Totally OT: Tang myth, busted

Jul 18, 2019 | Hot Topics

I wrote earlier this week about the Apollo 11 anniversary and mentioned that the space program had given the world Tang.

Turns out that wasn’t true. The space program made my family aware of Tang –go advertisers!– but Tang actually pre-dates the moon missions. According to Food & Wine, via the New York Times,

In 1957, food scientist William Mitchell of the General Foods Corporation came up with what he called “Tang Flavor Crystals.” … After two years of research and development, Tang was put on grocery shelves in the United States (and Venezuela and West Germany ) in the fall of 1959. It was marketed as a breakfast drink packed with vitamin C that “you don’t squeeze, unfreeze, or refrigerate.” None of that made it sound particularly delicious and not surprisingly, it didn’t sell particularly well.

Later, because the water in the space capsule didn’t taste very good, NASA decided to spice things up by offering the astronauts Tang.

General Mills promoted Tang as a space drink, and there we have it. The Food & Wine article is worth a read for both Tang lore and how space food, in general, evolved during the space race. Tang isn’t as popular in the US as it once was, but it’s still a billion dollar global brand in the Mondelez family of products.

I still have Tang around the house. It’s now too sweet for me, so I make a much more diluted version than the package suggests but it’s our go-to for “OJ” when camping, I make it with warm water when I’m not feeing well … and I think of the little kid who dreamt of being in space.

The cover image is from Mondelez. I had no idea how many flavors Tang now comes in outside the US. Might be worth checking out!