Getting Duped - Maybe?

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May 4, 2015
3,210
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Has anyone else pondered on if any manufacturers dupe us with marketing? I guess specifically, I'm thinking about repackaging something and marking up price (or maintaining the price and hoping for double purchases) while marketing it as a different blend.
I know there are suspicions of certain blends being some other blends, but what if we found out that one of our favorite tins is just a repackaged, much cheaper, bulk?
My palette is pretty refined, but I'm still sure I could be tricked in to believing one blend were two different blends if the presentation were different.
If the answers to these questions were made available, would you want to know?

 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,568
27,070
Carmel Valley, CA
Sure, as long as I could buy in bulk that blend I thought was so special due to good marketing. It might take a while to get over my disappointment at being taken for a schmuck, but, hey, that's life.
Are you thinking of any candidates?

 

codecreatively

Can't Leave
Sep 17, 2014
329
2
I have my suspicions on a couple. The thing is, some blends taste and age different in tins than in bulk (just look at the Dunhill blends). I personally would want to know, though.

 
May 4, 2015
3,210
16
The thing is, some blends taste and age different in tins than in bulk (just look at the Dunhill blends)
Yeah, but even bulks sold as other bulks, or tins sold as other tins... It's gotta happen, right?

 

beefeater33

Lifer
Apr 14, 2014
4,063
6,119
Central Ohio
I would say yes. Its a very common practice in the food industry. Kroger brand ketchup is the same as "Name brands", but costs significantly less. Think about it, Kroger's (or another regional supermarket) could not possibly manufacture all of their store brands--- they are farmed out. I had a friend who worked in a margarine factory, Parkay was the same as the lesser, cheaper brands.......just a different package. Same with Clorox bleach- bleach is bleach, but consumers pay for the name. I don't know why tobacco would be any different................

 
May 4, 2015
3,210
16
It's different to me because if I buy a bottle of bleach, I don't feel the need to buy another bottle of bleach to have a bleach collection.
I don't want to double buy if McClelland Such and Such Latakia is the same as Frog on the Log or what have you.

 

cigrmaster

Lifer
May 26, 2012
20,249
57,280
66
Sarasota Florida
I sure would want to know. You must have something in mind to start this thread. Are you feeling us out so that when you out the company you have in mind, you won't take a beating for it? lol
Be brave grasshopper, the truth shall set thee free. In other words, I have your back covered.

 

puffy

Lifer
Dec 24, 2010
2,511
98
North Carolina
Let me try to say this in a way that I don't end up in court...I suspect that several online stores sell the same cigars each under their own brand name.And if sales drop on that brand they re-package it under a different name and act is if it's something new.I also suspect that some over seas pipe factories are kicking out lower end pipes under several different names.Each to a different online retailer who could even own the rights to that brand or the right to distribute it.With so many names on pipe tobacco these days is it all that hard to believe that some of them are the same?

 

JimInks

Sultan of Smoke
Aug 31, 2012
60,848
553,775
There's more than one company that does it. Some make very small changes in the formulas, some do not. And we all know many bulk blends are sold in stores with different names. I must have smoked 1-Q under more than a dozen names by now.

 
May 4, 2015
3,210
16
Honestly, I have no offending parties in mind specifically - I am just doing a lot of purchasing and got to thinking about it. If I had to drop a name, Scandinavian Tobacco Group has a lot of blends around that MUST use the same components or are identical, save the label. Must, right?
Just wondering if my 66 different blends or whatever are, in reality, 62 different blends or something along those lines.

 
May 4, 2015
3,210
16
And we all know many bulk blends are sold in stores with different names. I must have smoked 1-Q under more than a dozen names by now.
Oh, yeah, the B&M rename isn't really what I'm referring to. That's accepted as a given.

 

JimInks

Sultan of Smoke
Aug 31, 2012
60,848
553,775
I meant to type "I must have smoked 1-Q over more than a dozen names by now." Yes, I know it's common knowledge, but I thought it should be mentioned while we're at it.

 

cigrmaster

Lifer
May 26, 2012
20,249
57,280
66
Sarasota Florida
I know what you are getting at now.
Davidoff Flake Medallions is the same as Peter Stokkebye Luxury Bullseye Flake. Anything that has the name of Davidoff on it is a blend from another mfg as Davidoff makes nothing themselves. They re package everything they put their name on.

 

cigrmaster

Lifer
May 26, 2012
20,249
57,280
66
Sarasota Florida
I will say that Dunhill Deluxe Navy Rolls is definitely not the same blend as Escudo. To my tastes DNR is a sweeter less peppery blend than Escudo. I know there are many people who think they are the same, but I have been smoking both of them long enough to say unequivocally they are not the same.
I love them both and have over 100 tins of each in my cellar. If I thought they were the same, I would have never cellared both so deep.
I have never smoked Creme Brulee but have it on my list to try. I like Molto Dolce on occasion and when I do try the CB I will post about if I think they are the same.

 
May 4, 2015
3,210
16
I wasn't suggesting those examples were true - just listing them as examples as the sort of thing I'm talking about.
For what it's worth, I agree on the DNR/Escudo. I've smoked both Molto Dolce and Crème Brulee, but they were far enough apart in time, I couldn't guess as to if they are identical. They're close enough that I wouldn't buy Molto Dolce again, though, I will say that, and Crème Brulee is just fine for me as the exemplar of that flavor in my "cellar".

 
May 4, 2015
3,210
16
Also Sutliff. By my tongue, it's every bit as good and since I don't smoke aromatics but rarely, it's fine for me at half the price.
I just finished a bowl 5 minutes ago at the office actually, and it was very pleasant so long as I was treating it nicely. Quite tasty with a cup of afternoon coffee.

 

pappymac

Lifer
Feb 26, 2015
3,271
4,263
Beefeater is correct on the food industry. There are a lot of companies that specialize in selling the same item to different brands with just slight variations to recipes. I also know that the difference between a premium name brand can vegetable, a cheaper name brand can vegetable and the cheap store brand is often just the quality rating the vegetable gets when it arrives at the processor. That's why when you open one can of green beans they are all perfectly uniform in shape and size and you open a lesser brand and you will occasionally find a stem. Here's something else you may not know, Malt O Meal cereal is considered by many to be a lesser quality cereal for some reason. It also produces a good percentage of cereals for name brands and for some of the "health conscious" cereals.
The way I view pipe tobacco is that there are really a finite type of tobacco available and once a particular brand becomes popular, someone else is going to smoke it and try to develop a tobacco with as close to it flavor profile as they can get.

 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,623
44,833
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
It happens in other industries - a specific product rebranded and sold for different amounts - and it happens in the tobacco industry. Not everybody makes the tobacco on which they have their name. The oem can repackage the same blend for more than one label.
Bottom line for me, do I think that the blends I like are worth what I paid for them.

 
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