How Tab Cola Fits into Today’s Low-Calorie Beverage Market

7 Surprising Facts About Tab Cola You Didn’t Know

1. Coca‑Cola’s first diet soda (1963). Tab — stylized “TaB” — launched in 1963 as Coca‑Cola’s original low‑calorie cola and predates Diet Coke by almost two decades.

2. Its name came from an IBM computer list. Coca‑Cola used an IBM mainframe to generate candidate names; “Tabb” (shortened to Tab) was chosen from that list and styled “TaB.”

3. Originally marketed to women. Early advertising explicitly targeted dieting women with taglines like “How can just one calorie taste so good?”

4. Sweetener controversies shaped its formula. Tab initially used cyclamate plus saccharin; after cyclamate was banned in 1969 it relied on saccharin, which later drew regulatory attention and warning‑label debates in the 1970s.

5. Multiple offshoots and experiments. Variants included Tab Clear (a color‑free version launched to blunt Crystal Pepsi), Tab X‑Tra, a caffeine‑free Tab, and a Tab Energy drink (2006) with a different formula.

6. Cult following despite declining sales. After Diet Coke’s 1982 debut, Tab’s market share shrank, but it retained a devoted fanbase and niche online markets long after mainstream distribution waned.

7. Discontinued in the U.S. at the end of 2020. Coca‑Cola retired Tab as part of a portfolio streamlining; the brand was kept alive elsewhere only sporadically, and fans launched petitions and “save Tab” campaigns after the announcement.

Sources: Coca‑Cola product histories, Wikipedia (Tab (drink)), contemporary news coverage (Oct–Nov 2020).