Burned Tongue

Okay, so this little "science experiment" of mine did not involve either of my daughters, but I learned something that I can pass on to them at some point in their future should they do the same "experiment".  So what is this experiment of mine?  Well, it's called the "Burning Your Tongue" experiment.  It sounds painful because it is.  The other day I made a cup of hot chocolate and dumped it in my insulating cup in my office.  I do this about once a week.  When I make hot chocolate I microwave a cup of water until it boils, then dump it in with the hot chocolate mix and stir.  I then seal it up in the insulating cup.  I then let it sit for 15 minutes until the temperature is suitable for drinking.

My insulating cup.

Well, for whatever reason, after about 30 seconds of cooling I decided that the 15 minutes was up and took a big gulp.  OUCH!  I immediately discovered my mistake, but I couldn't spit it out because I was sitting in front of my laptop with no place to spit it.  I couldn't swallow it for fear of burning my throat.  Instead, I just held it in there for a few moments for it to cool before swallowing.  I knew right away I had burned my tongue and confirmed this by looking at my tongue in the mirror.

See those bumps?  Yep, that's my burned tongue.

Yep, that's a picture of my burned tongue!  I did a Google search to see if taste buds are actually destroyed when you drink a hot liquid.  I was pretty sure they weren't but I needed to double check.  The taste buds aren't destroyed, but the cells are damaged.  They repair themselves, but it can take 10 - 14 days to fully repair.  It's almost a week later and my tongue is much better, but I can still feel/taste that it isn't fully prepared.

So I learned something that I can pass down to my daughters.  Burning your tongue on hot liquid sucks, but doesn't permanently damage your tongue.  Not that that will be much consolation to them at time!