(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)
Pennonia is a company founded by Hungarian fountain pen enthusiast Máté Bikfalvi who decided to launch his own line of inks in early 2020. There are currently over 40 different inks, not including exclusives like Inkdependence’s Cheerio Waterbus. I will be reviewing Pennonia Méregzöld, which we received for review from Vanness Pens.
Back in the day, Máté’s family computer had a seafoam teal Windows 95 background. Máté’s mom thought it looked like méregzöld, which is Hungarian for “poison green”. So when this dark teal ink was created, the name was an obvious choice and Pennonia Méregzöld was born. Pro tip: if you want to learn how to pronounce the name of this and other Pennonia inks, head over to this helpful pronunciation page
Pennonia Méregzöld comes in a 50ml glass bottle which is packaged in a white box with a round color swatch on top which I find super helpful for locating colors in my ink drawers.
Unlike Mike’s Cheerio Waterbus which is a little more green, Méregzöld leans a bit more blue. It is a fairly saturated ink that has average to slightly wet flow in the Broad Stub.
Similar inks include Diplomat Caribbean, Stilo e Stile Roman Bronze Oxidation, Sailor 2022 Pen Show Ink and Robert Oster Aqua.
Dry times were pretty fast on more porous paper like the Hamelin index card, but was upwards of 30 seconds on 68 gsm Tomoe River paper and more than 60 seconds to fully dry on 52 gsm. If you want faster dry times, consider a finer nib, dryer nib/feed and less coated paper or all of the above.
Dries pretty quickly on this Hamelin index card.
Dry times on 68 gsm Tomoe River. The Broad Stub is a bit of a wet writer but it definitely takes a while to dry, unless you write with the nib upside down which usually has a drier flow.
Dry times on 52 gsm Tomoe River - not surprising that this takes even longer to dry.
I have had Pennonia Méregzöld inked up in a Newton Prospector with a Franklin-Christoph Nagahara Broad Stub nib for the past 3 months and it always starts up right away even if I haven’t written with the pen/ink in a few weeks. It is a lovely shade of teal that reminds me of the ocean. I picked it because it pairs beautifully with this Earth Magic material from Jonathon Brooks.
Pennonia Méregzöld in a Newton Prospector in Earth Magic with a Broad Stub on 68 gsm Tomoe River.
Brooks’ materials are stunning and this is no exception. I absolutely love it when I find a good ink to match.
Pennonia Méregzöld sells for $13 USD for a 50 ml bottle, which is a good price for a nice amount of ink. I don’t care what the name really means, because Méregzöld definitely is not poison green but a beautiful teal ink that I am really enjoying using.
(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
