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, 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 The label requirement was later repealed when no plausibility was found for saccharin causing cancer in humans. 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. Tab's popularity declined after the Coca-Cola company's launch of Diet Coke in 1982. Coca-Cola continued to produce Tab in the United States, though in considerably smaller quantities than its more popular mainstay beverages, such as Coca-Cola and Diet Coke. According to the company, three million cases of Tab were made in 2011, and the beverage retained a cult following. Coca-Cola discontinued Tab at the end of 2020.