Well, yesterday I was looking at this bottle of drain unclogger or whatever. It said "100% Lye" and said all sorts of stuff like don't think about touching it. So, I bring you this question, does lye taste good?

(it is not suggested you eat it)

There is a scene in fight club where Brad Pitt's Character pours 100% lye of the hand of the Edward Norton character.

What do you think?

Drinking lye will result in severe burns to the esophagus and stomach, as it is a caustic material.

Yah, I was just reading about lye (sodium hydroxide, apparently) and all of the first aid instructions said were to remove the source and to get them to a hospital as soon as possible if you ingested it, get it on your skin, or in your eyes.

Wait, lye is NaOH? Ooo, you have a fun base to play with! :P

The answer, like so many other things, can be found in the movie "Fight Club."

http://www.arthodge.com/listeningroom/video/fightclub/chemicalburn.mov

Yeah Lye doesn't taste too good, I got too foolin around with it in my back yard... no hospital for me though!

amen magus

You can think of it like this:

Acids tend to taste sour (citric acid being what gives many fruits there nice tart taste)

A little acid not to low in pH tastes good. Think an 'orange'.

Too strong of an acid tastes like burning.

Alkaloids tend to taste bitter. Not usually considered a good taste but can be in things such as coffee or mineral water (the only high pH food I can thin of off the top of my head)

A little alkaloid not too high in pH tastes good (particularly with sugar).

Too strong of an alkaloid tastes like burning. Lye is at the top of the chart at a pH of 14 so, I would have to say ... uh no, it doesn't taste good. In fact aside from the burning I would speculate that it is almost to bitter to eat even if it wouldn't harm you.