“Dear Grocer: Stock TaB”…

The blog Musings of a Dilattante recently linked to ILoveTaB.com in a post titled Dear grocer: Stock TaB

Even though they call us stalkers here at ILoveTaB, we have to agree – Stock TaB!

As I prepare to crack open the last soda I brought back from Nevada this summer, I have to ask: Why is TaB so hard to find?

I still remember when TaB was hugely popular, you could even get it in 2-liter bottles and find it in Coke machines.

However, I guess when diet Coke really took a hold in the late eighties, people preferred it. I don’t know if people liked the way it tasted better, if they followed the brand they could trust, or if it had anything to do with the infamous saccharin studies.

In case you are unaware, those studies charged that saccharin caused cancer in laboratory animals. What they didn’t tell you was that the dose of saccharin they were administering to those rats would have killed anything. Kind of follows that old adage that too much of anything is bad.

I also seem to remember that when Nutra-Sweet burst onto the scene as a replacement for that evil saccharin, all the sodas jumped right away… with the exceptions of TaB and the diet Shasta sodas. I think the grocery/generic brands also took their time making the switch.

Looking at the side of the TaB can on my desk, they did eventually change their formula at some point, for it now has a mix of saccharin and aspartame.

All I know is it’s tasty. And, once that last can is gone, I won’t be getting any for a while.

So, does TaB have a fan following? Is it enough to get a midwest bottler to start distributing it again? Do former fans of TaB even remember it?

Clearly, TaB does have a following… because a few fans have a long standing website at iLoveTaB.com, which is your basic stalker site… only their stalking appearances of a canned beverage insted of some celebutante.

All I know is I’d love to find some regular supply of TaB. Perhaps I should ask my baby sister in Portland to bring me a six-pack next time she travels this way. She’ll probably think I’m crazy, but you never know ’til you ask!

TaB-less areas in the US

  • All of Northern California (from Oregon border to around Santa Barbara), covered by the Oakland bottler and Sacramento bottlers.
  • Most of Kansas, parts of Missouri (covered by the Kansas City Bottler) Added June 2007
  • Central California (Fresno, Bakersfield, Visalia, etc)
  • Oklahoma
  • Hawaii (also covered by the Oakland bottler)
  • Buffalo, NY
  • Cleveland, OH (but other counties and areas of Ohio do sell TaB).
  • The areas covered by Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated (see map here, it is the pinkish gray area: CCBCC coverage map
  • Philadelphia area, parts of New Jersey, and parts of Delaware (covered by The Philadephia Bottling Company) Great job TaB addicts — your complaints and feedback worked and you saved TaB!
  • Alaska

    Has your bottler stopped making TaB? Let us know!