Ikea's Festive Soda

On a recent foray to Cincinnati my wife stopped by the local Ikea store. We didn't need any flat pack furniture or linens and the like, but my wife did come away with some jams and a Soda. Ikea carries two seasonal Sodas and I got the Spring Dryck Påskmust, or Festive Drink. It comes in a plastic bottle, but it is a Sugar sweetened beverage. I am intrigued by it for the ingredients, some of which are more familiar to beer lovers than Soda aficionados.  This one has piqued my interest. Now comes the time to dive in a give it a try.
    The aroma, on opening the twist off cap, is reminiscent of cough syrup, but that aroma doesn't last past the pouring into a glass. It is nicely carbonated, but produces no head and the carbonation fizz subsides quickly.
   There is a noticeable hops flavour to it and an astringency that lasts. There is also a bitter quality to it, no doubt from the hops. The Dryck Påskmust has no carbonation bite to speak of. And the citric acid adds little to the party. The barley malt that it is made from doesn't really come through in the flavour profile. The sweetness is actually subdued and rather well balanced. All in all, if you like your drinks to have a bitterness to them you'd like this Soda. I'm not overly fond of it, myself. This was an interesting experiment in Scandinavian Sodas, but it's not a drink I'm likely to pick up again. I might be convinced to try their Christmas version, if the formula is significantly different.

Ingredients:

Water
Sugar Syrup
Caramel (Color)
Hops Flavor
Malt Flavor (From Barley)
Citric Acid
Flavors
Sodium Benzoate (Preservative)
Carbon Dioxide

Dryck Påskmust, from Ikea, gets a 4.5 out of 10.