Coca-Cola to discontinue Tab

[thspfc]

My brother used to drink Tab.

Now that Diet Coke and Coke Zero have killed Tab, how long until one of those kills the other? I prefer Diet Coke, but have developed a taste for Coke Zero on occasion.

And will Fresca suffer the same fate as Tab, now that I'm seeing more Diet Sprite availability?

It appears these are the top selling sodas:

Coke
Pepsi
Diet Coke
Mountain Dew

Using a report for 2018, Diet Coke sales were up 4.6% since 2010; Coke Zero went up 10%. Both seem to be doing well for Coca-Cola.

I learned that Coca-Cola created Coke Zero to appeal to men because men think for some reason that Diet is a female drink.

[dlsterner]

In my case, I have begun to prefer Coke Zero over Diet Coke, simply because to me it tastes more like the Original Coke (I was a heavy Coke drinker both before and after the "New Coke" fiasco in the 1980's).  Diet Coke has a bit of a "funny" taste to me which I attribute to the artificial sweetener.

Although lately I have discovered a brand called "Zevia".  Their cola tastes enough like Coke Zero to keep me happy, and I appreciate that Zevia is sweetened with plant-based Stevia rather than a not-so-natural sweetener.  Note that their cola also has no artificial coloring, so it is clear rather than brownish in color.  I have never seen in in restaurants, but many grocery stores carry it.

Of course I would rather drink a sugared Coke, but I need to keep my blood sugar and my A1C down.

[jp the roadgeek]

Don't know if Coke has killed Diet Ginger Lime.  I haven't seen it anywhere since COVID hit.  Only see regular and caffeine free Diet Coke in cans and bottles. 

[on_wisconsin]

My brother used to drink Tab.

Now that Diet Coke and Coke Zero have killed Tab, how long until one of those kills the other? I prefer Diet Coke, but have developed a taste for Coke Zero on occasion.

And will Fresca suffer the same fate as Tab, now that I'm seeing more Diet Sprite availability?

It appears these are the top selling sodas:

Coke
Pepsi
Diet Coke
Mountain Dew

Using a report for 2018, Diet Coke sales were up 4.6% since 2010; Coke Zero went up 10%. Both seem to be doing well for Coca-Cola.

I learned that Coca-Cola created Coke Zero to appeal to men because men think for some reason that Diet is a female drink.

Thought it had more to do with "Diet" sodas being meant to imitate the flavor of sugar sweetened pop, while the "Zeros" are aimed more at the generations that grew up on HFCS sweetened versions. Hence the surge in sales and varieties of the latter in recent years as millennials are hitting there 30's etc.

[US 89]

I did not realize they still made Tab.

[spooky]

Don't know if Coke has killed Diet Ginger Lime.  I haven't seen it anywhere since COVID hit.  Only see regular and caffeine free Diet Coke in cans and bottles. 

Could just be less available stock. Here in New England there have definitely been supply chain issues during the pandemic. There is a lot less variety on the shelves. When Coke products are on sale I will typically pick up a 12 pack of Fresca and Sprite Zero - both are scarce lately at the grocery stores and at Target.

[1995hoo]

My brother used to drink Tab.

Now that Diet Coke and Coke Zero have killed Tab, how long until one of those kills the other? I prefer Diet Coke, but have developed a taste for Coke Zero on occasion.

And will Fresca suffer the same fate as Tab, now that I'm seeing more Diet Sprite availability?

It appears these are the top selling sodas:

Coke
Pepsi
Diet Coke
Mountain Dew

Using a report for 2018, Diet Coke sales were up 4.6% since 2010; Coke Zero went up 10%. Both seem to be doing well for Coca-Cola.

I learned that Coca-Cola created Coke Zero to appeal to men because men think for some reason that Diet is a female drink.

Thought it had more to do with "Diet" sodas being meant to imitate the flavor of sugar sweetened pop ....

The boldfaced words caused me to picture diet soda flavored to taste like these.

[jeffandnicole]

Don't know if Coke has killed Diet Ginger Lime.  I haven't seen it anywhere since COVID hit.  Only see regular and caffeine free Diet Coke in cans and bottles. 

Could just be less available stock. Here in New England there have definitely been supply chain issues during the pandemic. There is a lot less variety on the shelves. When Coke products are on sale I will typically pick up a 12 pack of Fresca and Sprite Zero - both are scarce lately at the grocery stores and at Target.

There had been an aluminum supply issue this summer, which cut back on supplies for cans of all canned beverages. For sodas, they concentrated on their core products, so lesser selling items may have suspended production for a while.

