Not sure if it's the lithium specifically but the gas given off by a pierced lithium battery smells very sweet like boiled sugar
It depends entirely on what form it is in. mined Lithium (Spodumene) smells like dirt/rocks (because surprise, surprise, that's what it is), Metallic Lithium is very soft and reactive so it has no smell besides the mineral oil it's often kept in (or the smell of burnt hair and a sharp metallic smell if you were silly enough to try and dry it off and smell it as it burst into flames/smoke). @EmoPolarbear@lemmy.ca covers it best when they said that it smells sweet (in a lot of batteries). I've heard it described before as smelling like Peardrax (sweet pear flavoured sparkling beverage) and having had it I'd agree. FYI most forms you would come into contact with are acutely toxic so maybe don't mess with it too much.
How did you acrually end up tasting it? I took lithium orotate for a while but it was in a gel capsule so now ill never get to know what orotate generally tastes like. Thats such a rare compounding medium or whatever
Not sure if it's the lithium specifically but the gas given off by a pierced lithium battery smells very sweet like boiled sugar