Papier Plume Snowball Party Ink Set: Five Playful Colors Inspired by a New Orleans Classic

Introduction

Papier Plume has a knack for themed inks, and the Snowball Party set takes the idea further than usual. Rather than a single color, it is a full limited edition collection paying tribute to the snowball, a traditional summertime treat from New Orleans. The set bundles five 12ml bottles, each named after a classic snowball flavor, and it sells for $35. It is a fun concept, but the real question is whether the inks behind the theme are worth your writing time. After spending time with all five, the answer is a fairly warm yes.

What Is in the Box

The set arrives in a compact, charming box. Slide off the lid and you find a small menu card listing the five flavors: Plum, Tutti Frutti, Spearmint, Tiger’s Blood, and Bubble Gum. Papier Plume leans into the theme with a little paper napkin, a straw, and a spoon tucked inside, the kind of touches that make this feel like a gift rather than just a purchase.

The bottles themselves are small 12ml units with the snowball illustration on the front. One thing worth noting: our samples ran slightly lighter than the swatches shown on the company website, which display a bit darker. A heavier application does darken things up, but with a light touch the colors sit on the paler side. These are, of course, inks and not edible flavors, despite the tempting names.

How the Inks Behave on Paper

On 52g Tomoe River paper, the set shows off nicely. Heavier applications bring out visible sheening, particularly in the Plum, and most of the five colors show a fair amount of shading and sheen on this paper. Tiger’s Blood was the focus color for deeper testing, and it proved the strongest of the bunch for everyday writing.

With a broad 3.8mm Pilot Parallel used for headers and swatches, ghosting and bleed stayed low. Shading and sheen came across as medium, depending on how heavily the ink was laid down. The color comparisons for Tiger’s Blood put it in familiar red territory: lighter than Private Reserve Vampire Red and Diamine Oxblood, different from Private Reserve Burgundy Mist and Diamine Communication Breakdown, sitting somewhere near the browner Montblanc Hitchcock Red and Leonardo Red Passion.

Writing Performance and Drying Time

Flow is medium, which suits most fountain pens without fuss. Drying time is decent: between a fine and a medium nib, expect roughly 15 to 30 seconds before the ink is fully dry. The set was tested with three pens: a Monteverde Giant Sequoia from the Trees of the World series with a fine nib, a Papier Plume Wetland Cypress collaboration with a distinctive artisan clip and a medium nib, and a Narwhal Nautilus Grand Rhapsody with a 1.1mm stub. All handled the ink without issues.

The Tiger’s Blood ink in particular behaves well across nib sizes, and the stub brought out the shading nicely. If you only buy the set for one bottle, this is the one that earns its place in a daily rotation.

Water Resistance and Chromatography

Tiger’s Blood is not marketed as waterproof, and it is not, but it held up surprisingly well under a water test. After water sat on the writing, the text remained legible with only modest softening, which is better than many non-waterproof inks manage.

Chromatography across all five inks reveals what is inside each color. Spearmint separates into blue and yellow, the components of green. Tutti Frutti is essentially pink throughout. Tiger’s Blood breaks into red with a touch of yellow. Bubble Gum shows its own pink-leaning separation, and Plum resolves into blue and red. It is a neat way to see how the flavors differ at a chemical level.

Should You Buy It?

At $35 for five 12ml bottles, the Snowball Party set is an easy recommendation for anyone who enjoys playful inks with a story behind them. The colors brighten up journaling, letter writing, and swatching, and they are well-behaved enough to use in decent pens without anxiety. If you prefer somber, conservative ink colors, this set will not change your mind. But if your collection could use a splash of summery fun, it delivers exactly that. The Papier Plume Snowball Party is a variety of colorful choices that will brighten your writing with well-behaving inks.

Conclusion

The Snowball Party set succeeds because the theme is more than marketing: the five flavors translate into genuinely distinct and useful colors, Tiger’s Blood stands out as the everyday winner, and the whole collection performs well on quality paper. For the price, it is one of the more charming ink sets around, and a fitting tribute to a beloved New Orleans treat.