That reference is from Wikipedia but without a citation. It's as good as garbage.
But the main point here is that Diet Coke is not a "completely different drink" from Coke. You can go refer to your taste buds on that one. Especially since you seem to find Tab so wretched.
It's a cola, and its flavor overlaps heavily with Diet Coke; indeed, it was Diet Coke before Diet Coke. The flavor profile was tweaked around the saccharin sweetener they had to use when it was introduced.
The flavor difference is on par with the difference between Coke and Pepsi: real and detectable, but all pretty much the same if you're not paying attention. Especially since Tab no longer uses saccharin alone.
In terms of sweeteners which has the biggest effect on taste, Tab mainly used saccharin, while Diet Coke is mainly aspartame.
And then it's more accurate to reverse it and say Tab was a derivative of Coca-Cola. Tab was simply Coca-Cola's diet version back when they didn't want to "dilute" the trademark.
So no, Diet Coke isn't a "completely different drink". I mean, you can taste them side-by-side -- do you genuinely think there's some crazy different flavor profile in terms of the the citrus oils, cinnamon, and vanilla used?
"Though Diet Coke all but eclipsed Tab, the beverage company kept the throwback brand alive. The reason was customer relations. Tab fans were relentless, calling Coca-Cola headquarters and signing petitions if they couldn’t find their soda.
'We want to make sure those who want Tab get Tab,' Douglas Daft, Coca-Cola’s then-chairman and chief executive said in 2001, when Tab’s market share had fallen below 1%. 'It shows you care.' "
Sweetened with saccharine, described as having a metallic aftertaste.
I have had it but it's been awhile and I don't recall it well. My sense of the fan base is similar to what is mentioned in the article, that it had sort of a cult following. I'm surprised the company stuck with it so long. It makes me wonder if there's some genetic studies of taste preference it might have inspired.
I don't know how much of Crystal Pepsi's failure is attributable to Tab Clear, but as someone who's tasted Crystal Pepsi I have a hard time imagining it otherwise surviving.
In the end, I should tell that to teenage-me, who was confounded as to why Diet Coke (and Diet Pepsi for that matter) would use the same name when they were actually different. Tab was truly nasty too :)
Another related urban legend in the marketing world, the flip side of this anecdote: A low-calorie, healthy soda called "Tab", sold in the USA in the 70s, once sold a version that actually tasted good (Tab Orange). Sales stalled. It turned out that the people who wanted to drink Tab didn't want it to taste good. They wanted to feel healthy and virtuous. If it tasted good, they would not feel like they were sacrificing for health. They later repackaged Tab Orange as Fanta Zero, and it did well.
It didn't actually taste quite the same as normal Pepsi though, right? The desire to make it transparent necessitated removing the caramel colour, which also affected flavour. It also lacked caffeine, which is a pretty noticeable flavouring too.
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