An aqueous ink to be used in an ink jet recording method that an ink is ejected from a recording head by the action of thermal energy, wherein the ink contains a pigment, a polymer and a water-soluble organic solvent, the hydrophilicity \u03b4m of the pigment falls within a range of from 21. Compositions described herein are obtained from a saturated, unsaturated or combinations of both monol, diol, triol or polyol acyl ester based fluid andor a non-ester based fluid and 2,4,6-trisphenol andor the carboxylic acid salt of 2,4,6-trisphenol. The inductance of the ballasting inductor is significantly reduced so that the RF efficiency of the power supply is 96%.