Why does paracetamol taste so bitter?

Being sick is one of the things I hate the most. It makes me feel helpless and useless... So today, after a second day of house arrest and trying to stop shivers with paracetamol I decided (against my common sense and nurse studies) to go out and buy one of those mega hyper super max strength flu relief. I browsed the shelves in the supermarket for loads of similar products... Most of those remedies have paracetamol as a main ingredient and then some other stuff such as: Caffeine (well known analgesic adjuvant), phenylephrine (decongestant) or an expectorant of dubious effectiveness called Guaifenesin.

And that's the story of how I ended paying out £5 for 8 sachets of Paracetamol with almost placebo and lemon flavour (you can buy 16 capsules of regular paracetamol for 60p). 

OK, that was an unsuccessful attempt of self suggestion but that's not why I'm writing this today. 

My biggest disappointment today was that after allowing myself to be ripped off by the pharmaceutical industry, I poured the sachet into a mug with hot water, tasted the mixture and under the lemon flavour I could still taste that particular bitterness of the paracetamol... WHY THE HELL IS PARACETAMOL SO BITTER??!! Can't they do a nice tasting paracetamol? 

Well I'm not sure about the details of why Paracetamol tastes like hell. But it is certainly very convenient. Why? For the same reason that apparently you can only buy one packet of paracetamol per person and establishment in the UK. Accidental overdose. 

Now let me stop here and explain my personal experience when I was a young and innocent child and drank a bottle of kids paracetamol, which my parents (very recklessly I must say) left at my reach, just because I loved the amazing strawberry flavour it had. This is something my family likes to remind me from time to time and thankfully nothing major happened. My mother called the doctor but because they sell very small bottles even if I drank half of it (that must've been around 1.5g) there was no need of getting my stomach pumped or anything. 

So looks like making paracetamol less easily purchasable reduces the amount of accidental overdose. But let me tell you, I think it's the bitterness that really helps. Because there's no way I'm drinking another one of those lemon bitter-hell mixture. 

Anyway, I think I am already feeling better, my sarcasm is starting to emerge...