Chemical Tongue Bite?
- Thread starter Filippo
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Hi Doctor, not sure if you were referring to his actual tongue bite, or in general.
Tongue bite can be heat or chemical.
I personally get the chemical reaction side of it in my mouth, mainly the roof aching and throbbing, and the skin will get rough, so I use filters now. Without filters, my tongue would occasionally get a slight chemical nip too. Seeing how I experience these things, I believe there is a chemical PH component going on…
Not sure if you saw it, but I found a lot of great info online, I posted on the forum, it’s the last post on this link.
Any Advice? Killer Tongue Bite :: Pipe Smoking Basics & Beginner Questions
Roll up your driver's window but leave a just crack for ventilation. If you're filling up the cabin with smoke you're puffing too fast anyway but the draft from highway driving can be like a supercharger for a pipe
pipesmagazine.com
Be well!
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Maybe someone can explain to me why acidity in tobacco smoke can cause tongue bite but in food and drinks it doesn't. I would think that lemonade would be a killer.
Hi,
It’s not the Acidity it’s the Alkalinity that bites…
We want to acidify smoke for less bite, Virginias blended with Burely perform this function.
There are a lot of variables at play here, body chemistry, burning smoke and the by products, casings, toppings, how the tobacco was prepared and smoked, etc…
I’m not sure if there’s more science data on this, and maybe it’s just that alkaline tobacco burning, also the by product of the smoke, reaching our mouth is simply the case.
It’s not like there’s always bite, just that many things are involved, but as to why alkaline in food/water is better, but for pipe tobacco is interesting.
If you were paying attention to my last reply, look over my post at the bottom of this link.
Any Advice? Killer Tongue Bite :: Pipe Smoking Basics & Beginner Questions
Roll up your driver's window but leave a just crack for ventilation. If you're filling up the cabin with smoke you're puffing too fast anyway but the draft from highway driving can be like a supercharger for a pipe
pipesmagazine.com
Mr. Pease also talks about the Alkaline on his site.
If the Alkaline balance does bother you, you actually need to drink something more acidic to reduce the bite, like tea or coffee. Again, depending on someone’s body chemistry, this might not need to be followed.
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Update on my second try to smoke the pipe, same pipe and same tobacco. I didn't even try to light it, just puffed with the "dry" tobacco in it and I felt the exact same sensation of dryness on my tongue. Made it try to my father and he had the same issue, so I am quite sure now it cannot be a tongue bite caused by the heat, it probably haa to do with nicotine or something else, I honestly don't know but I feel like that's the wrong type of tabacco for me
Mr. Pease says this:
I can't count the number of times I've read this. For some reason, it's commonly believed that the more sugar in the leaf, the more “bite” the smoker will experience. While it's true that some tobaccos with a lot of sweetness do tend to irritate the smoker, it's not the sugar content that's responsible.
Tongue “bite” is a response to smoke with a higher pH (more alkaline) than the mouth and tongue are used to. Some tobaccos, notably burleys, contain a high percentage of nitrogenous compounds, and produce a more alkaline smoke. The dreaded “burley curse” often results. Tobacco producers will work to mitigate this by adding sugars to the casing sauces. Sugars, when burned, actually acidify the smoke, resulting in less “bite.” Virginia tobaccos are often blended with burleys to perform the same function.
With due respect for him, I am not convinced. I know that tobacco preferences vary widely, but to me in my limited experience the sweetened tobaccos have the worst bite. And how did he determine that sugars acidify smoke? To my knowledge pH meters only work with liquids. Has someone bubbled the smoke through water of other solvent? That could be done with a hookah. Details would be interesting.
I can't count the number of times I've read this. For some reason, it's commonly believed that the more sugar in the leaf, the more “bite” the smoker will experience. While it's true that some tobaccos with a lot of sweetness do tend to irritate the smoker, it's not the sugar content that's responsible.
Tongue “bite” is a response to smoke with a higher pH (more alkaline) than the mouth and tongue are used to. Some tobaccos, notably burleys, contain a high percentage of nitrogenous compounds, and produce a more alkaline smoke. The dreaded “burley curse” often results. Tobacco producers will work to mitigate this by adding sugars to the casing sauces. Sugars, when burned, actually acidify the smoke, resulting in less “bite.” Virginia tobaccos are often blended with burleys to perform the same function.
With due respect for him, I am not convinced. I know that tobacco preferences vary widely, but to me in my limited experience the sweetened tobaccos have the worst bite. And how did he determine that sugars acidify smoke? To my knowledge pH meters only work with liquids. Has someone bubbled the smoke through water of other solvent? That could be done with a hookah. Details would be interesting.
