Tab (drink)

TaB

The Tab family
Type	Diet Cola
Manufacturer	Coca-Cola Company
Country of origin	United States
Introduced	1963
Variants	Tab Clear, Tab X-Tra, Tab Energy
Related products	Diet Coke
Website	www.virtualvender.coca-cola.com

Tab, (also spelled TaB), is a diet cola. It was the first diet soft drink brand produced by the Coca-Cola Company. It was introduced in 1963 and has been reformulated several times. It was initially sweetened with cyclamate. After the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a ban on cyclamate in 1969, saccharin was used. In 1977, the FDA moved to ban saccharin. The ban proposal was rejected by the U.S. Congress, but it did require that all products containing saccharin carry a warning label that saccharin may cause cancer. A formula revision in 1984 blended saccharin with a small amount of aspartame; this is the formula that is currently marketed in North America. Tab sales have been dwarfed by those of Diet Coke, though enough people still prefer Tab to keep it in production.

History

Tab was the second diet soft drink, after Diet-Rite Cola, though the latter was initially sold as a diet aid, not as a mass-market product [1]; its popularity with the general public surprising its maker, Royal Crown Cola. Sensing a market niche, The Coca-Cola Company decided to develop its own diet cola. However, as the company had a long-standing policy of using the Coca-Cola name only on its flagship product, it developed the Tab brand instead. Tab was produced by Coca-Cola's Fanta division, headed by Fred Dickson.

The urban legend that Tab stands for Totally Artificial Beverage is unfounded (and inaccurate - "natural flavors" are listed in the ingredients roster on each case, can and bottle). According to the Coca-Cola Web page, the beverage is called Tab because it helps people who keep tabs on what they consume. According to an Atlanta Magazine article published in May 1963, Coca-Cola's marketing research department used its IBM 1401 computer to generate a list of over 250,000 four-letter words with one vowel, adding names suggested by the company's own staff. The list was stripped of any words deemed unpronounceable or too similar to existing trademarks. From a final list of about twenty names, "TABB" was chosen, influenced by the possible play on words, and shortened to "TAB" during development, and designer Sid Dickens gave the name its familiar capitalization pattern ("TaB") in the logo he designed.

File:Tabcans.JPG

Two cans of TaB.

At the height of its popularity, the Tab name was briefly extended to other diet soft drinks, including Tab Lemon-Lime and Tab Orange[2]. In 1993, Coca-Cola released Tab Clear in the US and UK, a curious move in the case of the latter as the original Tab was sold in the UK in the 1970s but was not a success. It was a clear cola that didn't taste very much like cola. It was withdrawn after less than a year, despite acquiring a number of devotees. Tab has of late become something of a cult beverage, with heavily dedicated drinkers. This is one of the few reasons Tab is still produced; its share of the national soft drink market is minuscule. Typically, Tab is now only found in supermarkets and convenience stores in 12-ounce cans, by 12-pack or 6-pack. It is also available in some places in two-liter bottles.

Tab Energy is an energy drink released in early 2006. Though sharing the brand name, Tab Energy does not taste like Tab. The drink is currently being marketed towards women.

Availability

File:Tab2liter.jpg

Tab in 2-liter bottles

Tab is still made in the United States, although availability is irregular [3]. It is available in 12-ounce cans, which can be found mostly in the East, and "2-Liter bottles of Tab have been reported in Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut." It tastes like Coca-Cola, but with the distinctive sweetness of saccharin rather than sugar.

It still has limited popularity in the UK, Ireland and South Africa.

TaB Energy is widely available in the US.

Tab in popular culture

• Tab was the subject of a joke in the 1985 film Back to the Future. Upon entering the cafe in 1955, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) asks for a Tab and is told that he cannot have a tab unless he orders something. He then asks for a Pepsi Free and is told, "If you want a Pepsi, pal, you're gonna pay for it!" (Pepsi had paid a promotional fee and pressured the producers to drop the reference to Tab. They refused because they saw the joke as too good to abandon.)
• Conversely, in one episode of Frasier referencing Frasier Crane's earlier days on Cheers, Frasier says that he even had a tab at the bar, referring to an account. Roz then jokes, "Maybe when you go back there, you can actually sit down and have a beer.".
• Tab TV commercials were usually seen as comic relief during the late 1970s and early 1980s—one commercial which aired in the early 1980s had a young Elle MacPherson walking up the beach, only for the recipient in the commercial to end up doused with an ice bucket by his on-screen girlfriend for ogling Elle.
• In the Steve Martin comedy The Jerk his character's favorite beverage is Tab.
• In an episode of "The Nanny", Fran is offered some expensive wine and she says her family is "very big on vintage beverages. In our garage, we still have a box of TaB from the Bay of Pigs".
• In the Futurama episode Amazon Women in the Mood, Bender and Fry find a giant Tab can on Planet Amazonia.
• In one episode of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, a live-action dream sequence shows Harvey strolling the beach with a human-sized, ambulatory can of Tab.
• On an episode of The Simpsons, King Size Homer, Homer confuses the tab key on a computer keyboard with the soft drink, and expected the computer to dispense the drink when he pressed the key.
• Bill Pullman's character in the film Zero Effect consumes nothing but tuna fish straight from the can and Tab.
• According to America (The Book), "the last remaining Tab machine in the Western Hemisphere" is located in the White House's Cabinet room, directly behind the Secretary of Agriculture.
• In Code Monkey by Jonathan Coulton, a line in the chorus goes: "Code Monkey likes Tab and Mountain Dew"
• In the book "The Informers", by Bret Easton Ellis, several characters either drink Tab or talk about it.
• In the Simpsons episode Homer vs. Patty and Selma, Bart finishes a ballet lesson and drinks a Tab.
• In the movie Starsky and Hutch, Hutch's hangover cure includes "a little flat TaB".

Tab brands

• Tab
  • Cola flavored; also came in Rootbeer, Orange, Ginger Ale, Strawberry, Lemon-Lime and Black Cherry
• Tab Clear
• Tab X-Tra
• Tab Energy

External links and references

• ILoveTaB.com - the most comprehensive fan site and community
• Tab brand information on Coca-Cola website
• The World of TaB Soda
• Tab Soda Web
  • Coca-Cola's Project Alpha article from Atlanta Magazine
• snopes.com:Origins of Tab
• 1960s Tab commercial "Be a Mindsticker"