A brief history of Tab, the iconic diet soda that’s headed to the graveyard

Fast Company ^ | 11/30/20 | Jeffrey Miller

[DallasBiff]

My experience with TAB. My mother bought it almost religiously, and I as a pre-teen kid and it tasted horrible, and then I said to her, "Why can't you buy regular Coaa-Cola"

Then in a modern Klaus Schwabian way, she stated, "You will drink TAB and like it, case closed."

God bless my passed Mother, but I will never understand her obsession with TAB in the 70's.

Mods pull if you wish.

[kosciusko51]

I didn’t realize it was still around.

[dfwgator]

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

My grandmother was the same. I used to drink it with her but I didn’t really like it.

[Mermaid Girl]

Oh man, memories of the 70s are just swarming in. Nothing as vom-inducing in me as that acrid taste of whatever it was that was “Just one calorie” and a warm tuna salad sandwich pulled from the depths of my Scooby Doo lunch box. Sometimes paired with a small pack of Fritos, or Chee-Tohs.

I was never a big soda drinker because of it. But then diet Coke came along and I was hooked, not sure why. It tasted better than Tab, that was for dang sure.

[billorites]

Vile saccharine swill.

[metmom]

I tried it and didn’t care for it in the least.

I never knew what people saw in it.

Same for Mountain Dew. Nasty taste.

[Dr. Sivana]

My dad drank the saccharin-based Diet Rite. It tasted just as nasty. I actually drank Tab a bit in the ‘80s, when I could get it in those great leaded glass heavy refillable bottles in Chicago. I liked the Tab commercial with Willie Mays. “Tab, for beautiful people”.

[dfwgator]

I used to drink Fresca back in the day.

[Trump20162020]

I saw Diet Rite at the grocery store yesterday, I was surprised they still make/sell it.

[Secret Agent Man]

Tab was the perfect creation to get people with working tastebuds to stop drinking soda.

[EvilCapitalist]

You think Tab is bad, you should try Moxie.

[peggybac]

That stuff was nasty. Even mixing it with rum didn’t take the horrible taste away.

[Jamestown1630]

People who were watching their weight drank it. I don’t think we had Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi yet.

Once i discovered Diet Pepsi, I couldn’t drink ‘real’ Pepsi anymore. Too sweet.

(Regular Pepsi is still good for ice cream floats, though.)

[virgil]

I always thought ow Diet Rite as diet RC. We drank RC because it was cheaper than Coke and Bubble-up because it was cheaper than 7-Up.

[caww]

I stick to the standard Coke - all the others are imitations IMO. BTW went grocery shopping and the difference in cold when I went in and came out was apparent because of the wind picking up. Just a taste of what’s coming.

[Angelino97]

In the 1980s I had a media job in a Manhattan skyscraper. Most of the women office workers drank TAB.

I only drank Diet Coke because TAB, with its pink can and popularity with women, seemed effeminate.

[Burma Jones]

My SIL still drinks it to this day. I thought she was the only one left.

[central_va]

A frozen margarita is an adult Slurpee.

[dfwgator]

I remember the Tab glass....

That should have been the first clue it was marketed for women.