Nic salts explained: smoother hits, higher strengths, small kits

Nicotine exists naturally in tobacco leaf as a salt. The kind used in most traditional e-liquid is freebase nicotine, which is more alkaline and gets harsher on the throat as strength rises.

Nic salt liquids add an acid, most often benzoic acid, though brands also use others such as lactic or levulinic acid. The acid lowers the pH, and the result is a vapour that feels much gentler at the back of the throat at the same nicotine level.

That is the main practical difference. A 20mg salt can feel softer than a 12mg freebase, which is why salts are the default in pod kits and why many former smokers start with them.

UK law caps nicotine e-liquid at 20mg/ml, so salts top out there. You will usually see three options: 5mg, 10mg and 20mg. Some brands, including several Riot Squad lines, also sell hybrid salts that blend freebase and salt nicotine for a little more throat catch.

Most people pick based on how they used to smoke or what they vaped before. Heavier smokers often start at 20mg, lighter smokers at 10mg. Nicotine is addictive, and because salts feel smooth it is easy to take in more than you realise, so there is no prize for picking the strongest bottle.

Salts are made for mouth-to-lung (MTL) vaping: low power, tight airflow, small puffs. That means pod kits and pen kits with coils of 0.8 ohm and above, running somewhere around 8 to 15W. Kits like the Uwell Caliburn G3 Lite or Vaporesso Xros 5 Mini are built exactly for this.

In a sub-ohm tank at 50W or more, a 20mg salt delivers far more nicotine per puff than most people want, and the 50/50 base tends to leak through big coils. Keep salts in small kits and use 3mg shortfills or freebase in big tanks. Coil choice matters just as much as the kit.

Salts have been around in the UK since roughly the late 2010s and still attract some odd ideas. A few come from marketing, a few from forum threads, and a few from people mixing up nic salts with table salt, which is a fair mistake given the name. None of it is complicated once the chemistry word is out of the way.

Here is what is true and what is not. Tap each card to see the reality. If you are unsure about strength after reading, our 10mg vs 20mg comparison breaks the choice down in more detail.

Start with strength, then flavour. If you vape a lot through the day, 10mg in an MTL pod often feels just right. If you want the strong, short hit that bar-style kits deliver, 20mg is the closest match.

Flavour range is huge: bar salts copy popular disposable flavours, while traditional ranges such as Dinner Lady and Large Juice cover desserts, tobacco and fruit at 5mg, 10mg and 20mg. Buy two or three to rotate and you will dodge flavour fatigue too. The full nic salt range filters by strength, so you can narrow it down in a couple of taps.

One question before you go shopping, because it is the one most people get wrong when they upgrade kit. You have just bought a sub-ohm tank with a 0.2 ohm coil, set it to 60W, and you still have a drawer full of 20mg nic salts from your old pod kit.

Is that drawer going to be useful, or is it time to rethink what goes in the new tank? Pick an answer and see why. The logic applies to any big tank, whatever brand it is, and to any salt strength above about 5mg.