Antigua’s Toffee is exactly what I like in a brown. It’s a complex, attractive blend that will appeal to many. It reminds me of both Graf von Faber-Castell Cognac Brown and Akkerman’s SBRE Brown, but Antigua’s is less than half the price!

Toffee blends brown with strong influences of orange and hints of red on some papers. On uncoated papers, you get a warm and bright brown that leans slightly orange. There is subtle variation from light to dark, but it is fairly uniform on uncoated papers.

On coated papers, it’s a different story. They bring out the best of the ink’s complexity. Shading is much stronger, and the color variety is much greater. On Cosmo Air Light, it really comes alive. On Tomoe River, it’s much more subdued. I really like the personality of this ink, but I much prefer the more playful nature that the oranges add.

In writing, this is a nice, rich, but still wet ink in flow. Very comfortable. I didn’t find any feather or spread. Even on uncoated papers, show-through is surprisingly light for such a saturated brown. Drying was average or better on all papers tested, too.

Orange-brown inks sometimes have a tendency to develop crusting on the nib or feed, but I haven’t had any issues with Toffee. This is a nice writing ink.

Toffee is a gorgeous brown, and it performs very well in writing. Antigua’s inks come in the beautiful, 50 ml bottles that Pelikan uses for its Edelstein inks. At just EUR11.99 a bottle, this is a great everyday ink choice. You can find the inks (and beautiful pens in both ebonite and acrylic) at www.antiguas.es. (And good news! Starting in January 2024, full international shipping will be available!)

Special thanks to my friend, Maria at www.inksinspiration.com for sending a wonderful selection of new inks from her collection. Maria’s site specializes in offering hard-to-find brands to the Spanish pen market. And thanks to Miguel Angel at www.antiguas.es for supplying the Antigua’s inks to try. Check out both of their websites!