I'm a Noobie and I Need Help with Tongue Bite! Please!

[Chicken Cod]

EDIT: Fixed Capitalization in Title (See Rule 9) - Bob

Greetings brothers. This is my first post on this forum so if I am in any way straying from the proper decorum please let me know and forgive me in advance. Background: I have been smoking a pipe now for about three or four months. I've never smoked cigarettes and my experience smoking anything else is limited to the usual college-level sort of shenanigans, many, many, moons ago.

I started in November of last year, and in the beginning it was rough. Everything tasted awful. It felt like I was smoking an ashtray and I could not understand what it was that people find enjoyable about this experience. However, over time, I have slowly been able to gain a slight but still tenuous grasp upon the myriad flavors, subtleties, aromas, styles, and blends of tobacco available in the world today. I have bought dozens of bulk blends, as well as some tins. I am definitely drawn to the smell of aromatics but I agree with the prevailing sentiment that the taste rarely lives up to the promise of the tin or room note. Latakia is still inaccessible to me. Too much at the moment.

The first blend I developed any ability to enjoy was Lane 1-Q. Since then, I have expanded my menu of enjoyable smokes to include Autumn Evening by C&D, No. 150 Mark Twain by Sutliff, and Prince Albert. I have been averaging anywhere between one to three bowls per day, depending mainly on how badly burnt my mouth is by the time I succumb and how much pain I can tolerate once I light up.

I have tried resting my mouth for two or three days. I have tried Biotene. I have tried using only filtered pipes. But no matter what, even when I remember to puff as softly and slowly as possible, I have been unable to get through a single session without at least some not insignificant measure of soreness and/or burn on my tongue and the roof of my mouth. I am hyper and distractible by nature so I suppose it is definitely possible that I need to slow down even more, which is what every post I've ever read says about how to handle tongue bite. But I am wondering is this the sort of thing that should have gone away by now? Is it normal for someone to be suffering from tongue bite three months into this hobby?
Am I still not doing it right? Or is it possible that I am not cut out for smoking a pipe?

The other angle I have not fully grasped is the issue of pH. I gather that some types of tobacco are more acidic or basic than others and that their pH level can therefore have an appreciable impact on whether or the degree to which they will burn or bite your tongue.

Any information, resources, guidance or advice you may would be greatly appreciated.

 

[olkofri]

A primer for you: On Tongue Bite

 

[gervais]

In my experience (and most every case of bite I've had) is from getting the bowl started initially. So char light and true lights. I always tend to really huff and l huff to get it going good, and that more times than not, has lead to tongue bite and mouth burn. I have learned to not let this happen so often nowadays, which has made my experience much more pleasant.

 

[olkofri]

Constant relights is what kills you. Thus, hold the flame about 1/4 inch above the pipe's rim and let the superheated air ignite the tobacco, instead of touching the flame to the leaf: this is gentler on the mouth.

 

[Mr_Smokey]

I've only been smoking for two months myself but I smoke a lot of bowls per day. My tongue bite issues stopped when I stopped smoking aromatics all day and switched some for non-aromatics. I'm not sure if it's my biology or my cadence but I'm happily piping now.

I also find that the higher the flavouring level the more tongue bitey they are with me, you may want to check reviews and flavouring levels to see if there's a pattern.

Another thing may be the choice of toothpaste, some tend to burn the tongue a little. Maybe there are other things like that, spicy food or what-have-you.

I went on a merry dance looking for the cause of mine but after reading enough people's experiences I found the answer on here.

 

[mordy18]

I agree it may be how you light or relight the pipe. Google the frank method on youtube. There is a three part video by the german dude that developed it. Its a bit overcomplicated in a german kind of way but it works. In addition to the packing method he is very specific about how u light the pipe. Multiple - like 5 or 6 - initial lights, dont leave the flame over the tobacco for more than a second each time. His method works with most tobaccos (best with ribbons, less well with broken flake, not at all with crumble cake or whole flakes). But when it works i can smoke to the bottom of the bowl with little tamping and zero relights. I think that contributes to a cooler smoke.

