Menthol is roughly a third of the US cigarette market by volume, and it is dominated by one brand. But the category spans several distinct styles, and knowing them makes choosing much easier.
United States
Newport is the largest menthol brand and the second-largest cigarette brand overall. Full-strength, heavy cooling, sweet. Our Newport Menthol is the reference product in this style.
Kool is the historic competitor, now much smaller, positioned similarly.
Salem and True have minimal current presence.
Several non-menthol brands also make menthol variants — Marlboro, Camel, Pall Mall. Those tend to be lighter on cooling than Newport, because the tobacco is meant to stay prominent.
Japan
Menthol is common and generally crisper than the American style. Mevius makes several menthol lines, including the E-Series we stock. Seven Stars is non-menthol but charcoal-filtered, which produces a similarly clean profile.
Japanese menthols tend to be less sweet and more cooling-forward than American ones.
Korea
ESSE dominates the menthol slim segment. Korean menthols are often delivered via capsule, letting the smoker choose when the cooling arrives. The slim format means a cooler, faster smoke.
The three styles, summarised
| Style | Character | Example |
|---|---|---|
| American full-strength | Heavy cooling, sweet, full tobacco | Newport |
| Japanese | Crisp, clean, moderate cooling | Mevius E-Series |
| Korean slim | Light, quick, thin rod | ESSE Super Slim |
What we stock
Four menthol cartons: Newport Menthol Box, Newport Menthol 100, Mevius E-Series Menthol 5mg and ESSE Super Slim 5mg. Our comparison piece covers how to choose between them.
What the American menthol market actually looks like
One brand dominates: Newport, where menthol is the entire identity of the product rather than a flavour variant. Alongside it sit a handful of full-line brands that offer menthol as one option among several, and a long tail of value menthols sold mostly through discount channels. The value tier is cheaper and, in our experience, noticeably less consistent carton to carton.
We stock one American menthol, Newport Menthol Box, in the standard king-size and in a 100. That is deliberate. Carrying a wall of near-identical menthols helps nobody, and a shorter list makes it easier to know what you are actually buying.
The Japanese and Korean menthols
Mevius E-Series Menthol uses a capsule in a 5mg cigarette and is the most approachable Japanese menthol we stock. ESSE Menthol Super Slim goes lighter and narrower, and is the cheapest genuine menthol carton in our range at $59.90. Both are capsule or lightly mentholated styles rather than the full American mentholated blend, which means they do not taste like Newport and should not be bought as a Newport substitute.
Korean menthols in general follow the slim format, so the menthol is delivered through a narrower column of smoke. That changes the intensity more than the flavour.
How to tell a real menthol from a mentholated plain cigarette
Look at the pack. A true menthol brand is menthol in every stick and the pack says so as the product name. A capsule cigarette is a plain cigarette with a bead in the filter, and the pack usually names both the base tobacco and the capsule. A “menthol” that is only menthol after you crush something is a different product category, and the distinction matters if you are trying to replace a brand you already smoke.
This is also the most common source of disappointment in online orders: someone buys a capsule cigarette expecting Newport and gets a light plain smoke with an optional cooling note.
Strength is not the same as cooling
Two independent variables. A cigarette can be full-flavour and lightly mentholated, or light-bodied and heavily mentholated, and the market contains both. Newport sits toward full-flavour with strong cooling. Mevius E-Series sits toward light with moderate cooling. ESSE sits light and mild. If you assume stronger menthol means stronger cigarette, you will mis-buy.
A note on the regulatory picture
Menthol is the only characterising flavour still permitted in US cigarettes. Statewide retail bans exist in Massachusetts, California and DC, with New Jersey legislating an extension in early 2026, plus several hundred municipal bans. Our state breakdown has the detail.