Ciuc Premium

Ciuc Premium is the flagship beer of the Miercurea Ciuc brewery — the most important local brand in Heineken Romania's portfolio and one of the most recognised Romanian beers internationally. The brewery was inaugurated in 1974 in Miercurea Ciuc, known as the Romanian 'Freezing Pole' — the coldest spot in Romania — in the heart of the Székely Land of eastern Transylvania. The beer was privatised in 1994 and sold to Brau Union Romania in 2000, entering the Heineken portfolio with the 2003 Brau Union acquisition. Ciuc Premium positions itself as the beer of real people and authentic stories — the image of modern Romania. The brand became embroiled in a notable legal dispute when craft brewery Csíki Sör (Real Ciuc Beer) was ordered by a Romanian court in 2017 to change its name for being too similar to the Heineken-owned Ciuc brand — a case that briefly escalated into a diplomatic incident with the Hungarian government over Heineken's red star logo. Over 50 years, the Miercurea Ciuc brewery has grown its capacity almost 13 times — from 225,000 hl in 1974 to 2,900,000 hl in 2024.