It looks darker in the picture than it does to the naked eye. It seems to have a brownish tint. I used lard on it. I usually season with Crisco and the first round. If I decide to do additional rounds, I will sometimes switch to lard. I do think lard tends to make a darker finish, maybe due to its smoke point? Or it could be my imagination.
Edit: by the way, does anybody know what HP stands for? I've seen pictures of a similar sized pot from Lodge. It has a bail and they mark it "CK" which stands for Country Kettle. I've seen a different style of this one, I believe it was also marked HP. The handles I saw on the other one were loops, instead of solid tabs like mine has.