Starry Ink - Black Wolfberry

Starry Ink Black Wolfberry - Ink drop

Starry Ink’s Black Wolfberry is a fascinating ink. It’s part of the Cold Brew series. These inks are created using plant materials and the company’s “cold brew” technique to extract plant colorants. The result is 100% natural ink with no added synthetic dyes. As you might have guessed, Black Wolfberry is made using the extract of black wolfberries (also known as goji berries).

Ink Swatches on Cosmo Air Light and Tomoe River

This ink surprises you right from the very beginning. In the bottle, it’s a deep black red and looks like black raspberry juice. When ink hits the page, it’s much more a light pink wet, and a faded pink on the strokes on the paper, but that almost immediately starts to change. In the first seconds after you write a stroke, the pink disappears and a grey emerges. You can’t help but think of pencils. Overall, it’s something like a 2H pencil, but results vary based on the paper and the nib that you use. There’s a slight creaminess to the grey on some, and a darker boldness on others. I also see faint pinkish undertones on some examples, but not on most. Shading is very nice, too. The swatches are quite dark, almost black in concentrated areas, but never in writing.

Ink Swatches on Iroful and Takasago Bank papers

Writing performance was good. It’s fairly wet in flow, but dried quickly. Strokes often have a dark profile edging, especially in the darker shaded areas, and there is great variation in shading across strokes. The chromatography shows some water-resistance, but it isn’t water-proof. I left it in convertors for over a week, and there was no problem with staining. Cleaning was effortless.

Writing sample on Cosmo Air Snow paper

I don’t normally go for this kind of color, but it is oddly comforting in a nostalgic way, and unmistakably appealing. On papers that don’t show stroke-profile edging, some might find the shading makes it too light on stroke ends to be easily readable, but on other papers, that isn’t a problem at all.

Starry Ink Black Wolfberry - Swatch Card

Starry Ink’s Cold Brew series is innovative, sustainably sourced, and all-natural, and those are all things to admire. Most importantly, the inks in the series that I’ve tried have been quite nice. If you like greys, this a nice option. You can find them in nicely packaged, 35 ml individual bottles, or in sets of three in 5 ml bottles.

Starry Ink Black Wolfberry - Comparisons

Check out @starryink_official on IG for more information. They’re also available on various shopping sites, and Starry Ink will launch a new shopping website with international shipping available by the end of 2024.

Special thanks to Starry Ink for sending this and several other inks over to try! (As usual, if I accept inks or pens to try, it is always with the clear understanding that I may or may not review them. If I do, I will always include all the negatives and positives that I find.)

Starry Ink Black Wolfberry - 35 ml and 5 ml set

JIDP 2024 Award - Starry Ink’s Cold Brew series