!

3 Oysters Chili Red - Swatch Card

3 Oysters Chili Red - Comparisons

3 Oysters Chili Red - 38 ml Ink Bottle