Menthol and mint vapes: icy, sweet or sharp, pick your style

Menthol is a compound found in mint plants. On its own it delivers a cold sensation with very little flavour, which is why a pure menthol liquid can feel like breathing in a frosty morning rather than tasting of anything.

Mint flavours add the rest of the plant's character. Peppermint naturally carries a lot of menthol, so it is bracing and sharp. Spearmint gets its taste mainly from a compound called carvone, which makes it rounder, sweeter and much less fierce: think chewing gum rather than mouthwash.

Once you know which of the three you like, shopping for menthol liquids gets a lot easier, because the label word tells you most of what you need.

Beyond the core three, mint turns up in a handful of combinations that each have their own fanbase:

• Fresh mint: a balanced, garden-style mint that sits between peppermint and spearmint.
• Menthol tobacco: a dry tobacco base with a cool finish, the obvious pick for anyone who used to buy menthol cigarettes before the UK ban in May 2020.
• Fruit menthol: berries, grape or watermelon with real menthol on top. The Heisenberg style of mixed berries plus menthol is the best-known example.
• Mint chocolate: rare, rich and divisive, like an after-dinner mint.

If you only want to try one, spearmint is the friendliest starting point.

Mint shines on a mouth-to-lung setup: a pod kit or small tank with a coil of around 0.8 to 1.2 ohm, filled with a 50/50 nic salt. The tighter draw keeps the cooling crisp without overwhelming you.

On a sub-ohm tank with a 70/30 shortfill, menthol becomes a lot more intense because you are inhaling far more vapour per puff. Plenty of people love that, but start at the bottom of the coil's wattage range. Too much power makes menthol prickly and harsh long before it makes it taste better.

If you vape nicotine, remember it is addictive, and mint does not change how strong a liquid is: a 20mg menthol salt is exactly as strong as a 20mg fruit one.

The things that wreck coils fastest are heavy sweeteners and thick, dark flavourings that leave residue on the cotton. Most mint and menthol liquids have very little of either. Many are almost colourless, and they tend to vaporise cleanly, so a coil running a plain peppermint usually keeps tasting fresh for longer than one running a custard.

The exceptions are sweetened mints. Spearmint gum styles and mint chocolate often carry sucralose, and that caramelises on the coil just like it does in a candy liquid. If a mint coil goes dark within a few days, check the bottle for a sweet note.

One quirk worth knowing: menthol's coldness can hide a coil that is past its best. If the cooling stays but the mint flavour has gone flat, swap the coil.

Mint gets more misinformation than any other flavour family, partly because of the 2020 menthol cigarette ban and partly because ice and menthol get lumped together. A few of the common ones are below, each with the actual facts behind it.

The big one to remember is that menthol and ice are separate tools. Ice liquids often lean on cooling agents that feel cold with almost no flavour, while menthol always brings a minty taste with it. If you think you hate mint vapes, you might simply have tried the wrong kind of cold. Tap each card to see the truth.

Mint is a strong flavour, so it works best with partners that can stand up to it or that taste better cold:

• Berries: the classic. Dark berries and blackcurrant take menthol beautifully.
• Watermelon: juicy and light, it turns into something like a summer sorbet.
• Grape: deep and sweet, mint keeps it from getting syrupy.
• Lime: mint, lime and a little sugar is basically a mojito.
• Tobacco: dry and toasty with a cool exhale.

Chocolate also works, but go easy: mint chocolate liquids are rich and best treated as a once-a-day treat rather than a constant companion. For more combinations, our flavour pairings guide covers what works across every family.