Kala Ink - Milk Tea

Kala - Milk Tea - Ink Drop

Milk Tea is part of Kala Ink’s Island No.38 series. These are dye-based inks in eighteen variations (although eight are varieties of blue). The series celebrates Taiwan, which is Kala’s home, and the 38th largest island in the world.

Swatch and Strokes on Cosmo Air Light

This is a nice, creamy orange. Wet, it’s a reddish orange, but as it dries, it softens considerably. It’s gentle but highly legible.

Kala Milk Tea Color Range

Milk Tea is a very nice shading ink (particularly on uncoated papers). Light areas pale to a milky light orange, while dark areas are more of a persimmon. On uncoated papers, there’s dramatic shading on each stroke. On coated papers, shading is sharper with more immediate contrast. On some, stroke centers have a really beautiful, powdery glow.

Writing Sample on Cosmo Air Snow Paper

Writing performance was good. It’s a wet ink with consistent, comfortable flow on the page. Stroke profiles were sharp and feather-free on coated papers with a slight darkening on stroke edges. There’s a bit of spread on copy paper, but it balances out as it dries and remains usable. I used a wet, medium, Jowo nib for testing, and I suspect that spreading wouldn’t be an issue in a finer nib. This is a nice writing ink, overall, and it’s spectacular on many of the high-quality papers that I used for testing.

Kala Milk Tea - Writing Samples

From the box art and promotional images on Kala’s website (www.kalaink.com), I expected more tan influences. Rather than the pale tans of typical Taiwanese milk tea, it’s closer to the orangish colors of a thai tea or persimmon. It’s an attractive ink, with none of the jarring brightness that some orange inks produce.

Ink Swatch Card

I also really like the new 30 ml bottle introduced with this series. Where the older bottle was a standard square shape, the new bottle is square at the base and twists slightly to become rounded at the top edge. It’s as functional as the original, but it’s more stylish.

Ink Swatch Comparisons

Kala Milk Tea is a nice ink, and it performs well. It’s a fairly unusual orange and very easy on the eye. I hope to try more from the series. There are a couple of interesting greens, and if you like blues, there are a good variety to tempt you!

Kala Milk Tea in the 30 ml Bottle