It will burn slightly on the inside of your mouth, but the quickly secreted saliva quickly dilutes it and diminishes the burning sensation. I don't remember thinking it tasted that awful either, just that it burned. I would say that the smell of the vapor is worse than the taste of the crystals.
"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind" - Albert Einstein
"The Mighty One appears, the horizon shines. Atum appears on the smell of his censing, the Sunshine- god has risen in the sky, the Mansion of the pyramidion is in joy and all its inmates are assembled, a voice calls out within the shrine, shouting reverberates around the Netherworld." - Egyptian Book of the Dead
"Man fears time, but time fears the Pyramids" - 9th century Arab proverb