This is Misutgaru, a collaboration between Sailor Inks and BlueBlack pen and ink in Seoul, Korea. It’s part of a nine-ink exclusive series themed around drinks. It’s a good-looking series, and picking just one wasn’t easy! I chose Misutgaru because it’s a constant in my house.

The name refers to a hearty, comforting, traditional Korean snack drink (also called seonshik) made from anywhere from 1 to 20 varieties of grains and seeds. They are cooked or roasted, ground to a powder, and mixed with honey and water or milk.

Sailor Misutgaru matches the drink perfectly. It’s a beautiful, soft, light caramel yellow brown. The splatter shows the delicious orange and grey undertones that emerge in saturation and as shading in written strokes. A nice dark edging can be seen, and it adds definition to stroke profile on some papers. I was worried it would be too muted for comfortable reading, but that isn’t the case at all.

Like most from Sailor, it's a very nice writing ink. It’s quite wet and flows effortlessly. This leads to longer than average drying on coated papers, but the strong shading is worth it. Shading and halo is strongest on coated papers, and it performs well on copy paper, too. I didn’t have any problems with feather or show-through. It performed well on all six test papers.

I really like Misutgaru. It’s a beautiful, orange tan, and it performs very well. It comes in Sailor’s Manyo bottle and is priced similarly. You can get this series and other very interesting exclusives at BlueBlack online or at their shop in Seoul. Enjoy!