There isn’t much to celebrate at present with the global Covid-19 pandemic, but when it does end it may be possible to drink a toast to good health — with a glass of Coronavirus beer.
At least that’s the hope of one brewer in Hidalgo who decided that he would appropriate the name and use it for a product known for bringing people together, rather than keeping them apart.
Isaac Palafox registered the name with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property on March 9. He is the owner of The Coffee Legacy, a cafe chain with locations in Real del Monte and Huasca de Ocampo, in Hidalgo, and in Guadalajara.
Palafox had already created the beer recipe but had yet to name it. He described it as an English-style brew with hints of chocolate, molasses and coffee extract.
“This drink is already being produced and sold in my cafes, but it didn’t have a name, until now,” he said, adding that the coffee he uses to make the beer is toasted by artisanal roasters whose methods date back to the year 1900 and incorporate practices brought to Hidalgo by German immigrants to the region.
In order to register the trademark, Palafox first had to check the market for other products that may already have the name. Needless to say, the name doesn’t exactly cry “go out and buy me,” and he had no trouble nabbing the moniker for his beer.
Palafox is uncertain as to whether his Coronavirus beer will be a success, but his main goal is simply to maintain the quality of his microbrew and continue producing it for his cafes.
Meanwhile, a bakery in the Mexico City borough of Iztapalapa recently started selling a new product it calls conchavirus — the Mexican sweet bread known as concha, or shell, decorated to look like the deadly microbe — which has “gone viral” among neighborhood sweet-tooths.
Bakery manager Martha Rivas said they wanted to think of something new that takes a humorous angle toward the pandemic. She said people are seeking the product out and buying it, and that the fun bread gives them something to get excited about in these anxious times.
But Mexican businesspeople aren’t the only ones looking to capitalize on the coronavirus. The newspaper El País reported that six brands in Spain have made trademark requests for names related to Covid-19, including T-shirts that read, “I survived the coronavirus.”
Sources: El Universal (sp), Entrepreneur (sp), Excélsior TV (sp)
