Sarsaparilla

Sarsaparilla is a sweet, dark, carbonated soft drink traditionally flavoured with the root of the Smilax vine, a close and slightly drier, more medicinal-tasting cousin of root beer. Deeply aromatic, root-forward and usually non-alcoholic, it is one of the old botanical sodas of the Americas that survives today both as a nostalgic Western fountain drink and, more vigorously, as a hugely popular bottled soft drink across East and Southeast Asia. In its ordinary form it is vegan.