Ammonium chloride is salmiakki. Although salmiakki is usually coloured black with active carbon, NH₄Cl is white. It tastes salty, but not in the same way as sodium chloride. It has the same chloride taste, but ammonium is clearly present. Its taste has an element, which is like the smell of concentrated ammonia solution. It's doesn't taste like "rock", because there is no sodium in it, so it tastes good even when it's pure. You could never eat sodium chloride the way you can eat ammonium chloride.

It can be made by mixing ammonia and hydrochloric vapour from strong solutions. A cloud of very fine powder, like smoke, will form and settle down. Ammonium chloride is a weak base salt of a strong acid, so its pH in a water solution is a little bit to the acidic side. It isn't toxic, but a slight irritant when pure. Indigesting large amounts of it can cause dehydration, just like sodium chloride and sugar. This is why Salmiakki Koskenkorva was originally so dangerous.