Panda Pops cost 10p, turned your tongue blue, and were at every school disco, birthday party and village hall in Britain for thirty-five years. They were made by a Dorset brewery that had been brewing beer since 1777. In 2005 that brewery closed the plant, 220 people lost their jobs, and the brand was sold to the makers of Vimto for £5.5 million. Six years later, Panda Pops were gone.

This is the full story: how Hall & Woodhouse, the Badger beer family of Blandford Forum, started making pop in 1957; the launch of Panda Pops in the 1970s; the tuck-shop economics of a 10p bottle; the flavours (Blue Raspberry, Raspberry Jelly & Ice Cream, Cherryade); the school disco years; Jamie Oliver, the 2006 school fizzy-drinks ban and the sugar backlash; the sale to Nichols; the 2011 discontinuation; and the sugar-free "Panda" relaunch that nobody remembers.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Two hundred and twenty jobs
02:15 A brewery in Dorset
03:04 From beer to pop
06:12 Ten pence
07:26 The school disco years
09:45 Jamie Oliver and the sugar war
11:30 Sold to Vimto
12:49 2011: discontinued
13:35 A panda called Melvin

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Sources include Dorset Echo, The Independent, Marketing Week and Hall & Woodhouse company history.

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