Little Baierman's family never took a vacation without Mommy B packing a brand new glass jar of Tang. Vacations had a budget so my parental units chose to save on breakfast by serving us Tang to drink (hotel sink water + tang + ice = Awesome!) and those little snack boxes of Kellogg's cereal with milk to eat.
All this brings back fond memories, sugar flashbacks and surprisingly no stories of bright orange Fruit Loop throw up.
Tang came out in 1959, and was an instant hit once the world new the astronauts drank it. "NASA's drink" worked like gangbusters when space flight was cool and people thought chemically-powdered juice was better for you than fresh squeezed. I guess things haven't changed that much, except real fruit is more expensive than powered crap.
A lot has changed with Tang since NASA started crashing more than flying.
For starters it's now owned by Kraft Foods. In 1987 Kraft replaced Tang with a "new" tang which was as successful as New Coke. In the 90's they tried to sell it with a chimpanzee. Then last year they tried something even newer, Fruitrition! It's fruit + nutrition get it? Marketing assholes.
Today's Tang advertises "1/2 the Sugar of 100% juice." But that's about as exciting as what your stool looks like after drinking 20 ounces of this orange goo.
In short since I was ten, artificial sweetener has replaced sugar, lots of new flavors were introduced and Tang has somehow pushed on. Probably because yesterdays kids are today's parents.
You'd think by now they'd have tried to resurrect this breakfast staple but there's no dedicated website, no tangkicksbutt.com, no co-brand effort with Poland Springs, or even some reckless attempt to get attention ala Cheetos. I hope there's a heavier Tang presence where you live. If so, let me know. I actually like the stuff.
Which is why since college I've proposed marketing Tang to replace Milk. Tang with cereal is awesome. I personally recommend pouring Tang over Fruity Pebbles. It's delicious, unbelievably sweet, loaded with Vitamin C, saves you money (waters cheaper than milk) and is guaranteed to give your dentist lots to work with. Think about it...but not while you're eating.
Retrospective Tang...I did find this spot starring Bugs and Daffy.
1967 Tang Commercial.
Tang Jingle.
Catch up with some other catch up posts: Steak Umm and The Magic Garden.
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Tang (ovaltine too) was a staple at my grandmother's house. I never noticed the "Natural Tasting" blurb on the label, but that just looks strange these days.
Silly Baierman - you can't catch up with Tang. Tang catches up with you.
That's true too Swayze Bro - it just takes a few hours for Tang to works it's way through you.