How hot can a beverage get without burning the tongue?

Question

What is the maximum temperature that a beverage can be without burning the tongue?

I suspect there's a maximum temperature that the surface tissue of a tongue can withstand without being damaged (causing the burning feeling that lasts even after the heat goes away). So let's say I want to setup a device to keep my coffee to the right temperature to drink without damaging my mouth - I'm interested to know the highest possible temperature that will not damage the surface tissue of the tongue in a way that will result in lingering pain after the heat is gone.

Answer 1

Afaik the tongue is not more heat tolerant than other parts of the body, so the minimum temperature to cause burn is about drinking a beverage having 45°C temperature for a long time (more than 5 minutes). The pain threshold of tongue is around 47°C, so you will feel when it really burns.

According to studies the hedonic value of coffee has a maximum by 60°C, and it is significantly lower by safe levels (45°C). Frequent burns of mouth increases the risk of oral cancer. So I think this will be a hard choice... ;-)

A burn is an injury which is caused by application of heat or chemical substances to the external or internal surfaces of the body, which causes destruction of tissues. The minimum temperature for producing a burn is about 44°C for an exposure of about 5-6 hours or about 65°C for two seconds are sufficient to produce burns.

• Thermal injuries

I. With the object of producing standard low-temperature burns in animals, and of studying the area of tissue only partly damaged in a burn, a burning iron has been made capable of applying temperatures from 45°-80°C. to the skin; with this the amount of heat and temperature causing skin damage has been studied, and the macroscopic and microscopic damage due to graded temperatures have been delineated.

1. Graded temperatures of 45°-80°C. have been applied to the skin of shaved, anæsthetised guinea-pigs, and in some cases rats, for times varying from 10 sec. to 6 and 10 min. Observations have been made of the development of erythema, flare, blanching, blueing, heat fixation, incipient blister formation, œdema, and edge wheal, as also upon the later scab formation and rate of epithelium regeneration.

2. Applications of 47°C. up to 6 minutes produce no visible change.

3. At 50°-55°C. applied for 1 minute and over, there is a critical temperature for the development of permanent and irreversible damage; in animals good scab formation occurs after burning at this temperature.

4. After temperatures of 60°-65°C. the epidermis can be peeled off from the exposed area, leaving a punched-out exposed surface area somewhat like the exposed human blister.

• 1943 - EXPERIMENTAL THERMAL BURNS, ESPECIALLY THE MODERATE TEMPERATURE BURN

• According to Green the pain threshold of tongue is around 46-48°C.

  1985 - Heat pain thresholds in the oral-facial region

In all experiments, the chosen mean preferred temperature for drinking was around 60 °C (140 °F). Black coffee drinkers chose a slightly higher mean temperature than drinkers with added creamer, and they also chose a slightly lower mean temperature when the flavor was stronger. In all cases, consumers tended to choose, on average, temperatures for drinking coffee that were above the oral pain threshold and the burn damage threshold.

• 2006 - At What Temperatures Do Consumers Like to Drink Coffee?: Mixing Methods

Overall, the available results strongly suggest that high-temperature beverage drinking increases the risk of EC. Future studies will require standardized strategies that allow for combining data, and results should be reported by histological subtypes of EC.

• High-temperature beverages and Foods and Esophageal Cancer Risk -- A Systematic Review

Answer 2

This depends on a lot of factors, including how you take your first sip. If you sip with air, you are altering the temperature of the liquid as you sip, as well as decreasing the volume of hot liquid in your mouth, so that the increased surface area of your exposed tongue can quickly alter the temperature of a borderline scalding liquid into a non-scalding one.

So, there is part of the answer: it depends on volume, and time in contact with the tongue.

Most coffee pots keep coffee at about 170°F (77°C) - hot enough to scald your mouth.

This article, while not scientific, does discuss why people like foods at temperatures that cause scalding, and what better temperatures are. But the public wants what it wants.

Safety experts recommend that water heaters be set at 120°F (49°C) because you will not sustain a first-degree burn on contact, which is important if one has mobility problems. At 120°F (49°C), it takes 8 minutes of contact to acquire a second degree burn. At 155°F (68°C), it takes one second.

So, to guarantee no scald on contact with a small volume of coffee, I would think 145°F (63°C) would be about right. (At 140°F (60°C), liquid will scald in 3 seconds. If you don't chug your coffee, this seems safe enough. If you chug, it will scald.)