Flavored tobacco products—tobacco products with added flavorings—include types of cigarettes, cigarillos and cigars, hookahs and hookah tobacco, various types of smokeless tobacco, and more recently electronic cigarettes. Flavored tobacco products are especially popular with youth and have therefore become targets of regulation in several countries.
According to a 2013 survey of internet tobacco retailers, the most common flavors are apple, cherry, chocolate, honey, grape, menthol, mint, peach, rum, strawberry, "sweet" (including bubble gum, candy, mango, blueberry, strawberry, orange, gum mint, and toffee) and vanilla.
Flavored cigarettes Cigarettes may be flavored to mask the taste or odor of the tobacco smoke, enhance the tobacco flavor, or decrease the social stigma associated with smoking. Flavors are generally added to the tobacco or rolling paper, although some cigarette brands have unconventional flavor delivery mechanisms such as inserting flavored pellets or rods into the cigarette filter. Cigarette flavors include anise, clove, cinnamon, spearmint, wintergreen, citrus, fruit, and alcoholic drinks (especially rum and cocktails). Flavors may be added to the tobacco, cigarette paper, filter, or even to the foil wrapper. Some tobacco companies have developed unconventional flavor delivery systems, including polymer pellet technology, using a flavored filter pellet (polyethylene bead), flavor micro-encapsulation in the paper or packaging technology, flavor fibers inserted into the filter, and flavored tips. Flavorings are typically added at the end of the cigarette manufacturing process. Flavored cigarettes are heavily preferred by youth, with research in 2004–2005 finding that United States adolescents and young adults used major brands of flavored cigarettes at 2 to 3 times the rate of adults aged 25 and older.
Beedi
One common type of flavored cigarettes are beedis, a small, thin, hand-rolled cigarette originally from India, where they outsell regular cigarettes by a ratio of eight to one. Another is kretek, a cigarette made with a blend of tobacco and cloves that is popular in Indonesia. No flavored cigarettes, including menthol, beedis, and kreteks, are safe. Indeed, many flavorings produce increased levels of acetaldehyde when combusted, enhancing dependence and toxicity. Additionally, some flavorings in cigarettes contain toxic compounds such as alkenylbenzenes.
Menthol cigarettes
The most popular cigarette flavor by far is menthol, which represents 10% of the global cigarette market and over 25% of the market in countries including the United States, Singapore, the Philippines, and Chile. Menthol is a chemical found in plants of the mint family that produces a cooling sensation in the throat. It is often used as a cigarette additive to mask the flavor and feel of the tobacco smoke or to improve the throat and mouth feel of the cigarette. Menthol increases the addictive properties of the nicotine in cigarettes, in part by increasing the density of nicotine receptors in the brain.
In the United States, menthol cigarettes are used disproportionately by African Americans: more than 70% of African-American smokers primarily use menthols, compared to approximately 30% of White American smokers. In fact, menthol tobacco marketing is specifically targeted to African Americans; it is a subject of research and it has been a subject of litigation on discrimination grounds. This high use by African Americans is largely the result of deliberate marketing campaigns by tobacco companies, which exacerbated small racial differences in menthol cigarette preferences into large ones. Racial marketing strategies changed during the Fifties. The civil rights movement led to the rise of African-American publications, such as Ebony. This helped tobacco companies to target separate marketing messages by race. Tobacco companies supported civil rights organizations, and advertised their support heavily. Industry motives were, according to their public statements, to support civil rights causes; according to an independent review of internal tobacco industry documents, they were "to increase African American tobacco use, to use African Americans as a frontline force to defend industry policy positions, and to defuse tobacco control efforts". There had been internal resistance to tobacco sponsorship, and some organizations are now rejecting nicotine funding as a matter of policy. Tobacco company Lorillard even gave out free menthol cigarette samples to children in black neighborhoods in the U.S. in the 1950s.
In addition to high use by African Americans, menthol cigarettes are used disproportionately by adolescents, women, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans. LGBT Americans are twice as likely as straight ones to use menthol cigarettes, according to CDC research. Where these demographics overlap, menthol use is especially high: most female LGBT smokers use menthols, as do 80 percent of African American youth smokers and 70 percent of LGBT youth smokers. Tobacco companies have targeted the LGBT community with advertising for menthol cigarettes, most notably through Project SCUM.
Cigars
Little cigars, both cigarette-sized ones as well as mid-sized cigarillos, are typically flavored, unlike full-size, hand-wrapped premium cigars. Studies describe little cigars and cigarillos as cigarette-like products whose flavorings and packaging can make them more appealing and palatable, particularly to young adults. Small cigars and cigarillos are disproportionately used by lower income and less educated people, young people, African Americans, Hispanics, LGBT people, and men. Usage of flavored cigarillos has grown explosively, with sales in U.S. convenience stores up 50% between 2008 and 2015, after tripling between 1997 and 2007. Among adult and youth cigar users, about 40 percent use flavored cigarillos. The most popular flavors for cigarillos are fruit (38.8 percent), sweet or candy (21.2 percent), and wine (17.0 percent). Flavored cigarillos are popular with lower income and younger people in part because they are inexpensive and are promoted by tobacco companies as affordable alternatives to cigarettes. Unlike cigarettes, cigarillos can be sold in small packs of one or two each for around 99¢ for two. In many jurisdictions, cigarillos and other cigars are taxed at lower rates than cigarettes, making them more appealing to low-income populations, including youth, young adults, and the unemployed.
