Tab

Nobody believes me, but I love Tab pop.  I’ve always loved it since I was a kid.  I remember drinking it  and it being my favorite pop prior to the sad day in 1983 when the announcement came about this new replacement – Diet Coke.  I’ve never liked Diet Coke, and not just because it bumped my favorite pop out of the mainstream.

 

I went through a period in my developing years where I didn’t drink much Tab.  I believe my renewed interest came in college.  I had a joint checking account with my roommates my Junior year for the purposes of buying food.  I was rooming with 3 other guys all from rich backgrounds who were penny pinchers.  The shared checkbook was an absolute disaster as it made each of us eat like gluttons to make sure another person wasn’t getting more for their 1/4 share of the money.  It also caused us all to gravitate to a pop that no one else would drink.  I saw more Cherry 7Up drunk in that year than I have the rest of my life combined.  That’s when I turned away from the common pops to Tab.  No one else dared to drink it.

 

Ever since then it’s been a staple in my diet.  There have been days, weeks and months I’ve gone without, but I usually go back to what works.  I usually have between 2 and 4 cans per day and I prefer it to any other pop by far.  I’ve tried Tab Clear (not bad), Tab Xtra (in Sweden & Denmark – basically Diet Coke) and even Tab Energy (just about made me throw up).  None of those brands have really seemed to catch on (Tab Energy is still available but I give it about a year before it disappears – I’m keeping a can in case it becomes valuable someday).

 

When I started managing a new team at work several years back I thought it would be an interesting icebreaker to have everyone to do a three-way taste test.  Each person got a glass of Coke, Pepsi and Tab and had to guess which was which.  All but one person said "I can’t tell which is Pepsi or Coke, but I’m sure that’s Tab."  They weren’t big fans.

 

Here are the Frequently Asked Questions I receive about my passion for Tab:

 

Q: Do they still make Tab?

A: Yes, it’s made by Coke and it actually changed its can design last year for the first time since 1993, so someone must be paying a little attention to it.

 

Q: Where do you find Tab?

A: It’s getting increasingly hard to find.  I used to be able to get it at my local grocery store, then at Target, but those wells have dried up.  I  have to go to a large grocery store or Wal-Mart to find it now.

 

Q: What does it taste like?

A: It doesn’t really compare to any other pop in my opinion.   The closest match would be Diet Coke with Lemon although that isn’t all that close.

 

Q: Does it cause cancer?

A: Tab used to include saccharin which causes cancer in laboratory rats.  I’m not sure when, but Tab replaced the original saccharin with a calcium saccharin that apparently doesn’t.  All I know for sure is I’m still alive.

 

Q: Does anyone else drink it?

A: I know a couple other Tab-o-philes and a few of my friends will drink it when they come to my house.

 

Q: Why are you such a big dork (submitted by my wife)?

A: We don’t have time for this answer in this blog entry.