Coca-Cola's classic one-calorie drink is still a favorite for some, and they're mounting pressure against the Atlanta-based company in hopes of seeing it return to store shelves soon.
Tab, which was discontinued three years ago after an over half-century run, received support from over 6,500 petitioners whose names – along with some handwritten pleas – made their way to a Coke executive who met a group of them at the World of Coca-Cola Museum in Atlanta last month.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, visitors came from all around the U.S. to express their hope that the drink will return to retail shelves – and to get a taste of the diet soda now only available at the museum, at a Coca-Cola store in Las Vegas and at Disneyland in California.
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"Our tour guide guaranteed us there was Tab, and we were like, ‘Woohoo!’," Jenny Boyter, a Georgia resident who dressed in a Tab can outfit and handed out Tab-themed fans, said according to the AJC.
The soft drink was a hit upon its release in 1963 and became commonly associated with its pink-hued can with white lettering in the decades that followed. As the AJC's report noted, the beverage took a hit decades later in 1982 when Diet Coke took center stage.
Sixty years after Tab's debut, retail shelves are littered with a selection of drinks sweetened with a number of sugar alternatives, including multiple from Coke. Still, there's no Tab, but the Save Tab Committee, headed by Nebraska resident Adam Burbach, is determined to see it return.
His love for the diet soda also led him to purchase the savetabsoda.com domain as he searched for ways to rally others who want to see its return, and the visit to Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta was just another way of showing support.
Others have lamented that their stash of Tab will soon be gone unless Coca-Cola decides to bring it back to store shelves soon.
Now, Coca-Cola's two primary diet beverages include Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Zero, both sweetened with aspartame, but the Zero Sugar choice is also sweetened with acesulfame potassium (Ace-K), according to Healthline.
Both drinks steered away from saccharin, which was used to sweeten Tab.
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The Coca-Cola Company has had its share of walking back decisions, perhaps most famously when it resurrected its classic Coke formula after causing an uproar with the release of New Coke in 1985.
In 2014, the company also resurrected its popular citrus-flavored Surge soda that was previously available from 1997 to 2003 and became a staple among '90s kids.
