I tried starting up with pipe smoking but stopped b/c my mouth would get salty below my tongue. I thought it was b/c of how I packed it. Then I tried some John T's and the same thing happened. Is this normal? It doesn't happen w/ regular cigars. Anyone else experience this?

Pipe smoking and cigar smoking are completely different animals. I know exactly what you mean though. Try a diffent pipe... or different tobacco. There are many different combos that may improve your experiences with a pipe. If the problem continues, it may be the chemistry of your mouth. The chemical changes that cause tounge bite and bad breath may be your problem. Try a mouth wash called Biotene for the tounge bite. It may also do a kind of PH balance in your mouth. Just some thoughts.

ajeroth

Try a different tobacco. If you like cigars and they don't cause this problem then maybe you should try a blend with a little cigar leaf in it. Rubosto by G.L. Pease is one good example. Try to stay away from goopy, sticky aromatic bulk blends available at most tobacco shops. Instead, try something more natural like Pease, Esoterica, or Dunhill. These come in tins and are much higher quality. For more info on different pipe tobacco blends, explore this web site:

www.tobaccoreviews.com

There is a lot of good information there so don't give up!

Good Luck,

Stephen

It's very likely that your saliva is reacting to the flavored artificial casings of many aromatic tobaccos. There are some aromatics with natural flavorants, but they are usually only available from a few hand blenders, who are rapidly disappearing. I suggest trying a combination of black and gold uncased cavendish. You'll have to search a bit for cavendish that is not aromatic, but you'll find that it's a good place to start for a cool, non-biting tobacco. Then you'll move on to the Virginia, oriental, perique, Turkish, latakia blends. Spend a few bucks on a decent pipe. It makes a difference.