Sarsaparilla (soft drink)

Sarsaparilla is a soft drink, originally made from the Smilax regelii plant, but now sometimes made with artificial flavours.

Sarsaparilla was popular in the United States in the 19th century. According to advertisements for patent medicines of the period, it was considered to be a remedy for skin and blood problems. Ruth Tobias notes that it evokes images of "languid belles and parched cowboys."

Sarsaparilla drinks feature widely in American popular culture, particularly in works related to the American West. In Hollywood westerns from the 1930s to the 1950s, ordering sarsaparilla in a saloon (instead of whiskey) is often met with mockery by the manly cowboys nearby. In the 1957–1961 ABC western television series, Sugarfoot, the title character, Tom Brewster, played by Will Hutchins, is a teetotaler who orders sarsaparilla "with a dash of cherry" whenever he enters a saloon. Sarsaparilla was also believed to be a preventive against venereal disease, possibly because of the diuretic effects of flushing the urethra after intercourse.

In recent times, sarsaparilla is sometimes considered to be a type of root beer. There are dozens of brands of sarsaparilla beverages made by microbreweries, mainly in the United States.

Sarsaparilla is not readily available in most countries, although many pubs and most major supermarket chains in the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Australia stock sarsaparilla-flavored soft drinks, and sarsaparilla remains available in the United Kingdom as a legacy of the temperance movement. Australian sarsaparilla has a different flavor from American root beer or sarsaparilla.

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