I’ve been looking occasionally on the subject from time to time, in the past 4 years.
All the professional blenders I’ve seen talking on the subject, refer more to PH Balance as the culprit.
Sugar is typically used as a Casing to change Mouth Feel.
Burnt sugar contains carboxylic acids which are acidic. I assume that is one of the reasons behind adding sugar for PH, besides using it to change mouth feel.
This is not to say sugar doesn’t irritate some, it can, and if you add that to a particular blend, it might be the trigger for you, because of your body chemistry.
So if you find that every sweetened blend bothers you, sugar is possibly the greater culprit for it, but it doesn’t mean the other factors are completely moot. PH balance is an issue, whether or not it bothers someone depends on their genetic makeup.
All the professional blenders I’ve seen talking on the subject, refer more to PH Balance as the culprit.
Sugar is typically used as a Casing to change Mouth Feel.
Burnt sugar contains carboxylic acids which are acidic. I assume that is one of the reasons behind adding sugar for PH, besides using it to change mouth feel.
This is not to say sugar doesn’t irritate some, it can, and if you add that to a particular blend, it might be the trigger for you, because of your body chemistry.
So if you find that every sweetened blend bothers you, sugar is possibly the greater culprit for it, but it doesn’t mean the other factors are completely moot. PH balance is an issue, whether or not it bothers someone depends on their genetic makeup.
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Certainly the cause of the tongue bite can be this or that. I suspect that as a new smoker, you just need to get used to smoking. That's the simplest explanation.
Listen up - Global tongue bite is real! There is man made heating of the tongue. You burn your fossil fuels in your lighters and it heats the tongue. There is a rise in CO2 and chemicals that reaches the tongue causing a rise in saliva levels and desertification of taste buds. This will lead to starvation and death. If we don’t stop this condition, the world will be uninhabitable and we won’t be able to smoke even outdoors any longer!
I am running a campaign to stop this deadly condition. Please send me your tobacco and $$$ that I can use to finance Syrian Latakia fields and buy up St James Parish to keep it for myself (and a few of my best friends). I will be traveling the country burning rubber and tobacco in an attempt to stop you from doing the same.
If you don’t understand sarcasm or satire, please disregard this non-sequitur.
I am running a campaign to stop this deadly condition. Please send me your tobacco and $$$ that I can use to finance Syrian Latakia fields and buy up St James Parish to keep it for myself (and a few of my best friends). I will be traveling the country burning rubber and tobacco in an attempt to stop you from doing the same.
If you don’t understand sarcasm or satire, please disregard this non-sequitur.
Tongue bite isn’t just simply this or that, professionals have narrowed down the reasons, and the information is out there.
If you have a genetic makeup, and predisposition to certain things, all the time in the world isn’t going to matter.
I came back to pipes 4 years ago, and actually in the last year, the roof of my mouth has become more irritated with pipe smoking, not better.
The body is going to react to smoke, whether or not it will tolerate it, is going to depend on a number of factors, so it’s not always about getting accustomed to it.
In the end, the only way I can get use to it now, is by using filters.
@Filippo look back up, I put up two links before…
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Then quit smoking a pipe. That's probably the simplest solution.
I didn’t explain, I don’t need to quit, I just needed to see if there was an alternative solution, and there was.
I use filters now, and stay away from certain blends that bother me.
My issue is more related to the PH Balance and chemical bite of higher alkaline blends, so I either avoid them, or smoke them even slower with filters.
Your issue. You have been smoking for four years, and Filippo tried smoking a pipe for the second time yesterday. I don't deny that what you experienced is real and true. My experience was that I just needed to smoke more and got I acclimated to putting tobacco smoke into my mouth. But our issues may not be the same issue as @Filippo is experiencing. Just saying.
Even with the Borkum Riff Ruby I feel the same sensation even if less. I can't understand if it's me in general or the tobacco which is not suited for me
The simplest way I’d say to remember and think about it…
Is that, regardless of PH, tobacco varieties, casings, and toppings, is that someone’s genetics and body chemistry are the things that are the ultimate deciding factor on what someone can do, and that’s medical science also for anything in life.
genetic makeup…
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Some blends, especially so-called OTC codger blends, dry my mouth out horribly. I've blamed the Virginia type tobaccos for this. The effect on me is apparently not universal among pipe smokers.
English and Balkan blends do not dry my mouth out. I smoked some straight blending tobaccos, and discovered that perique and latakia actually make me salivate. Any blends with perique and/or latakia do not dry my mouth out, Hence Virginia-Perique (VaPer), English, and Balkan blends are OK.
Try some Peterson's Early Morning Pipe if you can get ahold of it. I don't know what you can purchase in Italy that is similar.