Tab (drink)

Tab (stylized as TaB) was a diet cola soft drink produced and distributed by the Coca-Cola Company. It was introduced in 1963 as the company's first diet drink,[1] and was produced until its discontinuation in 2020. Several variations were made, including a number of fruit-flavored, root beer, and ginger ale versions. Caffeine-free and clear variations were released in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and a Tab-branded energy drink was released in 2006, though it used a different formula from the standard cola.

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 The label requirement was later repealed when no plausibility was found for saccharin causing cancer in humans.[2]

Tab was popular among some people throughout the 1960s and 1970s as an alternative to Coca-Cola. It did not gain much attention in international markets, however.

History

Tab was created in 1963 by Coca-Cola after the successful sales and marketing of Diet Rite cola, owned by the Royal Crown Company.[5] 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.[6][7]

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.[8] Of 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.[9]

For a time in the 1970s, Coca-Cola introduced six variety flavors of Tab (all of which were also sugar-free): Root Beer, Lemon-Lime, Ginger Ale, Black Cherry, Strawberry, and Orange. A caffeine-free version of the original Tab flavor was introduced in 1983, alongside caffeine-free versions of Coca-Cola and Diet Coke.[10] Tab Clear, a caramel color-free version of Tab,[11] was released in the United States in 1992, and subsequently in the United Kingdom and Japan, in order to confuse consumers into thinking the new rival Crystal Pepsi was a diet cola and thereby limit its appeal.[12][13] Tab Clear was discontinued in 1994.[11]

In 2006, Coca-Cola introduced Tab Energy. Though it shares the Tab branding, its formula is entirely different from that of the standard cola: it is sweetened with sucralose and has a sour, tart flavor.

Saccharin safety debate

Tab was reformulated several times. It was initially sweetened with a mixture of cyclamate and saccharin.[14] After the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a ban on cyclamate in 1969, sodium saccharin was used as the beverage's primary sweetener.[14]

Studies on laboratory rats during the early 1970s linked high volumes of cyclamate and 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. Despite this, Tab remained commercially successful and was the best-selling diet soda in 1982. In May 1984, Coca-Cola introduced Nutrasweet into the Tab formula, which alienated a significant portion of its market, and resulted in numerous consumer complaints regarding a perceived change in flavor.[15]

In the absence of further evidence that saccharin caused cancer in humans, the substance was delisted in 2000 from the

type	Soft drink
manufacturer	The Coca-Cola Company
origin	United States
introduced	1963
discontinued	December 31, 2020
color	Caramel
flavor	Diet cola
variants	Tab Clear Tab X-Tra Tab Energy
related	Diet Coke Coca-Cola Zero Sugar
website	us.coca-cola.com/tab

History

Saccharin safety debate

Availability

Variants

External links

References