If you hold them in your mouth a good long time before swallowing, everything tastes sweet for a while. It has an aftertaste like artichoke hearts. I think I used to get a slight buzz with it too, but that could have been just the feeling of the pain leaving.
It could be just my small sample size but it seems to me that Aspirin has declined in the last several decades as a pain medicine in favor of ibuprofen (Motrin) and acetaminophen (Tylenol). I definitely think of it as something an older person would use.
It seems its primary use now is for mild thinning of the blood.
Funny you should say that - the South African equivalent brand is called Grand-Pa Headache Powder.
I switched back to aspirin because of all the warnings over Tylenol and alcohol.
I use ibuprofen for sore muscles and the like but not headaches
I was somewhat amused by the ads where they are trying to prebrand aspirin as a pain reliever.
There used to be an aspirin brand called Bufferin and I thought the selling point was that the pills were coated to reduce stomach irritation. So it seems a little odd to take aspirin in powder form, since I think there is no protection against irritation.
I use Goody’s headache powder for headache and it’s fantastic. It will often cure a headache faster and more completely than any other method. It feels like it’s faster than pills, but that could very easily be a placebo effect. I keep them in the car, in my desk at the office (when I used to actually go to the office, in the before-times) and at home.
The combination (acetaminophen, aspirin and caffeine) is extremely effective for me. Could I recreate that combination without the powder? Sure! But the little packets are very convenient, and although the taste is not great (the “cool orange” is the one I usually buy), it’s certainly not terrible.
I cosign the posters who have remarked that this is a southern thing.
There’s a BC commercial that airs here in Virginia. It’s one of those commercials where average, everyday southern-accented joe shmoes gush over the product. None of the people sound like your stereotypical white-collar professional. So there’s likely a nexus with social class as well as geography.
It’s called Excedrin-Shhhh.
Bufferin is still on the market. It includes a combination of antacids to reduce stomach irritation.
The gas station up the road from me has BC Powders, which had me thinking the same thing the OP was. BTW, when I was in pharmacy school in the early 1990s, we had to make powder papers. Wow, that was tedious, and I couldn’t imagine having to weigh out and fold up dozens of those at a time, but that’s what the druggists of past generations had to do.
Yeah, buddy. And my company used to make one of the biggest competitor brands in the field. BC imho Tastes nasty, works fast. Cheap. What’s not to like?
I’ve never heard of it, but I’ll guarantee you Beckdawreck’s husband does.
Yup. Both the Aspirin and the phenacetin / paracetamol/ Panadol/ acetaminophen / Tylenol are antipyretic. Caffeine /causes/ fever, but its anti-inflammatory – and also works to relieve caffeine-withdrawal headaches, like you might get after chronic abuse of powders…
ASA right up the nose I’d suspect could lead to some serious bleeding issues. 