[ET21]

I never really tried Tab, always heard about it but never went out of the way to grab a small pack to try it

[NJRoadfan]

Tab was always available at the local supermarket as the local bottler clearly sells it across the NYC metro area. I have never had it though. Regarding the other lo-cal options in Coca-Cola's lineup, here is the difference

Diet Coke: This is its own formulation and uses aspartame as a sweetner. More bitter than Coca-Cola Classic and was the basis for the "new Coke" in 1985, which was briefly sold as "Coke II"

Coca-Cola Zero: Based on the Coca-Cola Classic recipe and attempts to faithfully replicate its taste. Uses
Acesulfame Potassium and aspartame as a sweetner.

Over on the Pepsi side, you have a split as well, although not as big a difference. Pepsi "Zero Sugar" is the old "Pepsi Max", which has more caffeine and added ginseng and is sweetened with Acesulfame Potassium and aspartame. Both add some bitterness to the taste (noticing a trend here?). They also had their now discontinued "Pepsi One" (one calorie per can, sweetened with Acesulfame Potassium and aspartame).

I strongly suspect the appeal of bitterness is to attract coffee drinkers. Pepsi has been trying for years with test market products like Pepsi AM (high caffeine variant of Pepsi) and Pepsi Kona (literally decaf coffee and regular Pepsi mixed in one).

[SP Cook]

Exactly correct. 

"Diet Coke" is not a diet version of Coke.  It is diet New Coke.  If anybody is not old enough to remember New Coke, it is Diet Coke with regular sugar.  I find it repugnant, as I did New Coke itself.   Coca-Cola Zero Sugar is an attempt to replicate Coca-Cola with, umm, zero sugar.  It is delightful.

TAB was, likewise, just an attempt to replicate Coke without sugar.  Problem was the artificial sweeteners of the day gave it a "metallic" aftertaste.   It was kept in production because a number of people who grew up on the product actually liked the aftertaste.

[kphoger]

I strongly suspect the appeal of bitterness is to attract coffee drinkers. Pepsi has been trying for years with test market products like Pepsi AM (high caffeine variant of Pepsi) and Pepsi Kona (literally decaf coffee and regular Pepsi mixed in one).

All artificial sweeteners I've used have a bitter taste/aftertaste to them.  I don't think it's something that's done on purpose, but rather an unavoidable consequence of using artificial sweeteners.

For this reason, some of them go well with coffee, because coffee is already a bitter drink and can cover up or complement the bitterness of the artificial sweetener being used.

[Dirt Roads]

"Diet Coke" is not a diet version of Coke.  It is diet New Coke.  If anybody is not old enough to remember New Coke, it is Diet Coke with regular sugar.  I find it repugnant, as I did New Coke itself.   Coca-Cola Zero Sugar is an attempt to replicate Coca-Cola with, umm, zero sugar.  It is delightful.

Egad! New Coke.  But I recall that New Coke was an attempt to both change from sugar to corn syrup, and also reformulate the flavor.  There were two thoughts about the flavor:  (a) the flavor needed to change to counteract the flavor of corn syrup; and/or (b) the flavor was being modified to attract Pepsi drinkers.  So the dirty little trick was that when Coke fans demanded the original Coke, the flavor was again reformulated to simulate the old flavor but the corn syrup was retained.  Up until this time, West Virginia was the only state where RC (Royal Crown Cola) was consistently the most popular.  (By this time, I was already hooked on Diet Coke and RC100.  I recall buying a can of New Coke just to see what all the fuss was about).

[jeffandnicole]

Personally, of the entire Coke Line, if it ain't jist thr good old basic Coke I ain't drinking it.

However, with the cheaper Fanta brand: I did find though that the Fanta Berry is great when mixed with a berry flavored vodka! 

[formulanone]

TAB was, likewise, just an attempt to replicate Coke without sugar.  Problem was the artificial sweeteners of the day gave it a "metallic" aftertaste.   It was kept in production because a number of people who grew up on the product actually liked the aftertaste.

I recall some 1970s/early-1980s diet sodas also had awful aftertastes (if not a terrible initial taste), so it wasn't just TaB that suffered. I grew up in a household that only had diet sodas and so I've never enjoyed any of them.

I feel that Diet 7up might be the only one where the "diet" flavoring is almost indistinguishable, sort of like comparing Coke Zero to Classic Coca-Cola. 

[briantroutman]

As has been alluded to in a few posts, whether or not Tab has been available in your area depends on whether the local Coca-Cola bottler still produced it.

The "I didn't know they still made Tab"  observation is a little misguided since the "they"  tends to imply that the Coca-Cola Company is more monolithic than it actually is. In reality, the Coca-Cola Company owns the intellectual property and formulates and creates the concentrated syrups that are used to make its products, and a network of different bottling companies and distributors manufacture and package the finished products and put them on store shelves.

