Lennon Tool Bar Winter Tonics in Taiwan #2 Brown Sugar — 4ml Fountain Pen Ink Sample

Hue: A cool-toned mid-brown, close to wet dark muscovado. Retailers describe it simply as a cool mid-toned brown, and the writing line matches that — but my swatches show more going on than the official description suggests: in pooled areas the ink separates into distinct teal-green bands, and the heaviest pooling drops to a near-black coffee brown.

Shading: Moderate. The dip-pen bar and writing sample both show clear light-to-dark transitions, with darker edges collecting at stroke ends.

Sheen: A low green-teal sheen appears where the ink pools heavily. Alongside it there is genuine chromatic separation — the teal sits in the brown rather than only catching the light — which is the most noticeable feature of this ink in swatch form.

Shimmer: None.

Flow: Medium.

The interesting bit: 黑糖 (hēi táng) translates literally as "black sugar" — the unrefined dark cane sugar sold across Taiwan in pressed bricks. The ink belongs to Lennon Tool Bar's Winter Tonics in Taiwan series, released for winter 2023 alongside Red Beans, Purple Rice and Matcha, and takes its colour from black sugar ginger tea: the bricks crushed and simmered with old ginger as a winter warmer. Lennon Tool Bar (藍濃道具屋) was founded in Tamsui in 2014, originally to revive Taiwanese indigo dyeing — a trade that once exported "doroai" colorant to Japan in quantity — and moved into fountain pen inks from that same craft background.

This is a hand-decanted 4ml sample vial from my own bottle.

Photos are my own swatches on Tomoe River Paper.

I'm a collector and I'm always happy to talk ink, so please message me if you have any questions.