Hmm, maybe Pledge is made from these??

maybe it's just your taste changing a little; sometimes when I eat something strongly flavored, it will taste differently at different times, especially depending on what I ate before (like mint can mess up your taste right before eating something).

Anyway, considering that they have that lemon odor, you would expect them to smell like pledge, since that's also scented with lemon.

Anyway one thing I would try is growing them differently - get rid of that waterlogged problem, add any nutrients that might be deficient that cause these sorts of problems (Mg, Ca), and wait. They might start tasting normal again.

Also, that's weird about the cat. I read that cats don't like citrus odors, with recommendations for planting rue to repel them

Good suggestions.. I'll try those. I already dealt with the drainage problem and will look into the nutrients.

The cat problem was a real poser... I had a rue plant at the time, plus the two bushy lemon balms in a pair of 10" pots, and other smelly herbs besides... no good. Cat spray repellant, no good. Sonic repeller, no good. Water bombing when we saw her, no good. When she finally started leaving piles right on the deck for me to clean up, I was forced to bring all the plants in, because most of them are edible and I sure did not want to be eating *that* !

What finally solved it was a combination of neighbors moving (they had been feeding the feral kitty a few doors down) and me designing a cat-resistant barrier to put up at night. The deck only has one access point, even for an athletic cat, so it was much easier to protect than an open yard. Thankfully she never seems to stop by in the daytime, and with the neighborly food source gone, she has taken her feral kitty business elsewhere.

Notice I said cat-resistant... don't believe that anything is truly cat *proof* =)

I understand that many find the older foliage to have a less pleasant taste than new growth. Regular harvesting is the key.

I personally find little difference in taste between the new and old leaves on my plants but maybe more regular harvesting will improve the tastiness for you.

FataMorgana

I have always considered this one of those "it smells better than it tastes" kind of plants.

I think the older growth of lemon balm smells like Pledge too. Doesn't taste of it to me, but sure does smell of it. You might look into a new variety that is called Lemonella. It doesn't have that Pledge aspect to it. Also, there is an older variety called Lime Balm that really does smell of limes rather than lemon with no Pledge overtones. I grow all of these, plus dwarf lemon balm (no Pledge).