The Tonkinese is best known for its brilliant aqua eyes and beautiful sleek, soft coat featured in a unique pattern known as "mink". This remarkable coat is pointed like the Siamese, but the body is colored in a shade blending with the point color. The eyes are a rich, sparkling aqua shade. These cats are also surprisingly dense with good muscle development. Tonkinese cats are active, alert, playful people oriented cats making them ideal companions. They are also warm and loving, highly intelligent supervising all their human's activities. Naturals at inventing and playing games or using favorite toys to play fetch and even entertaining the guests, they will delight their human owners with their playful antics. Tonks are cats that are impossible to ignore and quickly take over the hearts and homes of their enthusiastic owners.

Tonkinese are available in a rainbow of colors intermediate between their Burmese and Siamese parent breeds. The main color is mink, but other coat colors include blue, champagne, honey, natural and platinum colors with some Tonkinese having pointed and solid colors, too. The natural mink color develops slowly as the kitten matures. In some associations, non-mink colors are also accepted for championship competition. Some Tonkinese are available in solid and dark color points. Eyes are distinctive features of the Tonkinese in a shade of unique, brilliant aqua.