Electronic cigarettes
E-liquid, the nicotine-containing liquid used in electronic cigarettes, is usually flavored. E-liquids come in a myriad of flavors, including mint, spice, fruit, and candy ones. A 2017 survey of internet e-cigarette retailers found 15,586 unique flavors of e-liquid and counting, up from the 7,764 found in a 2014 analysis. In surveys of regular e-cigarette users, the most popular e-liquid flavors are largely tobacco, mint and fruit, although candy and dessert flavors are also common. Mango is the most popular JUUL flavor. Fruit flavored e-liquid is the most commonly marketed e-liquid flavor on social media. Flavored e-liquids form a major part of the appeal for using e-cigarettes, especially for youth, for whom flavoring is cited as a major reason for using e-cigarettes.
Some e-liquid flavorings are toxic. Systematic reviews concluded that non-tobacco e-cigarette flavours may increase appeal and harms, while evidence on their effects on smoking initiation and cessation remains inconclusive. Cinnamaldehyde is a highly cytotoxic material in vitro used in cinnamon-flavored e-liquids. Cinnamaldehyde have been identified as cytotoxic at the amount of about 400 times less than those allowed for use by the US Environmental Protection Agency. A 2018 in vitro study found that exposing lung cells to liquid or vapor containing cinnamaldehyde causes significant and rapid damage to their cilia and mitochondria. This led the authors of the study to conclude that "inhalational exposures of cinnamaldehyde may increase the risk of respiratory infections in e-cigarette users." Some e-liquids containing cinnamaldehyde stimulate TRPA1, which might induce effects on the lung. E-liquids contain possibly toxic aldehydes and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Many flavors are known aldehydes, such as anisaldehyde, cinnamaldehyde, and isovaleraldehyde. A 2012 study found butterscotch flavor was highly toxic with one liquid and two others had a low toxicity. A 2014 in vitro study demonstrated that e-cigarette use of a "balsamic" flavor with no nicotine can activate the release of proinflammatory cytokine in lung epithelial cells and keratinocytes. Some additives may be added to reduce the irritation on the pharynx. The long-term toxicity is subject to the additives and contaminants in the e-liquid.
Certain e-liquid flavorings contain diacetyl and acetyl propionyl which give a buttery taste. Diacetyl and acetyl propionyl are associated with bronchiolitis obliterans ("popcorn lung"), a serious lung disease. A 2015 review recommended for specific regulation of diacetyl and acetyl propionyl in e-liquid, which are safe when ingested but have been associated with respiratory harm when inhaled. Both diacetyl and acetyl-propionyl have been found in concentrations above those recommended by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Diacetyl is normally found at lower levels in e-cigarettes than in traditional cigarettes. Concerns exist that the flavors and additives in e-cigarettes might lead to diseases, including the popcorn lung. The cardiovascular effects, including a vast range of flavorings and fragrances, is unknown. The irritants butyl acetate, diethyl carbonate, benzoic acid, quinoline, bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, and 2,6-dimethyl phenol were present as undeclared ingredients in the e-liquid. Hindering safety assessments of e-liquids is the fact that the precise ingredients of e-cigarettes and e-liquids are not known.
On 21 June 2024, the FDA authorized four menthol-flavored NJOY e-cigarette products for marketing in the United States; Reuters described it to be the agency's first authorization of flavored (non-tobacco) e-cigarette products.
July 2025, the FDA also authorized the marketing of JUUL device and tobacco- and menthol-flavored JUULpods in both 3% and 5% nicotine strengths. That same year, the FDA authorised four Glas e-liquid pod products, including two that were non-tobacco and non-menthol products, marking the agency’s first authorization of ENDS products in that flavor category. The authorization came with device-access and marketing restrictions intended to limit youth use.
With the current popular trend of flavored e-cigarettes use among young generations, there is concern about the potential long-term health of the public.
Heated tobacco products
Heated tobacco products are frequently flavored. It is possible that these products could appeal to non-smokers, especially since they are available in various flavors.
Nicotine pouches
Nicotine pouches are oral nicotine products that may be flavored but do not contain tobacco leaf.
On 16 January 2025, the FDA authorised several ZYN nicotine pouch products, including flavoured varieties, through the Premarket Tobacco Product Application (PMTA) pathway. The products for which marketing grants were issued by the FDA are as follows, each with two nicotine strengths (3 mg and 6 mg):
ZYN Chill ZYN Cinnamo ZYN Citrus ZYN Coffee ZYN Cool Mint ZYN Menthol ZYN Peppermint, ZYN Smooth, ZYN Spearmint and ZYN Wintergreen.
Hookah