Pebble dash dots
An Australian design using Italian cover stock and Japanese paper, sold in Blighty by a nice chap in Cyprus. What could be more cosmopolitan? OK, a mix of vodka and cranberry juice with a little umbrella on top could, but let's get back to the stationery.
This handy pocket notebook (in the standard 90 x 140mm size) is made from the near-legendary substance known to fountain pen obsessives as Tomoe River paper. The legend, if that's not too strong a word, is that this started out as paper for printing glossy catalogues, but turned out after some experimentation to be able to take fountain pen ink. As paper designed to be printed on, it has two unusual properties for fountain pen paper; it is extraordinarily thin, and barely absorbs any ink. The latter property means that it can take a while to dry - so you might want some blotting paper if you're writing in a hurry - but allows for any sheening ink to show off what it can do, with bells on. Here's what it does with some of Organic Studio's 'Nitrogen Blue' - yes, you read that right, this ink is normally blue:
You can hopefully now see what the fuss about. The other characteristic, lightness, presents some challenges. There are two weights of Tomoe River available, and this notebook uses the lightest, a mere 52 grammes per square metre (most good writing paper is somewhere between 90 and 100gsm). With a format any larger than a pocket notebook such thin paper wrinkles as soon as you put a nib to it, but thanks to the thoughtful sewn binding that Pebble have applied, this notebook performs well. It can just about handle a pencil, but the pressure will make the text readable on the next sheet or two so perhaps it's wisest not to (and naturally the same applies to ballpoints). Perhaps the ideal writing tool for this paper is also Japanese; the classic fude brush pen.
So like the Cosmopolitan cocktail, this is something of a niche offering. But it's a niche you might like living in - if you fancy something slim and light to travel with, if you enjoy the sensation of a nib on an amazingly smooth surface, if sheen is very much what you're after and you don't mind packing a small sheet of blotting paper, this is absolutely just your thing. 'Doesn't even need a maraschino cherry.