Monteverde Monza and Monteverde Canyon Rust Review

Yafa Brands were kind enough to send me a Monteverde Monza fountain pen along with a 30mL bottle of Monteverde Canyon Rust ink to review. I promised to provide a fair review. 

i am going to start with the ink first. This is a nice reddish-brown ink with nice flow, great saturation, nice shading and is very well behaved on different papers.

Tomoe River Paper

Apica Paper

Leuchtturm Paper

Franklin-Christoph Paper

As far as comparisons go, this ink is fairly similar to some other ink colors . 

Montblanc Toffee Brown is still my go to brown ink color but Canyon Rust is a nice fill in and has an amazing value at $8 for 30mL. 

Rhodia Paper

I really like the Canyon Rust ink and I do really like the new Monteverde ink formulation.

 Now the Monza fountain pen, however, was a disappointment. The pen itself is a nice starter-based pen which is valued between $16 - $20. When I opened the box and took the pen in hand, it felt light and the plastic feels like plastic. The pen itself reminded me of something but I had some trouble deciding what it was. Then it hit me, this looks, feels and writes just like a Jinhao 992. 

Jinhao 992

Monteverde Monza

This is a 992 fountain pen but the feed is clear and the cap band is branded with Monteverde. 

The pen has a #5 sized nib that writes very smooth and I am forced to post the pen, due to the size of my hands. I do not like to post my pens so keep this in mind if you are like me. This pen requires posting if you have larger hands. 

I am disappointed that the Monza is a re-branded Jinhao 992 but it is what it is. The Jinhao 992 is valued anywhere between $2 and $8, depending on where you look to shop. The Monza is more than that price, obviously, but depending on what you are looking for, this pen could be for you. The Monteverde Monza seems to be more readily available for purchase here in the U.S. than the 992 and that could factor in to the decision as well.

Yafa Brands was very generous in sending this box of goodies to me for the sake of a fair review and even sent a nice note. Thank you Yafa Brands and Bob the cat loved the box a little too much.

I do not represent Yafa Brands nor Monteverde. I am not being compensated by anyone for this review.