Monteverde - Sweet life Collection 1, Pumpkin Cake and Iced Cookie

In 2016 Monteverde started to re-imagine / configure their inks and as a part of that they have released a number of collections e.g. noir, emotions, gemstones and this, the Sweet Life collection released early 2019.   The collections are not easy to obtain in my part of the world but Pen and Ink (Queensland, Australia)  have the sets for AUD$99 plus postage. 
I contacted Monteverde in the USA about some of their other inks they directed me to the Australasian distributor, who then directed me to Pen and Ink.  It would appear Pen and Ink are the only Monteverde ink retailers in this part of the world, (and they have been fantastic) in the US many retailers stock Monteverde inks where the sets retail on line from US$90 - $100.
There are 10 inks in the collection, I will divide the reviews but make some general comments here and after the last review summarise what I have found / think.  The same pen was used for each ink i.e. a Birmingham Pen Co 6th Avenue pen.

The inks are named after a collection of popular American desserts, I couldn’t think of anything more American than keylime pie or blue velvet cake, some of the others are fairly international e.g. chocolate pudding and birthday cake.
Each ink comes in a 30ml glass bottle with more interesting labels than some of Monteverdes other inks.  They all contain ITF technology.  ITF stands for ink treatment formula which in Monteverdes words - 

“drastically improves ink flow quality, extends cap-off times and lubricates and protects the ink feeding systems from corrosion and clogging"

It will be interesting to see how true this is, I reviewed a number a Monteverde inks earlier this year and had a lot of trouble with hard starts and with one ink gave up the review completely as the flow was shocking.
The inks come in a black magnetic sealing box which is ‘specifically designed for reuse and recycling.  The box is contained within a soft cardboard outer sleeve.

Outer sleeve

Black box - hard to read the name

Inks in the box

Inside of the lid

​The colour range is limited with a preponderance of browner shades.

​Pumpkin Cake

​I was expecting something called pumpkin to veer to orange but as you can see from the chromatography this is a reddish brown rather than orange.

With col-o-ring and Tomoe swatches there are hints of orange in that the red hue seems more orangey red – this is more obvious with Tomoe.  Having said that it is still darker than I would expect for pumpkin.

Col-o-ring

Tomoe

For the writing I was initially just using Midori and Tomoe because my previous Monteverde reviews indicated cheap paper would be a waste of time as every ink feathered and bled through the paper.  I am going to include copy paper here at the end as I went back to use the pen a day after I prepared my photos etc for this review and had issues.

On Midori – brown, no feathering, no show through and a slowish dry time.  A little shading was apparent

It was a lot more interesting on Tomoe as shading was more obvious.  Dry time at 25secs is actually quite impressive for Tomoe.

At this point I thought the colour ok but thats my prejudice as I am not a fan of brown inks.  However, as mentioned above I went to use my pen a day after taking photos etc for this review now I am not sure about this ITF – see what below what happened after not using the pen for 24 hours.

There were a lot of flow issues at the start as you can see and I know its not the pen.  On the upside no feathering and no show through.

In summary -  a red-brown or orange-red brown ink depending on the paper.  I was very happy with this ink until I tried to use my pen again and then I was very unhappy with the flow issues.  In the 300+ inks I have swatched I couldn't find a credible dupe, I do have quite a few inks not tested yet though.
Saturation – high
Shading – some especially on Tomoe
Sheen – no
Shimmer – no
Flow – initially good until I rested the pen for a day then a lot of skipping at the start of writing
Nib dry-out - none
Nib creep - none
Start-up – ok
Feathering – none, not even on cheap paper
Drying – average but pretty good on Tomoe
Cleaning - good
Water resistance – not sold as waterproof and there was a lot of run off but a reasonable amount remains.

​Iced Cookie

I have never iced biscuits in blue and I would be unlikely to use a petrol blue like this.
 In the chromatography there is some turquoise and green which should lift the ink.

​On col-o-ring to me definitely a petrol blue but on Tomoe you can see it is lighter and brighter, it looks more turquoise / sea green.

Col-o-ring

Tomoe

On Midori petrol blue veering towards turquoise with some shading and a similar dry time to pumpkin pie. Some shading

On Tomoe it is more teal than turquoise.  The dry time is sower than pumpkin cake but there is some nice shading.

After the pumpkin pie issues I tried this again and had none of the flow issues it started immediately.  I used copy paper again, no feathering  but there was a hint of show through.

In summary -  I’m going to say a dark turquoise ink that hints at petrol blue depending on the paper.  I quite like this ink but credible dupes are  from left to right in the photo Diamine smoke on the water, De Artrementis plum, Sailor Yama-dori and Diamine midnight blue

Saturation – high
Shading – yes
Sheen – no
Shimmer – no
Flow – good
Nib dry-out - none
Nib creep - none
Start-up – ok
Feathering – none, not even on cheap paper
Drying – slow-ish
Cleaning - good
Water resistance – not sold as waterproof but a reasonable amount remained