Sunset Sarsaparilla

Sunset Sarsaparilla is a well-known consumable item in Fallout: New Vegas, a pure cane sugar soda that advertises its product as "the most popular Beverage in the West!"

Background
The Sunset Sarsaparilla Company was founded in 1918, since becoming known across the former United States for its sarsaparilla flavored soft drink. The Courier: "  " Festus: ''"Wahoo, you did it pardner! Bully for you! Ol' Festus knew you could do it. I suppose you'll be wanting that prize now. Well then, hold onto your hat, because it's a doozy. Not many people have heard the true story behind Sunset Sarsaparilla. It's a right honor. And now, without further ado, your prize - The Legend of the Star... Looooong ago, people didn't have a heap of choices when it came to soft drinks. It was either water, or Nuka-cola. Now, the threat of legal action forces me to say that Nuka-cola is a swell beverage, but sometimes people just wanted something different, you know? So one day a man, a saloon owner in a small town, decided to make a new type of soft drink, and asked his patrons what flavor they'd like it to be. After getting no help from them, a stranger at the end of the bar suggested the man make a sarsaparilla flavored drink. The stranger said he would happily share his family's recipe for the drink, on one condition. The condition being that the stranger would be allowed to sample a bottle whenever he liked, to ensure the recipe was being followed to the letter. The man happily agreed, thinking the drink would make him rich, and the stranger promised to meet him by sundown the next day. The next morning, the sheriff stopped by and reported that the stranger's body was found on the side of the town road. He'd been killed by bandits. The man, cursing his luck, closed the saloon early that day, just as the sun began to set. But after he had locked the doors, he turned around to find an unfamiliar bottle on the bar, with a note beneath it. The note was sealed with blue wax in the shape of a star. Opening it, the man found it contained a recipe for a sarsaparilla-flavored drink. Sampling the bottle's contents and finding it singularly delicious, the man gave silent thanks to his mysterious benefactor, wherever he was. Being an honorable man, the saloon owner paid for the stranger's funeral, thinking it was the least he could do to repay him. The saloon owner went on to become rich selling the new drink, and to this day some bottles of Sunset Sarsaparilla have a blue star under their caps. Some say the saloon owner ordered it done, in honor of the stranger. Others say it's the stranger, sampling the bottles like he promised. And that's the Legend of the Star. Hope you enjoyed it, and hope you continue enjoying Sunset Sarsaparilla!"'' (Festus' dialogue) By 2077, the soda's popularly had spread nationwide and into Canada, despite competition from Nuka-Cola Corporation's Nuka-Cola Wild, an attempt to replicate the soda's flavor and success.

Despite the widespread success of the drink, a study was conducted that claimed the soda was hazardous to consumers' health. Broadcast on television, the study showed that consuming large quantities of the product resulted in a wide range of harmful side effects, including kidney damage, nausea, digital numbness, anxiety, loss of visual acuity, dizziness, occasional nosebleeds, joint inflammation, tooth decay, sore throat, bronchitis, organ rupture, and halitosis. Sunset Sarsaparilla disputed the claims as unverified but took steps to improve its PR after the story aired in attempt to mitigate any further financial loss. Such as the case with the creation of Festus, a robotic kiosk made in the image of a "hard of hearing" old-westerner.

After the war, Sunset Sarsaparilla can still be found in New Vegas and surrounding region. Some specially marked bottles of Sunset Sarsaparilla do have a special blue starred cap and loose blue caps are found scattered around several desert locations.

Characteristics
Sunset Sarsaparilla is a root-beer-type carbonated beverage found around New Vegas. With its easy availability and low cost, it is an excellent consumable that provides a high health regeneration effect, while also lacking the radiation present in other drinks. Thanks to these factors, it supplements the somewhat-scarce stimpaks as a primary healing item in the Mojave. Company spokesbot Festus provides a comical list of potential side effects, but only while playing in Hardcore mode does drinking Sunset Sarsaparilla have the negative effect of mildly dehydrating the Courier.

Crafting
With the Honest Hearts add-on installed, the Courier can obtain a recipe and make a home-brewed version of the drink. This is identical to the standard variety.

Variants

 * Irradiated Sunset Sarsaparilla

Locations
Found in Sunset Sarsaparilla vending machines throughout the Mojave Wasteland.
 * 19 in the Mojave Outpost barracks.
 * 13 in the Lucky 38's casino.
 * Nine in the Ultra-Luxe's Members Only area, six in its kitchen, six in the Gourmand, and five in the casino.
 * Seven in the King's School of Impersonation.
 * Seven in the Westside Co-op.
 * Six in The Tops restaurant.
 * Goodsprings - Sold by Trudy in the Prospector Saloon and found in multiple Sunset Sarsaparilla crates surrounding the Goodsprings General Store and the saloon. Most of these will lower one's Karma if taken. Out in front of the gas station in Goodsprings, there is a vending machine with three or four Sunset Sarsaparillas inside and taking these will not affect Karma.
 * Sunset Sarsaparilla headquarters - In numerous vending machines and Sunset Sarsaparilla crates throughout the entire building.
 * Boulder City - Sold by Ike in the Big Horn Saloon. Also, found in Sunset Sarsaparilla crates and on shelves near and behind the bar.

Behind the scenes
Sarsaparilla is a real world soft drink of the same name, popular in the United States beginning in the 19th century. It was originally made with safrole, an oil used as the flavor additive. In the United States, the FDA banned the use of safrole in 1958 as it had been shown to induce liver tumors in rats.