Sarsaparilla
A carbonated soft drink flavored with sarsaparilla root, similar to root beer.
Origin
Central America and the Caribbean (the Smilax vine), used medicinally by Indigenous peoples long before European colonizers exported it and it became a flavoring for tonics and sodas.
History
Sarsaparilla root has a long history of Indigenous medicinal use in Central America and the Caribbean, later exported to Europe as a supposed cure-all and eventually incorporated into 19th-century American "tonic" beverages and soda fountain drinks, closely related to and often confused with root beer, which frequently includes sarsaparilla alongside sassafras. As a standalone soda flavor, it became especially associated with American Old West nostalgia, and in cocktails it functions much like root beer, as a spiced, herbal mixer or flavor reference point.
Flavor profile
Earthy and mildly spiced, similar to but generally less sweet and vanilla-forward than root beer.
Tasting notes
A subtler, more herbal-earthy flavor than root beer, without quite as much vanilla and wintergreen sweetness, working in a similar mixer role for whiskey and rum-based drinks wanting that old-fashioned, spiced-soda character.
Substitutes
- Root beer, for a closely related, slightly sweeter substitute.
- A different sarsaparilla soda brand, since the category's flavor stays fairly consistent.
- Ginger beer, for a different but comparably spiced, old-fashioned soda substitute.
Common cocktails