Chemical Tongue Bite?

[PipeIT]

@Filippo all I can say, since you mentioned you are new, it will take time.

There are some many different ways in which tobacco is processed and blended, and each of these bringing about differences.

For now, the best you can do is to be sure to dry the blends so they are slightly crisp when you grab a pinch and squeeze, but not bone dry.

Don’t pack tight, light slowly, only take a few slow small sips, and let the pipe go out and cool down before lighting over. When you use the tamper, only use the weight to pack while smoking. When it gets hard to light, only remove the white ash, if the ash is looking more black, this can be unburnt tobacco. Removing to much ash when smoking can be a bad thing, because it acts to filter and cool. So if you relight onto black ash, and notice it starts biting, it’s because you took away to much ash.

Pipe smoking takes time, and just when you think you have it all figured out, guess again, there’s also different pipe materials, pipe sizes, etc…

Also, just because as example burley generally speaking seems to work for you, depending on how someone may process it, might make it irritating in another blend…

Hang in there, enjoy and have fun…

 

[PiperCalvinist]

I'm in my 8th month of smoking and I had a similar experience - primarily with aromatics and Virginia forward blends. There are some variables at play - tobacco type, temp of bowl, cadence, packing, etc. However, as Doctor Chopper points out, most tongue bite comes from the concentrated stream of hot air directly hitting the tongue out of the stem. I found that most of my tongue bite issues were related to relights, particularly towards the end of the bowl. I was under this foolish notion that I needed to smoke 100% of the tobacco in the bowl. So every time I'd relight, when I had less than a 1/4 left in my bowl, I was pretty much torching my tongue. Now once I reach the 1/4 mark and my ember goes out (seldom happens) I call it good. I usually end up fully smoking 90-95% of the tobacco I put in my bowl. That has significantly help me with any tongue bite issues. I also use 9mm filtered pipes, because I love VaPers, and Virginia burns hotter than any other tobacco. Filters significantly help with tongue bite.