Lemon balm
A soft lemon-scented member of the mint family, grown across Europe and used domestically far more than commercially. Its aroma fades quickly in drying, which is why the fresh leaf is markedly better than anything sold in a packet.
Identity
- Botanical name
- Melissa officinalis
- Family
- Lamiaceae
- Part used
- Leaf
- Origin
- Southern Europe, northern Africa, western and central Asia
- Drunk in
- Germany, France, Balkans, Iran
Character
Softly lemony and slightly green, with none of the sharpness of actual citrus. Dried material is a shadow of the fresh leaf.
Notes: lemon, cut grass, faint mint
History
Named from the Greek for honeybee, after the plant’s use in attracting swarms to hives — a beekeeping plant before it was a drinking one. Monastery gardens spread it across medieval Europe.
How it is drunk
A garden plant across Europe and drunk fresh from it. Commercial dried lemon balm exists but the tradition is domestic, which is why the plant is far better known than the product.
Production
Cut before flowering, when the leaf is most aromatic, and dried in shade at low temperature. It is one of the most heat-sensitive botanicals in this catalogue and browns easily.
Preparation
Infusion
Herbal infusion (tisane)
1–2 g/100 ml · 95–100 °C · 5 min
Category-typical practice rather than a measurement for this specific botanical. Most infusions are far more tolerant of a long steep than tea is.
Common mistakes
- Buying it dried and expecting the garden plant. Grow it or buy it fresh.
Related botanicals
- Chamomile — Both soft, sweet and low in bitterness, and both are drunk domestically across Europe rather than bought as speciality products.
- Lemongrass — Both give a lemon character without citrus fruit, from unrelated plants on different continents.
Comparisons
- Linden vs lemon balm — Two soft European household infusions with almost no bitterness, and the practical difference is that one is gathered from a street tree over a fortnight and the other grows in any garden all summer.
- Spearmint vs lemon balm — Two soft mint-family leaves, one of which tastes of mint and one of which does not. The pair that shows how wide the Lamiaceae reach beyond the flavour the family is named for.
Evidence for this page
The botanical name, family and distribution above are checked against an external authority. Melissa officinalis L. — GRIN-Global Taxonomy record— retrieved and read, not countersigned by a named human. That source covers naming and distribution only. Everything else on this page — history, culture, production, flavour, preparation and buying advice — is TeaHQ’s own synthesis with no external source behind it.
Brewing parameters here are typical practice for the category rather than measurements of this plant, and each set says so.
This page makes no safety claim. It describes what Lemon balm is, where it comes from and how it is prepared — not what it does to a person. The absence of a safety note here is not a statement that the plant is safe. How TeaHQ handles this.