Tab (drink)
The Tab logo as of 2008[1]
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| Type | Soft drink |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | The Coca-Cola Company |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Introduced | 1963 |
| Flavor | Diet cola |
| Variants | Tab Clear, Tab X-Tra, Tab Energy |
| Related products | Diet Coke, Coke Zero |
Tab (stylized as TaB) is a diet cola soft drink produced by The Coca-Cola Company, introduced in 1963. The soda was popular throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and several variations were made, including Tab Clear as well as caffeine-free versions.
Following studies in the early 1970s that linked saccharin, Tab's main sweetener, with bladder cancer in rats, the United States Congress mandated warning labels on products containing the sweetener. The label requirement was later repealed when no evidence was found linking saccharin with cancer in humans.
After its introduction in 1982, Diet Coke quickly replaced Tab as the Coca-Cola Company's most popular diet cola, although Tab still retained a loyal following. Approximately 3 million cases were sold in the United States in 2008.
History[edit]
Tab was introduced as a diet drink in 1963.[2] Tab was created by Coca-Cola after the successful sales and marketing of Diet Rite cola, owned by The Royal Crown Company;[3] previously, Diet Rite had been the only sugarless soda on the market. Tab was marketed to consumers who wanted to "keep tabs" on their weight.[2][4]
Coca-Cola's marketing research department used its IBM 1401 computer to generate a list of over 185,000 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.[5][full citation needed] From a final list of about twenty names, "Tabb" was chosen, influenced by the possible play on words, and shortened to "Tab" during development. Packaging designer Robert Sidney Dickens gave the name the capitalization pattern ("TaB") used in the logo as well as creating a new bottle design for the soft drink.[6]
Tab 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, sodium saccharin was used. Studies in laboratory rats during the early 1970s linked saccharin with the development of bladder cancer. As a result, the United States Congress mandated that further studies of saccharin be performed and required that all food containing saccharin bear a label warning that the sweetener had been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. In the absence of further evidence that saccharin caused cancer in humans, the substance was delisted in 2000 from the U.S. National Toxicology Program’s Report on Carcinogens; this led to the repealing of the warning label requirements for products containing saccharin.[7] In December 2010, the United States Environmental Protection Agency removed saccharin from its list of hazardous substances.[8]
Tab's popularity began to decline in 1982 with the introduction of Diet Coke, although Tab retained something of a cult following in the United States, where customers purchased about 3 million cases in 2008.[4] The product is also available in the US Virgin Islands, the Southern African Customs Union, Norway (Under the name Tab X-Tra) and Spain. Tab was available in Australia in the 1960s. It was also sold in the United Kingdom in the late 70's.
Variants[edit]
| Name | Launched | Notes | Picture |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tab | 1963 | The original variety | |
| Tab Strawberry | 1970s | Strawberry flavored diet soda, was sold for a time in the 70s alongside other diet drinks using the Tab name. | |
| Tab Lemon-Lime | 1970s | Lemon-Lime flavored diet soda, was sold for a time in the 70s alongside other diet drinks using the Tab name. This is a predecessor to Sprite Zero, which it likely was replaced by. | |
| Tab Black Cherry | 1970s | Black-Cherry flavored diet soda, was sold for a time in the 70s alongside other diet drinks using the Tab name. | |
| Tab Root Beer | 1970s | Sugar Free root-beer, was sold for a time in the 70s alongside other diet drinks using the Tab name. | |
| Tab Ginger Ale | 1970s | Sugar free Ginger Ale, was sold for a time in the 70s alongside other diet drinks using the Tab name. | |
| Tab Orange | 1970s | Orange flavored diet soda, was sold for a time in the 70s alongside other diet drinks using the Tab name. This is a predecessor to Fanta Zero, which was launched in the Early 2000s. | |
| Caffeine Free Tab | 1980s | Tab without the caffeine; it was received with little fanfare and disappeared soon afterward. | |
| Tab Clear | 1992 | Clear diet cola. Was first sold in the U.S. and later to the UK and Japan, and was discontinued within a year. |  |
| Tab (Southern African Customs Union) | 1990s | In these countries, Tab uses a different recipe compared to Spain and the US, where it's a caffeine free drink, and uses less carbonation. The areas this can be found are Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland. | |
| Tab X-Tra | 1994 | A Norwegian version of Tab with a different name, made to compete with Pepsi Max in the country. It was also sold in Sweden and Finland, but the drink was discontinued in Sweden in 2007 and discontinued in Finland at an earlier date, and currently the drink is exclusively sold in Norway, where it originally launched. | |
| Tab Energy | 2006 | A Tab branded Energy Drink which uses a different recipe than the Cola does. It was also sold in Mexico, New Zealand and Spain, where is it called Tab Fabulous. |  |
Tab products[edit]
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Tab cola bottle
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Tab Energy
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Tab Clear
Other Tab products[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Capsule (Firm) (2008). Design Matters: Packaging 01: An Essential Primer for Today's Competitive Market. Beverly, Massachusetts: Rockport Publishers. p. 146. ISBN 1592533426. OCLC 191024079.
- ^ a b "Product Descriptions: Tab". The Coca-Cola Company. Archived from the original on 26 June 2012.
- ^ Siegel, Benjamin (June 2006). "Sweet Nothing—The Triumph of Diet Soda". American Heritage. Archived from the original on 21 June 2006.
- ^ a b "Cult sodas with a history: Tab". Fortune. October 2009.
- ^ Atlanta Magazine, May 1962.
- ^ "The TaB bottle". Beach Packaging Design. 29 November 2012.
- ^ "Artificial Sweeteners and Cancer". National Cancer Institute.
- ^ "Removal of Saccharin from the Lists of Hazardous Constituents and Hazardous Wastes under RCRA and from the List of Hazardous Substances under CERCLA". United States Environmental Protection Agency. Archived from the original on 29 October 2015.
External links[edit]
- Tab brand information on Coca-Cola website
- Ryan, Ted (7 February 2013). "A Sweet Celebration: TaB Commemorates Golden Anniversary on Valentines Day". Coca-ColaCompany.com. Archived from the original on 8 March 2013. Retrieved 2013-03-08.
- New Yorker article on high profile Tab fans
