Remember when there was just Coca-Cola? Then came Coca-Cola Classic, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero, Cherry Coke, Coca-Cola BlaK, Black Cherry Vanilla Coke, Coca-Cola with Lime, Coca-Cola Citra and more. Same with cigars.
If you’d like to enjoy a Montecristo, you can try the original Dominican-made Montecristo introduced in 1995. But there’s also Montecristo Classic Selection, Montecristo Cabinet Seleccion, Montecristo Platinum, Montecristo Serie C and Montecristo White Label, all from Altadis USA.
If you’re looking for something else, there are four other blends made for other distributors, including: the Montecristo Afrique, the Montecristo Club Cabinet Selection, the Montecristo Habana 2000 and the Montecristo Peruvian Square Pressed. Also this year, a Honduran-made Montecristo, the Montecristo Flor Fina, will make its debut.
That’s a total of 11 Montecristos! So what exactly is the Montecristo taste? The answer is . . . there isn’t one. Montecristo is a brand, not a blend.
In marketing, they’re called brand extensions. And the thinking behind brand extensions is that it’s easier to get the attention of consumers with a familiar logo on the box. Brand extensions have reached epidemic proportions with cigars — check out the number of extensions under these well-known names:
> Arturo Fuente (Dominican Republic): 6
> Avo (Dominican Republic) : 5
> Macanudo (Dominican Republic): 5
> Partagás (Dominican Republic): 7
> Paul Garmirian (Dominican Republic): 7
> Perdomo (Nicaragua): 8
> Romeo y Julieta (Dominican Republic and Honduras): 9
And it’s not just the established brands exploding with different types and styles. Rocky Patel’s one-time boutique brand, made in Honduras, has become exceedingly popular thanks to his vintage lines and his unbanded, value-priced The Edge. But he hasn’t stopped there. The Rocky Patel brand — both with regard to blends made for distribution by his company and those made for distribution by others — now has 16 different brands available. Roll that around in your mouth for a minute or two. It can be confusing (if not frustrating) for smokers. So, when you’re trying to figure out what to order at the store or cigar bar, here’s a suggestion: go for the original blend. More often than not, the original (the blend on which the brand was built), is still the best.
Interestingly, the Cuban approach to brand extensions is quite different. There are only 27 export brands made in Cuba, some 25 of which have only one style of blend. Only two brands have extensions — Hoyo de Monterrey and Cohiba.
The Hoyo de Monterrey brand sports a fairly light body. In 1970, the stronger Le Hoyo series was introduced. Both blends are still made today.
Cohiba was first introduced to worldwide distribution with a single blend in 1982. In 1992, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage to America, the Siglo series was introduced. And in 2007, the long-awaited Cohiba Maduro 5 line debuted — the first Cuban line with maduro wrappers in decades.
One way to get around this problem is to smoke only brands that have a single blend. But don’t expect to find one you know much about — it will likely already have brothers and sisters on the shelf.