it's definitely brown and not at all black. I was actually looking for black and it's not even close. None of the quartz countertops natural stone. They are manmade from quartz chips and resin. They are not porous, very easy to clean, and never need sealing. That seems to be their appeal over natural stone.

At my last house I had Caesarstone Raven which is a smoky gray with hints of misty white running through it. It was beautiful and I loved it so much I'm actually thinking about getting it again in my current house. I compared it with a lot of different colors, and the color is just right- not too brown not too cold. However last time I made the mistake of getting it honed and it smudged constantly. I did wash it multiple times a day but it was ridiculously difficult to get smudges out. Everything made it smudge. After trying mfg recommendations, I constantly ended up having to do something the manufacturer said not to do and use other solvents to try to get smudges out. It was really bad when the Sun lit up the area. Now I'm actually thinking about getting Caesarstone Raven without a matte finish in my current home but I'm wondering if I would be better off trying to find a Silestone equivalent color. So far I haven't been able to do that. I like the charcoal soapstone in silestone but it has blue undertones and looks a bit too cold. Any good recommendation for a smoky gray that's not too cold or too warm so it ends up looking brown?

@Stacie Holden-Rivers thanks for all the info! I happen to be looking at similar color combinations using white and off white together. from what I see in the your pix, looks like the tile is stark white vs the off-white brick? we are also doing a major kitchen reno..appreciate the offer for the black tempal, but we live in NC. when I was at a fabricator the other day, I commented that I wanted to quartz for ease of cleaning with windex...I received a very negative response telling me to never do that! just mild soap and water! I was also told this when we installed marbe and would make a diluted spray fo dawn and water..but have mostly given that up now too. can you share which brick you used? thanks again! @joseph_corlett thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with me. sooo helpful. I had read in one thread that someone had the Casearstone Oxidan and noted that the finish/process on that one and Black Tempal were the only two with that particluar finish/process. are you aware of that being an issue or reasons for concern? is it the black that tends to show more fingerprints? when I search for other dark quarts, for example Daltile Broadway Black, I do not find concerns about the fingerprinting, etc. thanks you agian for sharing yoru expertise

3 months later and the fabricator is on their 3rd replacement of our countertop. Yes you heard it right. The 2nd replacement also had its issues with small black specs. It's far from as bad as the initial countertop we received (as can be seen on my initial post above). This 2nd and 3rd replacement all have these small black specs scattered all over the countertop. They seem to differ a bit in overall size. Some are as small as the pointed end of a needle while others are a bit larger (2mm-metric or 5/64"). I'll attach a few photos of the 3rd and most recent replacement. Obviously we are still not fully satisfied as it is a very expensive countertop.