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MUCH ADO ABOUT MOCHA

Plus: Steals and Deals from Atlantic Cigar and Cigars International

Los Angeles, December 1 – One of the wild whispers of last summer’s Retail Tobacco Dealers of America Convention & International Trade Show was a flap over the brand name “Mocha.”

It’s a pretty old brand, dating from 1972 according to Lew Rothman of J-R Cigars, owners of the Mocha trademark. They filed for the mark way back in 1975, although they had been marketing the cigar since 1972. U.S. Tobacco made it for them at the start, until 1980.

Then Villazon & Co., also makers of Hoyo de Monterrey, Punch and Bances, produced the brand to 1986 when Nestor Plasencia’s massive Honduran operation became the manufacturer.

During all of this period, it has been a dependable performer for J-R. Check out this promotion (pictured above) from their March 1991 catalog on the “Mocha Supreme” line:

“A lot of customers went totally berserk when we discontinued the Mocha line last year. After all, during the 1970's, this brand had been our largest selling cigar and still enjoyed great popularity during the ‘80s. Frankly, we felt the sales were slowly eroding due to the look of the packaging – we NEVER had complaints with the QUALITY of the cigars themselves. . . .

“Our first delivery is now in, and more are on the way. This is a good quality cigar with a lot of body and character (This is a polite way of saying ‘This cigar packs a bit of a wallop!’). If you’re a fan of cigars like HOYO and PUNCH and DON TOMAS (the heavier bodied stuff), I’d advise you to give these a serious shot.

“They’re all handmade, long filler, natural tobacco, and packed in some really serious cedar boxes. The big surprise in the price!”

No kidding. In early 1991, you had a choice of seven sizes in boxes of 25 for between $21.95 and $35.95: from 89 cents to $1.30 a stick!

The brand went on and off the market for years and, after a 10-year hiatus, was quietly reintroduced in an e-mail special in mid-year 2004 by J-R in one size, a 5-inch by 52-ring robusto. It’s probably the same blend as it always was, but in today’s motor-oil-for-coffee climate, it’s now a medium-to-full-bodied cigar.

Now comes the RTDA in July and among the new entries in Rocky Patel’s Indian Tabac booth – mobbed during the entire show – was a new, flavored cigar called . . . Mocha!

It was developed for Indian Tabac by the mad cigar genius of Drew Estates, Jonathan Drew himself, as a handmade, medium-bodied cigar in four sizes with your choice of chocolate, coffee or vanilla-infused flavors. But no one had asked Rothman.

Needless to say, Lew made his trademark ownership known right on the show floor and according to Rothman, “the matter was resolved very amicably between myself, Rocky and Jonathan. Other people made a lot bigger deal over it than the three of us did.”

Like we are now . . . but it’s a good story. Anyway, Indian Tabac changed the name of this new, flavored brand to “Chocolat” and you can find it under that name today.

In the meantime, J-R’s Mocha brand has returned and Rothman wrote to us that “it’s coming back one size at a time.”

The amazing part is the price: $29.95 for 25 of the new Mocha robustos, only $4 more than the price of 25 “Baron Rothschild” cigars (4 1/2 x 52) in 1991! The government’s cost of living index has risen 41.4% in the last 13 years, but here are cigars costing just over 15% more in the same period. That’s value and the brand will be further dressed with new artwork and bands in the coming months.

Note to cigar manufacturers and distributors:
Here’s how to find out whether a brand name you want to use is already owned by someone else:

(1) Visit the U.S. Government’s web site for Patent and Trademark Office: http://www.uspto.gov

(2) Look at the left-hand side of the screen under “Trademarks” and click on “Search.”

(3) This will take you to the government’s Trademark Electronic Search System known as “TESS.”

(4) Click on the “New User Form Search (Basic)” and enter the trade name you are interested in.

(5) Check each of the listings which closely or exactly match the name you want to use and check the ones which are shown as “Live.” If none of the live trademarks are for the Goods & Services (G&S) category of cigars or tobacco products, you’ve got a good shot at getting that name upon proper application.

(6) Now call a good patent & trademark attorney and get started with the paperwork.

Or you could call up your attorney in the first place and forget about TESS.

Steals and Deals:
Best from our update efforts for the CigarWire Comparison Shopper spreadsheet:

• Atlantic Cigar:
Atlantic has added the rather exotic Don Lino Africa line, a full-bodied cigar from the La Aurora factory using Cameroon leaf as filler rather than wrapper. It’s offered in four sizes; Punda Milia (6 1/2 x 44), 25 for $101.25; Duma (5 x 50), 25 for $105.30; Kifaro (6 1/4 x 52 torpedo), 25 for $113.40 and Tembo (7 1/2 x 50), 25 for $117.45.

If you’ve ever wanted to try the bourbon-laced Maker’s Mark cigar, here’s your chance. It’s well-made in a meaty Toro format (6 x 50) and Atlantic has them in three-packs for $21.50, about the lowest price we’ve seen on the sampler pack.

• Cigars International:
Keith Meier and his team are offering two especially nice deals this week:

• La Aurora Double Coronas, in four packs of five (20 total) for $59.95, $10 off the regular tab for these smooth, mild-to-medium-bodied cigars.

• Alec Bradley Cigar Co.’s Trilogy Ovations are rarely discounted, but here they are in the Baron (5 1/8 x 54) and Monarch (6 1/2 x 54) sizes for $10 off per box of 20. Both sizes are offered in all three versions: Cameroon, Corojo and Maduro with the “Barons” available at $64.95 and the “Monarch” at $69.95.
~ Rich Perelman

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