CHILDREN quenched their thirst and kept their dentists busy with the brightly coloured fizzy drink for decades and now the company behind Tizer is planning to promote it to a new generation.

AG Barr, the maker of Irn-Bru and other soft drinks, is poised to relaunch the drink after the company's chairman unearthed the 82-year-old original recipe while clearing out his office.

The company will this week move out of its 120-year-old headquarters in Parkhead, in the east end of Glasgow, and move to a huge new purpose-built site in Cumbernauld.

Robin Barr, a descendant of the cork-cutter who founded the company is 1830, was clearing his office in preparation for the move when he discovered the first Tizer recipe under a pile of old newspapers.

Jonathan Kemp, AG Barr's marketing director, said: "We've now decided to relaunch Tizer using the original recipe he found, which interestingly then had a lot less added sugar and more fruit juice, which is what originally gave the drink its distinctive red colour. There is going to be a push on Tizer in 2007, which will be accompanied by major promotion and a new advertising campaign."

AG Barr's quirky advertising campaigns have been a factor in helping Irn-Bru hold is place as Scotland's top-selling soft drink.

Tizer, often advertised under the banner: It's a red thing', was originally launched by Fred and Tom Pickup, nephews to William Snodgrass Barr, the grandfather of the current chairman, in 1924 as Tizer, the Appetizer.