11 October 2026

Nannari, Sugandhi & Sarsaparilla: Regional Names of a Traditional Drink

Nannari was never only one name. Depending on where you are in South India, the same fragrant root and the drinks made from it are known as nannari, sugandhi or Indian sarsaparilla. This article looks at where those names come from, what they mean, and why the differences still matter when you read a label.

What is nannari?

Nannari is the Indian sarsaparilla, a climbing plant known botanically as Hemidesmus indicus. Its root is the part that matters for the drink: it is washed, cut or pounded, then steeped in water to draw out its flavour. That simple preparation is the ancestor of the chilled drinks sold today. The ingredient itself is covered in full on our guide to nannari; this article stays with the names.

What does sugandhi mean?

Sugandhi is a Telugu word built on the idea of fragrance, and that is the sense in which it is used here: a fragrant root, and by extension the drink made from it. In parts of Andhra Pradesh, asking for a sugandhi drink is understood much as asking for a nannari drink is elsewhere.

It is worth saying plainly that usage is not uniform. Sugandhi is a descriptive, regional word, and not every household or shop uses it in exactly the same way. It is best treated as a local name for a familiar thing rather than as a strict botanical term.

Nannari and sugandhi: are they the same?

In everyday use in South India, yes: both names are applied to the same fragrant root and to drinks flavoured with it. Nannari is the more widely recognised of the two, which is why it appears on packaged products and in most written references, while sugandhi is the name you are more likely to hear spoken in particular regions.

The useful takeaway is not that the two words are interchangeable everywhere, but that they point to the same tradition. If you are holding a bottle labelled Sugandhi Soda and one labelled Nannari Soda, the names suggest the same kind of drink — they do not guarantee the same recipe.

Are Sugandhi Soda and nannari soda the same product?

They are usually the same style of drink, and the two names are often used side by side on shop shelves. But a name is not a formulation. Two products using the same style name can differ in how much of the root flavour they use, how sweet they are, and what else goes into them. If the exact contents matter to you, read the ingredients on the specific bottle rather than relying on the word on the front.

Nannari in Rayalaseema

Rayalaseema, the southern inland belt of Andhra Pradesh, is one of the regions where the drink is strongly associated with the name nannari. There, a chilled nannari drink is a familiar part of summer, made at home and sold in small shops long before it was bottled at scale. As a broad regional pattern this holds, but it is a tendency and not a rule: names travel with families, and you will find both terms in use within the same district.

Sugandhi in Coastal Andhra

Along Coastal Andhra, sugandhi is the name many people reach for, both for the root and for the drink made from it. The same preparation appears under this name at roadside stalls and in homes, and it carries the same meaning of a cooling, fragrant drink. Again this is a regional leaning rather than a boundary — coastal towns are not short of people who say nannari, and neither term is wrong.

What is nannari soda?

Nannari soda is the carbonated, packaged version of the drink: the nannari flavour with fizz, bottled and ready to serve chilled. It is the format that has carried the name onto shelves far outside the regions where the drink began. See Shiva Ganesh Nannari Soda for the current product.

What is nannari sarbath?

Nannari sarbath is the traditional still version, made by thinning the flavour with water, sweetening it, and serving it over ice, usually with a squeeze of lime. It is the form the drink took at home before it was ever bottled. Our nannari sarbath guide covers how it is made.

What is nannari syrup?

Nannari syrup is the concentrated form: a syrup you dilute to taste, so you decide how strong and how sweet the finished glass is. It is also what most people use to make sarbath and other drinks at home. See Shiva Ganesh Nannari Syrup for the current product.

Other regional and language names

Nannari and sugandhi are not the only names the plant has carried. Across Indian languages, Hemidesmus indicus — the Indian sarsaparilla — has gathered a long list of local names, each shaped by the language and region that used it. English speakers most often meet it as Indian sarsaparilla, a translation that has caused a little confusion of its own.

That last point deserves a line on its own. The word sarsaparilla is also used for other plants elsewhere in the world, and the Indian sarsaparilla is not the same plant as those. So when you meet the name, the safer reading is to check which plant is meant rather than assuming the flavours are related.

A name for the plant and a name for the drink are not the same thing

One reason the naming feels tangled is that a single word often does double duty. Nannari names the root and also the drink; sugandhi works the same way. A sentence about nannari might be about a plant being harvested or about a bottle being opened, and only the context tells you which.

Keeping those two uses apart makes the rest of it much easier. The plant has a botanical name, Hemidesmus indicus. The root is the ingredient. The drink is what you end up with. The regional words attach to more than one of those layers, which is exactly why two people can describe the same glass with two different words and both be right.

Where these names come together

Nannari, sugandhi and Indian sarsaparilla are best understood as three names for one long-standing South Indian tradition, seen from three different angles. The differences between them are differences of language and place, not of flavour. Whether a glass is called nannari or sugandhi, it is the same familiar, earthy, cooling drink that has been made in these regions for generations.

Shiva Ganesh Nannari makes that drink in two formats — a carbonated nannari soda and a nannari syrup for preparing it at home — under the name most widely recognised today.

Quick Answers

Is sugandhi the same as nannari?

In everyday use in South India, both names are applied to the same fragrant root and to drinks flavoured with it. Nannari is the more widely recognised of the two; sugandhi is a regional name, used in parts of Andhra Pradesh, for the root and for the drinks made from it.

Why do nannari drinks have different names in different regions?

The root was a household ingredient long before it was ever branded, so the name it was given was shaped by local language and local habit. As the drink moved through homes, stalls and small shops, it collected more than one everyday name along the way.

Are Sugandhi Soda and nannari soda the same product?

The names are often used for the same style of drink, but a name is not a recipe. Do not assume that two bottles with different labels contain the same ingredients or the same formulation — check the label of the specific product you are buying.