We have had many people seek out Effer-K due to their distaste for KCl.  They describe the taste of KCl as “extremely salty, ” and in 10-30% of patients this can lead to nausea (http://www.drugs.com/sfx/klotrix-side-effects.html)  From an intellectual point-of-view, this makes sense.  The chemical structure of KCl is similar to salt (NaCl) – so it is understandable why these two substances would share similar traits.

It is actually, because they have similar tastes that KCl is used as a salt-substitute, for example, in Morton’s Lite Salt or Mrs. Dash. Obviously the taste of the salt substitute is not offensive because it is ingested in very small quantities and taken with food.

Not wanting to try the potassium chloride ourselves, we asked our emergency medicine physician friend to describe  the taste of KCl.  His anecdote from the ER convinced us me made the right choice. “In the ER, patients who present with vomiting frequently have a low potassium as a result. IV potassium replacement takes hours, and oral supplements taste so bad they often cause patients to start vomiting all over again.”  Yuck!