[Eichen]

From what I've read elsewhere, tongue bite can be caused also by your body reacting poorly to a certain tobacco. For example, pipe smoker A just loves red VA flakes; they smoke cool and flavorful for him. Pipe smoker B can't even light his pipe fully before the same tobacco leaves his tongue feeling like scorched earth (this has happened to me, I was being VERY careful too. The bite stayed with me for 3 days!). VAs have a reputation for having the greatest potential to bite. They can be a real challenge for me to smoke correctly, perhaps because of the body chemstry hypothesis that some mention. I guess you might say it's sort of like an alergy. For that matter, there's quite a few "alergic" to perique.

Just figured I should add that since I didn't see it yet in this thread.

Try something with latakia. If you like smokey highland single malts you'll probably enjoy a heavy latakia blend. Latakia is also generally very cool smoking (gentle) and slow burning. IHT apparently loves Da Vinci. I like that stuff too -- 75% latakia! Get a tin from JR. English blends containing Latakia may slow the burning rate of the VAs and make for a more pleasant experience for people who fear tongue bite from VAs.

Smokem slow; keep your hand on the bowl to check on how hot it's getting; try breath smoking.

-E