More About Tongue Bite

[joshb83]

I've noticed with my limited experience, that learning to smoke a pipe is like anything else, you can read all you like. It will help to prepare you and give you insight, but unless you do it, you'll never know. I started with some sweet aro's, and I still overall prefer the aro's, yet the tongue bite that accompanied the first few bowls, were enough to make me stop and figure out where I was going worng instead of pushing through the pain. My biggest issue was speed at which I was smoking, I smoked way too hot and packed too tight. Since I realized my fault, it was like a revelation, and I now I enjoy almost all the aromatics I try and never have an issue. What I'm trying to get at, is you need to keep working at it, and pay attention to how you're doing things, if you find something to be uncomfortable, then change things up and see what happens, either way once you find it, it'll all be amazing and pleasant smokes from there on.

 

[monty55]

Good luck with this. If you need to alleviate the tongue bite quickly I suggest brushing your tongue with baking soda and a little water, like a paste.. twice, followed by dipping your tongue in a small glass of hydrogen peroxide, leave your mouth open and tongue out and let it bubble, do that twice and rinse your mouth twice. Now you have pretty much cleaned your tongue and balanced the Ph of it. wait 24 hrs and you should be good to go. In addition, when I started pipes I also had a problem with it. I started to do the above procedure every day, and have never had a tongue bite problem since, but I also learned how to smoke properly and avoided wet tobaccos and cheap pipes.

 

[jorgesoler]

The key to success is to let your tobacco dry a bit before packing it into your bowl. Moist tobacco will smoke hot and will bite your tongue as you will need to puff harder to keep it lit. On another note, you will never get used to tongue bite. The more you gonna smoke on a sour tongue the more you are going to aggravate the problem. If you ever suffer from it, just let your tongue rest for a week or so and follow my instructions.

 

[saltedplug]

Tongue bite is a chemical reaction. As I've not experienced it I assume that others have not, either.
But smoking slowly such that my mouth tissue doesn't get overwhelmed by heat is something that I struggle with daily. To me cruising with the smoke at the proper cadence is the hardest thing about pipe smoking. I have to remember with every smoke. The most lauded, experienced smoker is said to be able to maintain the burn at a continuous smolder, just above going out. I keep wanting to take continuous, small sips. But that's still too fast. What works best for me is keeping a track of my mind going such that I smoke with slow finesse; that I smoke professionally, if you will. Contained within such assumption and delivery of expertise lies slow smoking.

 

[settersbrace]

Tongue bite v spicy? That's a new one. When I get bit it stays and it's painful and it's either play through the pain or lay off for a few days and let things re-set. For me it's orientals and white burley that have the greatest potential to scorch my tongue. I love both but have to be really careful when smoking or they'll get me, slow sipping, rolling the tongue back during the draw, pulling the smoke over the back of the mouth, etc are what I've got to do to avoid the burn. If I don't smoke my pipes regularly for a few months it's like starting all over again and once I get back into my regular 2-3 or more bowls a day, the tolerance begins to build and the chance of getting bit diminishes.

 

[mjzerby]

The blend of tobacco certainly makes a difference. Like others have stated, slow down. Just relax. If it get hot and starts to bite, lay off it for a few minutes. I've noticed if I just let it go out and relight it, the bite tends to die down. If it doesn't, the tobacco could be too moist, or it could just be the blend doesn't agree with your tongue.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Yep, smoke slow. When you think you're going slow enough, you're probably not. You won't see the wisps of smoke coming from my Virginia packed pipe as I smoke. You only ever see smoke coming from newbies smoking like a freight train. (But, by all means if this is your thing enjoy it. No rules!), but I never get bite and I smoke Virginias and VaPers all day.
Remember that if you are just making smoke, you are wasting all of that tobacco and nicotine goodness into the air. To get the most out of smoking a pipe, you should savor the smoke very slowly, allowing it time to soak into the blood vessels of your mouth. Otherwise, you might be more interested in playing with a dry ice machine or smoke balls.



Plus, it will bite you!!!

 

[settersbrace]

Cosmic, it's funny you mentioning the lack of visible wisps of smoke when you smoke Va's or VaPer's. I'm not allowed to smoke upstairs in the house, period but I'll never stop trying to see how far I can push the envelope. More than once in the last couple weeks I've sat in my recliner watching TV after coming in from the porch with a bowl of Capstan or DNR or the like and just sip, sip and sip for a goodly amount of time and the wife didn't have a clue that I was actually "smoking". She assumed I was just chomping the pipe like some pacifier or something like that. She has the nose of a bloodhound and I've darn near got it beat!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Ha ha, I was smoking at a street fair last week in town, and I was standing in line for food, talking to the mayor. Some lady with a child strapped to her came up with a police officer and asked why I was allowed to smoke in line at the food truck, which was the only place designated non-smoking. I just forgot that I had a pipe in my mouth. The mayor told them that I wasn't smoking, "he just has a pipe in his mouth." And, after they walked away, I puffed a little cloud and the mayor slapped me on the back, ha ha. He is a pipe smoker too, so we had a laugh.

 

[tarak]

Well there's one easy way to tell the difference between "spice" and "tongue bite"....brush your teeth...your mouth will let you know which one you've got!
I'll just reiterate essentially what many have said...while there are varying reasons for tongue bite/burn...most of them seemed to be remedied by experience...and for most of us experience means smoking slow, taking your time, not worrying about relights, taking small sips of the pipe rather than huge drags, etc.
As said, some just have blends their mouth doesn't agree with. I'm one of those "Mac Bite" guys that seems to struggle with MacBaren blends. Another forum member that used to be very active here just couldn't smoke Red Virginia no matter how much he wanted to.
For me, I seemed to get a lot of bite or burn from aromatics. Others don't, but I did. When I left those, and learned to slow down, it mostly went away. When I try to smoke fast again...boom. The other day I was smoking some G.L. Pease Maltese Falcon and the only way I seemed to get flavor was to smoke it hard and fast (which contradictory to most experience). I paid for it the next few days with a mouth the felt like I licked boiling hot pizza sauce out of the oven.
Remember the pipe is art; it is a thing of the soul. Smoke it as such. Don't try to make your pipe a chimney billowing plumes of smoke (although that is so darn satisfying) but enjoy the gentle wisps that come from a finely crafted tobacco and pipe, and your state of though and relaxation.

 

[misha66]

I'm back to smoking a pipe after 25 years off. I have smoked several aros and a Va/Per and I have never had tongue bite.

Is it something genetic? I'm not complaining but i find it odd that regardless of the cadence or type of tobacco I always

feel fine. I guess I'm lucky!

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

As far as I'm concerned "tongue bite" is just a chemical thing.

I remember the first time I tried a short stemmed pipe I noticed how warm the airstream was. Especially smoking a Chirchwarden in winter the temperature of the airstream is especially low, but that makes no difference to my mouth, it gets irritated regardless of the moisture content or temperature.

The only thing that makes a difference for me is to take the smallest puffs possible. Less exposure means less irritation. Two bowls with small puffs is still equal to one bowl with poor technique.

 

[maxx]

I read about Biotene in one of the threads here and tried it. It's an "oral rinse". You just squirt a shot from the bottle and swish it around your mouth. I think it helps with tounge-bite and dry mouth from smoking. Apple juice seems helpful, too.