What Is Sarsaparilla?

Sarsaparilla is two things: a plant and a soda. The plant is any of several prickly tropical vines in the genus Smilax, such as Smilax ornata from Mexico and Central America. Its root was listed in the US Pharmacopoeia from 1820 to 1910 as a treatment for syphilis.²

The soda was a 19th-century American favorite, first sold as a patent medicine for skin and blood complaints.¹ The medical claims are gone. The name stuck.

What the root tastes like

Not much like the soda. The 1898 King's American Dispensatory describes the root as nearly odorless, with a taste that is mucilaginous, bitterish and acrid. It also records the root's saponins, one of which forms a bitter solution that froths when shaken.³

So the real root gives you an earthy, slightly slippery bitterness, a little bite, and almost no aroma. A soda needs aroma. That has to come from somewhere else.

Sarsaparilla root is still a permitted natural flavoring in US food, with no specific use limit.⁴ Sassafras, the other classic root, is not: added sassafras oil and safrole have made food adulterated since an FDA order in December 1960.⁵

What sarsaparilla soda tastes like

In the US, the drink sold as sarsaparilla was traditionally flavored with birch oil and sassafras rather than the tropical root.¹ Sweet birch oil smells of wintergreen because its main aroma compound is the same one, methyl salicylate.

The licorice and anise pair is covered in anise vs licorice. Most good versions need both: anethole for the smell, glycyrrhizin for the slow sweetness.

Sarsaparilla vs root beer

They are the same family, from the same era, and they overlap so heavily that no clear line separates them. Bundaberg makes one drink and sells it as Sarsaparilla in Australia and New Zealand and as Root Beer in the UK and US. The company says that aside from the label, there is no difference. Its recipe lists licorice root, sarsaparilla root, molasses and vanilla beans.⁷

The useful distinction is historical. Root beer was built around sassafras. Sarsaparilla was named for the Smilax root, then flavored much like root beer anyway. If a buyer asks for "sarsaparilla", ask for a reference product. Some mean a sharper, wintergreen-forward root beer. Some mean a drier, more bitter, licorice-heavy drink.

Strip out the wintergreen, licorice and spice and you are left with vanilla over caramel, which is cream soda.

Sarsaparilla is still common in the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan, often called "sarsi", and Australian supermarkets stock it. In the UK it survives as a legacy of the temperance movement.¹

Building a sarsaparilla flavor

Dose the wintergreen with care. Methyl salicylate is very strong. A little reads as soda. A little more reads as muscle rub.

Use the real root for body and claims, not aroma. Sarsaparilla extract adds an earthy bitterness that makes the drink taste less like candy. It will not carry the flavor on its own.

Lean on licorice. Glycyrrhizin softens the bitterness and stretches the sweetness. US rules cap it at 0.15% glycyrrhizin in nonalcoholic drinks, so check your level.⁶

It suits stevia. Stevia's licorice-like aftertaste can blend into the anise and licorice notes instead of sticking out, as it does in root beer. See stevia aftertaste.

Pick a style before you brief. "Sarsaparilla" tells a flavorist less than you think. Send a reference product and say which way to lean.