Pantteri candies were first invented in 1965 as small, black salmiakki and liquorice gum drops in a typical cardboard candy box, with a picture of a panther on the box cover. A sugar coating was later added to the drops, slightly altering their taste.
The most famous form of Pantteri, however, is the larger, sugar coated disc-shaped candies sold in a plastic bag, also with a picture of a panther on it. At first only salmiakki Pantteri candies were available, but in the 1990s Fazer introduced a fruit-flavoured version of Pantteri, "Pantteri Mix" (containing red, yellow and green fruit candies and normal salmiakki candies).
In the 2000s, the Pantteri drops sold in boxes were reverted to the original 1965 version, without the sugar coating. The text on the box says "Original Pantteri drops from 1965".
Later additions include "Lumipantteri Mix" (Finnish for "snow panther") in summer 2006, "Pantteri Mix" candies with white coating, "Musta Pantteri" (Finnish for "black panther"), which has a slightly higher ammonium chloride content than the regular salmiakki Pantteri, and "Pantteri Black Shot", candies with a salty liquorice filling.
Discontinued variations include『Yöpantteri Mix』("night panther") featuring fruit and salmiakki candies, shaped like panthers, stars and moons and "Rock Pantteri Mix", containing many different salty liquorice and fruit candies.
Visible advertising campaigns are an important part of Pantteri's publicity image. They were awarded as best advertising campaign in Finland twice, in 1999 and 2000[citation needed]. One advertising campaign featured a fictionalLatino character called "El Pantero", sporting advertising slogansinmock Spanish such as "El Pantero baila" and "Baila y come". The current advertising campaign promotes "Panthóur", a humorous variation of the popular parkour sport.
