I grew up with an A&W Drive-In in my hometown and it was a place I fondly remember. That drive-in was closed down by the time I entered junior high school, but I never forgot it.
Ironically, not long after my old hometown A&W was shuttered the A&W brand seemed to be at an all-time high, with the branded soda pop advertised all over the place. And there were a couple of A&W-branded confectionery treats that were sold around that time too.
One that I have some recollections of was 1983’s A&W “liquid center” bubble gum. In the wake of the novel success of Freshen-Up, other companies were trying to find a way to grab some of that liquid-center gum market share. Amurol took a shot by licensing popular soda pop brands. Here’s my wrapper for A&W gum:
From right around this same time, Ferrara Pan released an A&W Root Beer flavored hard candy. It came in a great box. Here’s an example I acquired earlier this year as part of the L.M. Kallok Collection:
It’s great that the A&W brand survived tougher times and exists to this day as both a consumer packaged soda and brand-flavor, as well as a nationwide chain of restaurants.
Though I don’t have anything in my collection directly from that childhood A&W, I do have a great vintage A&W call-in menu from the early 1970’s. This one comes from a California A&W location and I think it’s a fun way to close out today’s A&W coverage:
Check out those prices!
And that’s everything for today’s post on A&W candy. I hope you enjoyed it.
See you next time!
It’s disappointing that root beer flavored candy has for the most part disappeared from shelves. It’s one of my favorite candy flavors.
I remember Ferra Pan making a chewy version of the A&W candy (that also came in a Dr. Pepper flavored variety.) It had an outer coating of candy the same texture as a Lemonhead, but the inside was clear, and had the consistancy of a jelly bean. I last remember seeing these in the early 90’s.
The root beer flavoured Jelly Belly jelly beans are pretty good!
I really like the dr pepper gum and orange crush and was wondering if I could order the 7 up gum from you guys because here in Arkansas they only sell dr pepper and orange crush.
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