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A brief history of Tab, the iconic diet soda that’s headed to the graveyard
Fast Company ^ | 11/30/20 | Jeffrey Miller

Posted on 12/21/2022 2:58:11 PM PST by DallasBiff

From the beginning, Tab’s story has been one of perseverance. The brand survived initial low sales, the artificial sweetener scares of the 1960s and 1970s, lukewarm enthusiasm for the product at the corporate level and intermittent consumer availability to become—for a brief period—the most popular diet soda in America. Then, of course, Diet Coke came along.

While it never regained its lofty status as the top diet soda, loyal Tab fans kept the brand alive.

(Excerpt) Read more at fastcompany.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Food
KEYWORDS: cocacola; cocacolaklausschwab; coke; cola; itsover; soda; tab
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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.

1 posted on 12/21/2022 2:58:11 PM PST by DallasBiff
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To: DallasBiff

I didn’t realize it was still around.


2 posted on 12/21/2022 2:59:25 PM PST by kosciusko51
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To: DallasBiff

3 posted on 12/21/2022 3:00:13 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: DallasBiff

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


4 posted on 12/21/2022 3:01:11 PM PST by Lurkina.n.Learnin (The road to tyranny is paved with compliance )
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To: DallasBiff

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.


5 posted on 12/21/2022 3:03:15 PM PST by Mermaid Girl
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To: Lurkina.n.Learnin

Vile saccharine swill.


6 posted on 12/21/2022 3:03:22 PM PST by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: DallasBiff

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.


7 posted on 12/21/2022 3:04:28 PM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith…)
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To: DallasBiff

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”.


8 posted on 12/21/2022 3:04:33 PM PST by Dr. Sivana (But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth? (Luke 18:8))
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To: metmom

I used to drink Fresca back in the day.


9 posted on 12/21/2022 3:05:05 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: DallasBiff

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


10 posted on 12/21/2022 3:06:31 PM PST by Trump20162020
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To: DallasBiff

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


11 posted on 12/21/2022 3:07:19 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: DallasBiff

You think Tab is bad, you should try Moxie.


12 posted on 12/21/2022 3:07:51 PM PST by EvilCapitalist (81 million votes my ass.)
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To: DallasBiff

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


13 posted on 12/21/2022 3:08:45 PM PST by peggybac (My will is what I wanted. God's will is what I got.)
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To: metmom

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.)


14 posted on 12/21/2022 3:10:23 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: Trump20162020

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.


15 posted on 12/21/2022 3:11:35 PM PST by virgil (The evil that men do lives after them )
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To: metmom

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.


16 posted on 12/21/2022 3:13:39 PM PST by caww (O death, when you seized my Lord, you lost your grip on me......Augustine)
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To: DallasBiff
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.

17 posted on 12/21/2022 3:14:42 PM PST by Angelino97
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To: DallasBiff

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


18 posted on 12/21/2022 3:15:15 PM PST by Burma Jones
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To: virgil

A frozen margarita is an adult Slurpee.


19 posted on 12/21/2022 3:15:16 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: Angelino97
I remember the Tab glass....

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

20 posted on 12/21/2022 3:16:32 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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