Oh man...
GOOD coke has a harsh, astringent/medicinal taste, but not like a pill. Almost a chemical taste/smell. The smell should be quite strong, like fingernail polish remover, but the smell isn't noticeable as much (note, I did say as much... you can stick your nose in a bag of coke and definitely smell it, but it's not as POW! In your face...) until you snort it. The taste is unlike anything else I've ever tasted.... and nothing in the world tastes so good as good ether-based cocaine. When you get the drain... oh my frigging god. It's such a rush. Once you snort it, your nasal passages and throat go numb and if it's the good stuff, your top teeth go numb too... and you want to talk and talk and move around and do shit just to be doing it. The numb comes back full force after the drainage starts. My husband and I used to get product that was at 92% purity... damn good coke, in other words. The drain was as good as the first sniff.
However, if you buy oil based cocaine, which isn't as good by any standards, the numb isn't as noticeable, the taste is a bit oily with nearly no smell at all and when you cut it out, oil-based coke tends to stick to the razor blade, where as ether-base coke will not. Oil-base will stick to the baggie too, and ether-base will not. It's hard to find ether-based coke in most places because of the availability of ether. Oil-base is more common now-a-days, but I wouldn't touch it if it was free. Ether-base on the other hand... oh man oh man.
ETA: Not that this means anything, but I used coke for about 2 and 1/2 years, so I'm very familiar with the taste and smell. I still crave it, still have sensory flashbacks, IE: I'll still get the taste in my mouth sometimes if I'm around something that reminds me of coke, white powder, the smell of paint thinner or fingernail polish remover.