What kind of drink is "sasperilla"?

[kragnut]

Is this what they had 100 years ago before cold, carbonated root beer was available? Is it alchoholic?

[Gunner]

Hi Kragnut, this said Google to the sasperilla
Whenever the cartoon character Yosemite Sam burst through the doors of an Old West saloon, he routinely asked for a "sasparilly, and make it snappy!" The drink was actually called either sarsaparilla or sasparilla, and tasted much like today's root beer. A carbonated beverage called sarsaparilla is still manufactured today, but its taste is largely the result of artificial flavorings. The original formula for the sarsaparilla beverage is often a source of debate.

Regards

Gunner

[John Kepler]

Is this what they had 100 years ago before cold, carbonated root beer was available? Is it alchoholic?

It's spelled "sarsaparilla", and is NOT alcoholic. The sarsaparilla herb grows in Central America and the Caribbean. As for the beverage; basically, it tastes like root beer, though a bit smoother (a subjective opinion....it's root beer!). The only sarsaparilla I'm aware of available in the US is "Sioux City Sarsaparilla", and you can usually find it for a ridiculous amount of money at specialty food stores.

[Emri]

The other posters are probably mostly correct. Taste like "root beer", non-alcoholic, etc.
IIRC, it is made from the roots of Sassafrass trees. The same tree that supplies the leaves for "gumbo file" we use down here.

Enjoy!!

Emri

[kragnut]

I grew up on Bugs Bunny / Roadrunner. I was the last generation of kids 9in the 1970s) before cartoons got all politically correct and mushy. I doubt you can even find Speedy Gonzales (his friend Slowpoke Rodriguez is "offensive" to Meixans) cartoons anymore, and they edited all the Porky Pig ones so he doesnt stutter...some kids feewings might be hurt, ya know!.

My favorite though was always the witicisms of Foghorn Leghorn. I swear Mel Blanc and the WB crew wrote most of these cartoons for juvenile adults like me:

"Boy, I say boy reminds me a Paul Revere's ride: A little light up in the belfry!"

"Girl reminds me a the highway between Dallas and Fort Worth: No curves!"

"Oh doggie, yer gonna get some lumps! Oh doggie, I think ya need some bumps!"

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2oUmI3KMEnY/SRz67JJOc7I/AAAAAAAABXs/dUBYyds2vlc/s320/hawky+3.jpg

[Jim K.]

With all deference to a native Spanish speaker, I don't think the word "sassparilla" comes from Sasafras, but from Zarzaparrilla, the blackberry bush, and that it was the berries, not the root, that was originally used in the drink.

Jim

[John L. Lucci]

It's spelled "sarsaparilla", and is NOT alcoholic. The sarsaparilla herb grows in Central America and the Caribbean. As for the beverage; basically, it tastes like root beer, though a bit smoother (a subjective opinion....it's root beer!). The only sarsaparilla I'm aware of available in the US is "Sioux City Sarsaparilla", and you can usually find it for a ridiculous amount of money at specialty food stores.

According to "Wild West Tech" on the History Channel it was also an alleged VD preventative..:eusa_dance::1948:

[Jim K.]

Probably because if you drank only sassparilla you could see what the girls really looked like. That was the VD preventive.

Jim

[Hal O'Peridol]

Go to a local Filipino "sari-sari" store, and pick up a few cans or bottles of Sarsi. Good taste and no high fructose corn syrup. Pick up a couple Tru-Orange while you are there......Tastes like the old fashioned brown bottle Orange Crush.

[scrounge2]

Hi,

When I was a kid, we went to visit my grandmother in Gary Indiana. From there we visited my aunt on a farm. There was a sassafras tree there and I got some roots. My grandmother made some tea. It was the best root beer I ever had.

the following is from Wikopedia.

The roots of Sassafras can be steeped to make tea and were used in the flavoring of root beer until being banned by the FDA. Laboratory animals that were given oral doses of sassafras tea or sassafras oil that contained safrole developed permanent liver damage or various types of cancer. In humans liver damage can take years to develop and it may not have obvious signs.

In 1960, the FDA banned the use of sassafras oil and safrole in foods and drugs based on the animal studies and human case reports.[10] Several years later sassafras tea was banned,[10] a ban which lasted until the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act in 1994.[11]

Drink at your own risk.

Scrounge2

[Gloria Admin]

I don't drink much soda these days, but have to admit getting hooked on Jones orange cola. Tastes the real cola from bar taps when I was a kid. Imagine the concept: a cola made with real cane sugar. I would rather have one bottle of Jones Cola a month than a case of the artificial crap.

[Dave Waits]

There are some good Rootbeers out there today. Heavies like A&W, and Mug, Lights; like Barq's.

[Hal O'Peridol]

Brits won't drink Root Beer, they claim it tastes like medicine. Asked a Brit Nurse where I work, and apparently there is a children's medicine in England that does taste like Root Beer. Sadly, they don't know what they are missing


http://www.root-beer.org/index.php