I don't recall ever encountering Tab in my childhood in the late "˜80s and early "˜90s. The joke in Back to the Future went over my head. My first exposure was as a marketing student at Penn State; one class went through a lengthy unit on the launch of Diet Coke. When diet soda first appeared around 1960 (RC's Diet Rite was the pioneer), Coca-Cola executives took notice and felt pressured to respond. Yet the Coca-Cola brand was thought to be too valuable–you might even say too sacred–to adorn anything that wasn't "the real thing" . So, company marketers had a computer spit out a mass volume of nonsense four letter combinations that could be pronounced as words, and one that caught their eye was TABB, which they ultimately shortened to Tab.

Since my marketing professor said it was still in limited production, I decided to track town a Tab and try it. Eventually, I found a 12-can fridge pack (the only way I've ever seen it for sale, by the way) in a grocery store beside other Coke products. I took one sip and thought it was the worst cola I had ever tasted–but I choked down the rest of the can so as not to waste it. The other 11 cans sat around for some time, and I finally decided to have another. Not as bad, I thought. Sometime later, I had another. Pretty good! And from then on, Tab become my go-to soda, although if I didn't drink soda very often.

I could get Tab in parts of suburban Philadelphia during my years at West Chester University, but when I moved to San Francisco, I couldn't find it at all. (Apparently the Bay Area bottler didn't make it.) But I could find it at grocery stores in Los Angeles and Reno and would take back a few cases when I made a trip.

But in the past few years, I've all but ceased drinking soda altogether, and I think I bought my last case of Tab a year or two ago. I guess I have to take some small share of the blame for its disappearance.

[Buck87]

Tab?  I can't give you a tab unless you order something!

and if you want a Pepsi you'll have to pay for it

[Rothman]

No Coke, Pepsi.

[LM117]

I've never seen or heard of Tab until this announcement. I asked my parents about it and they thought it had been discontinued many years ago.

[hbelkins]

I remember New Coke. And then I remember Coke Classic being brought back because everyone hated New Coke. I also remember the infamous Coke-Pepsi challenge about the time that New Coke came out. Is New Coke still available? I still see Coke labeled as Coke Classic.

I actually prefer Diet Coke because I'm not a fan of the sweetness of non-diet soft drinks. I like carbonated drinks over non-carbonated ones. I'll take a pop over water, milk, or tea any day of the week. So I like diet drinks to avoid the empty sugar (and now carbs) of regular pop. Although, as I've noted, I'm developing a taste for Coke Sugar Free.

Smuggling Diet Mountain Dew? I'm surprised it isn't widely available nationwide. I have been known to smuggle Ale 8 before, though. And I have a cousin in Michigan (captain of the Badger, which may be of interest to roadgeeks) who will occasionally bring Diet Vernors in the big bottles to me.

[Scott5114]

Is it really "smuggling" if it's legal to possess in all of the jurisdictions you're taking it through? If I bring a gallon of Braum's milk to Kansas City, it's still just milk...

[catch22]

I also confess to transporting cases of Diet Mountain Dew from the Save-a-Lot on Industrial Blvd (MD-51) in Cumberland, Maryland all across the country.  For a number of years, it was the only place that I ever found any.  It was probably illegal to transport so much, but I wasn't about to give any away.  (I did offer to a few friends who politely turned up their noses at diet sodas).

I did a similar thing back in the day.  Diet Mountain Dew was available in Ohio, but not in Michigan for some reason.  So, whenever I was visiting friends in the Toledo area, I'd get a case or three to take home to SE Michigan.

[Takumi]

Is New Coke still available? I still see Coke labeled as Coke Classic.

It was briefly available in the 90s under the name Coke II, and as a promotion for Stranger Things (set in the 1980s) last year.

[ErmineNotyours]

The panic/pandemic has caused a serious shortage of both bottles and cans.  My local places, both grocery and individual retail, can only get the basic flavors now.  KO is using the time to cull out lots of small brands. 

This contradicts the "jello theory" in marketing.  95% of jello sales are of its core 8 flavors, yet it makes upwards of 50.  Why?  Because knowing each store only has so much space for gelatin, the more of it taken up by jello eliminates lesser brands.

In the past month, companies have dropped diet Dr. Pepper Cream Soda and Coke Zero Cherry Vanilla.  I thought it was just because those were summer promotional flavors, and sales go down in colder months anyway.

The last time I saw a Tab-branded drink was as a skinny can energy drink.

[US71]

In the past month, companies have dropped diet Dr. Pepper Cream Soda and Coke Zero Cherry Vanilla.  I thought it was just because those were summer promotional flavors, and sales go down in colder months anyway.

The last time I saw a Tab-branded drink was as a skinny can energy drink.

I think some of the shortages are Covid-related, but Tab is going the way of the Dodo.
I still have my glasses, though