If you are suffering from burning tongue, then adding extremely hot sauce to your mouth may seem counterproductive, but in fact, the pain-signaling cells that are malfunctioning during a burning tongue episode can be blocked by capsaicin, the active ingredient in most hot sauces. If you mix a small amount of Tabasco with water and then drink it, the capsaicin will bind to the pain-signaling cells in your mouth and on your tongue. This will relieve the pain of burning tongue, although you may now just have a spicy mouth from the Tabasco. Even so, that pain will fade, and the burning tongue symptoms shouldn’t return.