 

[mothernaturewilleatusallforbreakfast]

Sip like a fine wine, treat it like a woman, but all of us experience tongue bite from time to time. As a noobie, you will have to go through a tongue conditioning of sorts, similar to guitar players building callases. We all have to pay to play.

 

[jpmcwjr]

The number one cause of tongue bite is moist tobacco, followed by smoking too fast. All nonsense about packing technique is just that. If your tobacco is at the right moisture, you need no "technique"; just load it and light it. Same with charring light(s). Bullshit. Not needed until and unless it the ember goes out.

This leaves out specific constituent tobaccos and toppings vs. personal chemistry- so try to note which blends irritate, even if just a little, and try something different.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

Who is Frank?

 

[olkofri]

I agree it may be how you light or relight the pipe. Google the frank method on youtube. There is a three part video by the german dude that developed it. Its a bit overcomplicated in a german kind of way but it works. In addition to the packing method he is very specific about how u light the pipe. Multiple - like 5 or 6 - initial lights, dont leave the flame over the tobacco for more than a second each time. His method works with most tobaccos (best with ribbons, less well with broken flake, not at all with crumble cake or whole flakes). But when it works i can smoke to the bottom of the bowl with little tamping and zero relights. I think that contributes to a cooler smoke.

Yes, but do note that Herr Frank uses a jetflame lighter, which is not recommended for pipes as it will char them real good (or worse): that's why he doesn't let the flame linger more than a second. With matches or butane or nafta, which burn way cooler than a jetflame you won't light anything, let alone properly or evenly, if you apply the flame for only a second.

I like Frank and his Frank Method for packing, but for lighting the pipe, I'd find a different teacher.

 

[hawky454]

My advise is just push through it, your mouth is acclimating and before ya know it, you’ll be smoking free of any discomfort. I’m no expert on the subject, I’m just letting you know how I did it.

 

[F4RM3R]

Smoke gently and dry your tobacco more. Alot of times it's really the steam which gives issues, dry tobacco = less steam scorching your tongue.

Dry tobacco stays lit better and allows you to slow down without the thing going out all the time.

 

[olkofri]

Careful with the drying, though. Aromatics will lose flavour if dried too much, in which case you might as well smoke cardboard. Also, as mentioned in that article above, tobacco that's too dry will burn fast AND hot.

 

[Chicken Cod]

Thank you to everyone for their responses. I will digest your input and soldier on. But I'm definitely going to have to take a day or two off because I really did a number on myself over the weekend. Saturday morning rolls around and once the coffee's made, I'm like, "MUST. SMOKE. PIPE!!!!" And it's all downhill from there. I'm really diggin' the hobby but I don't want to hobble myself too badly straight out of the gate.

 

[olkofri]

Self discipline, mate. I was gonna suggest cutting down to only a bowl per day during your early stages. You might be overwhelming your palate with more. Sometimes what is thought as 'tongue bite' is actually a rough aftertaste from the tobacco. Forget about 'all day blends' for the time being.

 

[cshubhra]

All the right things has already been said above - I will summarize them in short sentences (and priority I think as applies to you)

1. Dry your tobacco- I believe over drying is much better than over moist tobacco. I also believe this is your biggest problem based on what I read above
2. Change the tobacco blends
3. Sip slowly

Also ... understand if the packing is too tight or too loose you tend to puff fast ... so experiment with packing and draw

 

[docrameous]

I’ve been smoking a pipe for nine months and still have problems from time to time. For me it comes down to packing dry tobacco carefully - lighting gently - smoking slowly.

I am convinced most burn or bite for me comes from moisture and hot relights, but there are other contributing factors. If the bowl does not burn well, I relight more and I smoke faster trying to keep the bowl going and so the spiral goes!

So in more detail:

1. Beware of moisture - dry your tobacco if in doubt

2. Pack carefully according to cut - if in doubt when you do a test draw, dump it out and start over.

3. Light and relight gently - If the wind will permit, I prefer softer flames like matches and have even considered hemp wick

4. Drink something - preferably nonalcoholic and if ph is a concern, drink something like coffee

5. Smoke slow - if need be, use a watch to time your bowl, trying to use your cadence to make it last more than an hour. If the smoke starts to get hot, sit it down and let it go out, coming back to it in 15 minutes.

