I found it fitting for this pen to be my first fountain pen review as this is the first "high-end" fountain pen I've ever purchased. And even before I got my first pen, I went through some stages of what I liked. Started out absolutely disliking gold trim on fountain pens. But that all changed when the fire nation ... wait I'm mixing stuff up now! It did all change when I saw the special Edition of the M200, the Café Crème.
Pelikan is one of those brands that everyone knows about, no matter how little interested you are in the whole pen/stationery world. When I first saw this pen I didn't know Pelikan had a premium line of fountain pens but I immediately fell in love with the design (and still am to this day), it's not a flat top nor a cigar shape, it's just a Pelikan Souverän.
The M200 is pretty much the baby brother of all the other Souverän models, same size as the M400 but with a steel nib and finished to a "lower" level yet still retaining the piston filler of his bigger, more expensive brothers. What I call a lower level finish isn't anything to complain about though, the only complaint I have here is that there are some mold lines left on the section, which I imagine wouldn't be left on the gold nibbed pens. They don't bother me when writing, it just doesn't look as nice as it could be.
So I was set on an M200, but this wasn't the first M200 model I was looking at, I had my eye set on an M200 in red (since I'm not a person who likes a lot of black). I just couldn't find one in stock anywhere and I'm actually happy I couldn't find one; new to the pen scene as I was, I wasn't aware that Pelikan often releases special versions of their pens and when I saw the ad for this version I was sold on this pen! The Café Crème - being a coffee and cream themed pen - just drew me in like a moth to a flame (and I'm not even a coffee drinker). I love the cream coloured barrel, dark brown piston knob and cap finished off with gold accents.
I got mine with a Broad nib (with the emphasis on Broad). This is just a gusher of a nib, yet out of the box it was absolutely perfect! It even felt smooth on the paper without being inked and only gets better when inked up. And I've read elsewhere that the Pelikan steel nibs have a fair amount of give to them and you can actually spread the tines quite a bit to get an even broader line, so an A+ for Pelikan for getting the nib just spot on!
This pen does have a huge writing performance but it's far from a big pen - for me it's just a tad too small in every way. First up is the length, when used unposted the step down from the barrel to the piston turning knob digs in just a bit too much into the webbing of my hand, this isn't a problem at all when posted, and when doing so it improves the balance and feel in the hand - at least for me. The second problem can't really be solved that easily and that's the section. It lacks around 1-2mm of girth for my fingers to be called truly comfortable. Other than that the section is well shaped with a nice lip to stop your fingers from sliding up on the nib. The material also isn't as prone to slip in your hands, and I should know since my fingers do get oily after holding a pen for an extended period.
What really sold me on this pen was that it has a piston filler. Being new and full of prejudice I looked down on cartridge/converter filled pens, so for the M200 to have an internal filling system was a big plus in my book, and it still is for this pen. As stated above this pen is such a wet pen that it goes through a fill of ink in a record time (with intense studying/writing it'll last around a day + VAT). So thankfully there is an amber tinted ink window that lets you clearly see your current ink level. And the amber tint makes it blend in perfectly with the rest of the pen.
This pen has done a lot for me: it drastically changed my opinion on gold trimmed pens, it improved my handwriting (or so I think) and due to the wet nib, it made me love different kinds of inks even more than I already did. Even though it is a bit on the small size, it's a wonderful writer and even if I could I wouldn't have made a different decision to get this pen as my first real fountain pen. Even though you might not be able to find the Café Crème version of this pen anymore, the pen in its own right is a great pen and there still are normal versions, not speaking of the regular stream of special editions. So if you're interested there is definitely one that will be just perfect for you!
