Small Transylvania Brewer Stood Up to a Beer Giant, and Survived
Despite the settlement, Mr. Lenard said that he would continue to market his product as "Forbidden Csiki," a name
it took on after a court in January ordered the destruction of promotional material linked to the brand name.
Heineken said that We recognized the emotional value of the Csiki brand name to its brewers
and consumers, as well as to its stakeholders in both Romania and Hungary,
The Dutch giant Heineken acquired the old brewery in 2003,
and its Romanian subsidiary now produces its beer under the brand name Ciuc (pronounced "chook") Premium, after the Romanian name for the region.
"And this struggle with Heineken, whether or not intentionally, here in the Szekler land, has become the symbol of the local struggle to survive." Csiki has certainly helped to bolster the Szekler brand,
but to its detractors, it has put too much of an accent on patriotic marketing and has grown too big to be truly artisanal.
Mr. Lenard called his beer Csiki Sor (pronounced "cheeky shore"), after the Hungarian name for the region, Csik.
For decades, Csiki Sor was what Hungarian speakers in this region of Transylvania had called Bere
Ciuc, a beer produced at an older brewery about 10 miles up the road, in Miercurea Ciuc.