6. Tend your bowl - using a tamper to chase the ember a bit made a huge difference for me in reducing relights

7. Know your palette fatigue limit - everyone it seems is different. For me I am starting to doubt I will ever smoke more than a couple of bowls in a day, and most of the time it is just a single bowl.

8. Experiment - try different tobaccos and find one that becomes a ‘go to’ that is easy to smoke. I find when I need to revisit the fundamentals that I head to a burley based tobacco like Carter Hall. I for sure avoid aromatics and really wet tobaccos (I.e. SG Full Virginia Flake) if I am struggling a bit. Also because I smoke outside on the porch, if the humidity is really high I will smoke an easy burning tobacco.

At least for me, after the smoke my mouth does not do well with alcohol based dental products. (I.e. Listerene)

Last, I find that once I have bad tongue bite or burn a break is the best cure to reset things - several days off or even a week or so is much better in the long run to restore enjoyment, than to not enjoy it.

YMMV - hope this helps a little.

 

[karam]

Don't pay too much attention to lists and methods, I'd bet a lot of us who picked up pipe smoking in the internet age (so within the last 20 years!) got nervous trying to do everything "correctly", and then got very frustrated that nothing was working.

It will work, you just need to keep at it if you're enjoying it and everything will fall into place, you'll soon pack and light a pipe without even thinking about it, and smoke it through with 0-1 relights, no tongue bite and tons of enjoyment.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Part of the problem is a lack of context for the definition of "Puff".
Don't think about "Puff" energy as a linear 1 to 10 scale where a rating of "9" is "1x9".
This is a logarithmic scale, the same as the way Earthquakes are measured.
A "Magnitude 9" "Noob Puff" is not "Once Calm Puff x9", like nine calm puffs combined.
It's "One Calm Puff x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10".

There is a nebulous concept in the pipe smoking community called "Breath Smoking". It means different things to a lot of people, but to me it represents the smallest factor of "puff" that a person can possibly manage.

Sit in a comfortable chair, totally still, breathing through your nose taking slow shallow breaths, and just let the pipe sit in your mouth, do not move any muscle in your mouth.
After a few minutes you'll notice that the smoke coming out of the pipe develops a subtle cadence, and the flavour of the smoke trickles into your mouth.
When you learn to "Puff" on a near infinitesimally small scale you'll see how a "Noob Puff" can be millions of times more volume than this.

As others have mentioned lighting is the cause of 99% of my tongue bite. If I could invent a machine to light my pipes for me I could probably smoke multiple bowls per-day comfortably no matter the blend.
Sometimes I envision a future where there's an electronically controlled fan inside the pipe to perfectly maintain temperature without any user input, probably an idea as abominable as the automatic transmission was to car enthusiasts, but I digress.

For now I have two solutions. Preferably the cut and chemistry of the tobacco will allow a pipe to burn for more than a few minutes with minimal effort, OTC blends tend to do well, no doubt part of the reason they were so incredibly popular (Dunhill blends also tend to be cut very fine and burn quite well).
And I've had a few Aromatics that can actually run away building heat on their own and eventually requiring smothering. No doubt those were formulated to eliminate re-lights.

To the dismay of many, if I smoke a flake I'm going to use a Jet Torch to light it, basically no puffing required, but your pipe becomes mostly disposable in that scenario.

 

[philobeddoe]

Chicken Cod, try these tips. Remove the filter from your pipe, it can/will cause you to draw harder and stoke the ember hotter. Next, chose a easy tobacco like Carter Hall or better yet Peterson 965, then fill your bowl, gently drawing on the unlit bowl as you fill it, the pipe should draw with the resistance of soda through a straw. If it draws like air, then you’ve packed too light, if it draws like a milkshake, then you’ve packed too tight. Next, drink water as you smoke, it will help cool your mouth and it won’t interfere with your mouth ph. Soda can “burn” your already sore tongue. Lastly, relax, it’s a marathon not a sprint.