A&W is probably the most famous root beer of them all. While Mug and Barq’s seem to be the most dominant in restaurants, A&W has its very own restaurant. I have even seen an A&W booth at state fairs.
Branding
A&W's branding is a woodsy barrel background with the A&W logo overlaid on top, and a bit of foam coming over the edge of the barrel. It is very recognizable.
You probably recognize it even if you didn’t realize it was a root beer!
Taste and Ingredients
Very traditional-smelling root beer. The taste is slightly artificial and overly sweet, but it's also what most people probably think of when they think of root beer. The carbonation is noticeable, and we all know that when poured into a glass, A&W tends to be frothy.
Barq’s, Mug, and A&W all rely on high fructose corn syrup for their sweetener and they use a lot of artificial ingredients as well.
Still, the drink tastes decent. I personally prefer some of the more pure varieties of root beer; however, A&W is probably one of the easiest types of root beer you can find.
The Wrap Up
A&W used to be my favorite root beer mostly because I didn’t know there were do many others out there. However, A&W still remains one of my favorite mainstream root beers, perhaps out of nostalgia if nothing else. A&W is also a good way to introduce people to root beer and maybe get them to try other brands!
Regardless, if you have somehow never tried A&W, you should give it a try!