What Tab scare?

Had a flashback after reading this in The New Yorker. It seems that Tab, a now-obscure Coca-Cola product is a cult favorite among journalists.

Who knew?

The cat’s outta the bag now that Coke, in its infinite corporate wisdom, has decided to launch a new drink called Tab Energy. Puh-leeze. Can’t monkey with a good thing and Coca-Cola of all should know this.

Apparently this new beverage is supposed to play into the whole Red Bull craze “while trading on the retro cachet of Tab, with those iconic pink cans,” according to The New Yorker.

My own Tab fixation reached its zenith in college. I was working as a bartender my junior and senior year at The Crystal Casino in posh Uptown Athens, Ohio. A typical evening shift began at 7 and went until 3 a.m. when we had sufficiently wiped and mopped the stickiness and stray popcorn from all surfaces. (Eeewww!)

That’s a long time to be on your feet racing back and forth on the rubber mats, feeding the unending alcoholic appetite of co-eds. To get through a shift I’d bring along a six-pack of Tab. Once my fellow co-workers and I tipped our shot of Jagermeister to get the shift started, it was Tab for the rest of the night.

Oh I flirted a bit with Diet Dr. Pepper, but the flinty, metallic, saccharine taste of Tab was my favorite. Besides none of the guys I worked with would dare touch my pink soda cans.