naoh/hcl would make nacl, so that would make sense if it was the impurity (salty taste).
Perchance a bit of base made it over in the NP, did you use xylene? IIRC, it can hold a bit of water (forms an azeotrope iirc), and perhaps through that a bit of naoh.
Edit- NVM, it was a "sandy" taste lol. And i guess nacl would be very soluble in hot water, so that doesn't make sense if it didn't dissolve w/ the mesc hcl.
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