Sunset Sarsaparilla

Sunset Sarsaparilla is a well-known consumable item in Fallout: New Vegas.

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.

Creation requirements

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 3 to 4 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 type of bitter root found in Central America which was originally used for medicinal purposes; owing to the root's bitterness, it was combined with sweetened water to make dosing more palatable. In America, the bark and oil of the sassafras tree were added to the formula; this root beer eventually became a popular drink in the late-19th-century Old West. The similarity of the two roots' names led to the informal nickname of "Sasparilly."
 * The health effects of Sarsaparilla may be a reference to safrole, the aromatic oil found in sassafras roots and bark that gave traditional root beer its distinctive flavor, was banned for commercially mass-produced foods and drugs by the FDA in 1960. Laboratory animals that were given oral doses of sassafras tea or sassafras oil that contained large doses of safrole developed permanent liver damage or various types of cancer.