So I gave my grandma some peppermint and some lemon thyme last night. To me I had no pain. The peppermint tasted like a peppermint candy cane and the lemon thyme tasted like lemon peel or almost like lemon cake to me. My grandma remarked that both burned her tongue. I have never heard of a phenomena where herbs burn someone’s tongue. My mother claims it is because of what she eats since she eats bland things with salt and pepper like chicken nuggets but I don’t understand how that would contribute to a burn.
does she think mayonnaise is spicy? I’m not really joking, she might just think any kind of flavor is too much.
there’s people living on boiled chicken breast with salt, canned peas “washed off”, and plain mashed potatoes
I don’t envy em but some people just don’t like flavors. any kind of flavors. they’ll say a sweet tomato is “hot and spicy”.
if it was one or the other of the things I might suggest she’s mildly allergic but the two different plants? I don’t think it’s that.
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She will eat mayonnaise but she does not tend to season her food that is for sure.
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If she eats really bland food and finds mint spicy, she might be on the autistic spectrum - I say that as an autistic who loves spices, but mint is a pretty common flavour avoided by a lot of us and many autistic people have specific bland or safe foods that they’ll eat while avoiding others.
I personally love fresh mint and grow 6 different kinds, and 3 kinds of thyme including lemon thyme (plus dozens of other herbs), but I can’t handle any mint flavoured toothpaste or mouthwash - those literally burn my mouth, it feels worse than a hot chilli to me - my eyes water, nose runs, mouth burns, the works! I think it’s the concentration of the essential oils or the synthetic equivalents, but maybe for your grandma, even the natural concentration in fresh mint leaves is too much?
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my mother in law insists that everything I’ve ever cooked is stuffed with Mace spray.
the woman eats her coleslaw dry lol. I’m, as they say, “ethnic” so I just tend to add herbs, spice, flavor to everything - she doesn’t even like strawberry in her lemonade, it’s too “weird”… I’ll never understand it but I’m glad I don’t have to cook for her often. (when I do, I don’t change a thing, like everyone else, she can like or lump it)
I mean she doesn’t like any kind of garlic that’s not straight from the big grocery store. no onions except occasionally a few slices of yellow Spanish in a cooked meal. herbs “burn” like all herbs - thyme, mint, oregano. at restaurants she scrapes everything off her food to the side of the plate and tries to “unseason” things 
they only spice she will eat is a rare sprig of cilantro on a plain burger meat and orange cheese taco? I’m not latina but I’m sure her tacos are an affront to this continent
my partner never had any kind of food besides boiled meat and canned stuff and fast food until we started dating. he loves everything spicier than I like it, so I keep the sauces out on the table for him when we eat.
@fruitbat I would have thought the same but to react to both lemon and mint, and to say they’re “hot”, didn’t sound like the same thing. my nephew has sensory issues but would not call the things he avoids “burning” flavor, he just wouldn’t like them.
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It may simply be a case of not being used to flavoring like my mother said. I have never personally heard of this until now.
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@reasonanteye The thymol in thyme and menthol in mint are similarly volatile (… and tasty!) oily chemicals, if it was mint and lemon (the fruit) I’d totally agree with you, but mint and lemon thyme would probably have a similar sensory impact - I’d suspect she’d also react strongly to verbena, and maybe rosemary, but I wonder how she’d tolerate mandarin balm or blackcurrant sage…
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that’s sensible. and a good question.
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