Twice Bitten?

[Richard Burley]

Anyone here ever experienced so-called bite from a cigar? I never have. I've smoked them almost one after the other, I've smoked them down to the nub, I've smoked good Cubans, I've smoked White Owls. I've had what you might call palate fatigue, but nothing approaching the tongue scorch that you get from heedless pipe smoking. Assuming similar experience, anyone know why this might be so? Just curious--youth wants to know, and it puzzles me haid.

:scratch:

 

[RDPipes]

Not that I'm any huge cigar smoker but, starting when I was 16yr I've had a few.
Never got bit once, a few dizzy spells back then but, no pain.

 

[loneredtree]

I have just read an article which indicates that TB is caused in part by alkaline smoke. The high PH is produced in high temperature combustion. Can it be that the open end and unconstrained end of a cigar and cold air for combustion makes for a cooler temperature than a pipe ?

http://binsbergenpipes.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4&Itemid=6

 

[J Soshae]

I believe most of the tongue bite I experience is steam from getting the bowl to hot. Open ended combustion on the cigar appears to burn drier.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Yes, I have, RB... from this sonofabitch:

...it was like someone took Jackknife and Escudo and rolled it into a hefty stogie and dared people to like it.   I was given one by one of the workers at my local B&M, because they know I like pretty rough-and-tumble smokes, and this thing set my tongue on fire, gave me a head-rush the first ten puffs, and I had to give up on it.    ale:

With my tail between my legs, I stumbled away with a new sense of respect for this cigar.

I've had Te-Amo cigars also give me some pretty intense whole-mouth-bite, too.  

For further interest and mention for the conversation:

There is a difference between tongue bite and tongue burn.   Burn happens when the combustion process is delivered in a manner where the heat reaches the sensitive parts o the tongue.   Steam is usually the culprit, which is the opposite of the "cool, dry smoke" we all seem to chase after one way or the other.   In a cigar, if it's the first 3/4 of the stick, it's unlikely the heat is reaching the tongue before, say your fingers holding the darned thing, or it's so damned dry it mainlines all the heat right through the middle.   Bite is pure chemistry--something you ate, your personal makeup, and adding the variable of a disagreeable tobacco that feels not unlike chewing on a handful of peppercorns, eating a spoonful of cayenne on a dare, or putting too much hot mustard on your egg roll.   It can linger for a while, too--I've had certain tobaccos ruin my tongue for a day or two with actual bite, so when I sense it beginning, I stop right away.

Which is why that LFD Oro cigar was put down right-quick.  

8)

 

[Richard Burley]

"Bite," to me, feels exactly like a razor cut on my tongue. Sucking hard candy, especially the citrus variety, for hours on end can produce the same thing. "Burn," to me, is probably as you say, Kyle. I don't like either one.

Here's a hypothesis I just pulled out of my dog's fundament: the draw diameter on a cigar is much larger than that of a pipe. Everything gets funneled down in a pipe to a wee aperture, and who knows what venturi effect or some damn thing similar happens to the smoke? Tentative proof: tiny cigars, with their tiny draw diameter, are capable of something very similar to "bite" in my experience. I had forgotten about those and the experience of smoking some of them.

What brought this on was a contemplation of the nosewarmer concept in pipes, and how I used to think that short pipes would deliver a hot smoke because of the shortness of the stem. Everyone seems to agree that this isn't true, and my own experience with the single one I have suggests that it's a myth or useless exaggeration. Further wool-gathering led me to the realization that the ember, or "cherry," on a nosewarmer is just as far away from your mouth as it would be if it were a cigar, and cigars usually don't bite. But pipes do... :?:

 

[puros_bran]

Pure speculation but I think it's demons in the briar. If you take it to a priest on the second Tuesday of the second week of the second month and have him say the correct prayers while burning incense and sprinkling blessed water on it in the dark of the moon in a holy circle he can tame it somewhat.


Either that or differing heat dissipation and sugar contents are to blame.

 

[mark]

Being an expert on nothing, I'll throw my 7 inflated cents in. You're drawing smoke through the cigar, the filler acts like a filter lessening the effect, whereas with a pipe the smoke has a straight shot to the tongue (filtered pipe or not).

Of course who knows what's sprayed on pipe tobaccos compared to cigar leaf. Which brings us to another discussion,,,They're harping about the harmful effects of tobacco and constantly campaigning, legislating and taxing, but requiring a label listing ingredients including chemicals, flavorings and "who knows what all" to the raw leaf isn't a consideration.

Maybe those smokers most concerned with their health could make a more informed choice of what they smoke if that information was available. Damn the manufacturers and their processing secrets.

 

[mark]

Look

 

[tslots]

http://tinyurl.com/qeyy2nj

Holy guacamole Batman! That list looks like a Campbell Soup label.

 

[ftrplt]

Hmmm...Interesting topic!!! I've smoked cigars for 51 years; never heard of or experienced "tongue bite" from a cigar. Now I've been "Nic-buzzed" by a few cigars :twisted: Head-swimmin', sick-to-my-stomach, ready to puke, nic-buzzed!!!! But no bitey!! FTRPLT

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Pilot-Mike, that cigar I posted was a first for me. Usually I smoke a cigar if I've had too much pipe time or I burnt my tongue tasting stuff while doing kitchen work--primarily because they are easy on the tongue.

I found it interesting RB queried this idea publicly mere days after I had this happen for the first time. :lol: I found it just as strange.

I can also say that since pipes have a straight-shot to the mouth and less tobacco to filter through, the chances of steaming the tongue are greater, but smaller cigars or cigars puffed too quickly will hold just as much steam and heat. <img class="emojione" alt="?" title=":shrug:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/emojione/assets/png/1f937.png?v=2.2.7"/> Cigars are pretty foolproof, usually. It'd be pretty depressing to shell out $15 to try a new stogie just to find out they laced it with birds-eye chiles. Fortunately that LFD Oro was a freebie, and not wanting it to go to waste, the giver happily adopted it after he saw my reaction. :lol:

Otherwise, it's cursed briar or damned stick, and well, a holy man might be necessary.