Bouncing Ribena Berry

To start its journey this trackable went to The Forest of Dean - close to where Ribena is made.

Now it wants to go wherever you want to take it!

Sometime it would like to bounce back home to The New Forest.

 

Do you remember these little chaps from a Ribena marketing campaign some time ago? I have always loved Ribena - a real taste of my childhood.

Some history - courtesy of Wikipedia: Ribena was originally manufactured by HW Carter in Bristol as a blackcurrant squash. Ribena was essentially invented by Dr. Vernon Charley, a scientist at the University of Bristol in 1933. The blackcurrant variety was found to contain high levels of vitamin C The drink was launched in 1936 under the name Ribena (from the botanical name for the blackcurrant, Ribes nigrum). During the Second World War, other fruits rich in vitamin C, like oranges, became almost impossible to obtain in the United Kingdom, due to the U boat campaign. Blackcurrant cultivation was encouraged by the Government, and the yield of the nation's crop increased significantly. From 1942, almost the entire British blackcurrant crop was made into blackcurrant syrup (or cordial), almost all of it manufactured by Carters, and distributed to the nation's children for free without the Ribena brand name, giving rise to the lasting popularity of blackcurrant flavourings in Britain. Production moved to the new Royal Forest Factory at Coleford in the Forest of Dean in the autumn of 1947, where production takes place today. Carters was bought out by the Beecham company (later to become SmithKline Beecham and later GlaxoSmithKline) in 1955.