I got a major case of brain freeze today from an iced coffee- only lasted a few seconds but that was long enough for me to leave my body and dance the can-can with Jesus, Marilu Henner and one of the kids from ZOOM. Damn but that stuff is painful.
So I’ve heard “Stick your tongue to the roof of your mouth” but I tried this and it didn’t work for me- at least not instantly. Any other suggestions?
The Food Network actually did a segment on this where they had 3 people try several different foods to see which ones were the most prone to brain freeze, and which remedies were the most effective. They all found that sticking your tongue on the roof of your mouth was the most effective. The key is warming your palate back up, and the quickest way to do that is direct contact with something warm.
Sloshing warm liquid would probably work quickest, but your tongue is the most easily available.
Drink some warm/hot water.
Sticking your tongue on the roof of your mouth seems to work better (for me) in direct proportion to how much tongue touches how much roof of mouth. If you just touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, not much happens.
(May be obvious, may not be. YMMV)
I think it also matters how cold your tongue is. Say you sipped a Slurpee through a straw and the iciness was directed solely at the roof of your mouth, you’d get quicker relief from your tongue which didn’t get frozen when you sipped.
However, if you took a big spoonful of ice cream and it equally froze your tongue and the roof of your mouth, you’re not going to get much relief from putting your cold tongue on your cold palate. Gotta wait for the tongue to warm up before it can help.
Nothing works for me. The icepick that has been shoved up through my eyeball and into my brain, then twisted violently back and forth, remains in place.
I do the tongue on the roof of the mouth thing but I also rub it rapidly around the roof to create some heating friction.
Sucking my tongue up against my entire palate always worked for me.
The tongue thing never works for me. Slushies get me every time, too. Why does something so tasty have to be so painful?
Since we’re looking for opinions, let’s adjourn from General Questions to IMHO.
samclem Moderator, GQ
Slurpee hijack: Aside from not drinking Slurpees because they have approximately 1000 teaspoons of sugar, they make me cough the whole time I try to drink them. Weird.
Anyway, try drinking cold stuff slower. 
I think this was the problem today- it was an iced coffee and my tongue was cold as well.
Sampiro, have you tried making your tongue very flat? As in, not just pressing the tip of your tongue very hard to the roof, but flattening it first and then pressing hard? I find surface area helps the most.
Since the tongue is usually cold from the cold food or beverage as well, I find that the most helpful thing is to rub the hard palate with your thumb.
Drinking something warm always gives me immediate relief.
I usually remedy it y cupping my hands over my mouth, nose, and eyes, and exhaling hot breath - seems to warm up my sinuses and makes the pain go away quicker. Still, it’s irritating enough that I have pretty much given up really cold foods/drinks.
Are you doing the tongue thing correctly, though? Are you curling it back or just going straight up? Cause I do two things. I curl my tongue back and try to suck it down my throat so I get solid contact and then I exhale slowly from deep in my lungs where it’s warmest. That seems to work for me.