E-liquid used to mean menthol or plain tobacco. Those still exist, but the shelf now runs from circus cookie to loaded glazed donuts, and the range can make choosing hard. To make it easier, we sort flavors into four groups below. Find the group that sounds like you and start there.
Some background on how many people are choosing: a CDC data brief based on 2014 figures put the share of American adults who vaped at 3.7%, which works out to more than 9 million people across ages and races. Those figures predate much of the growth in devices and flavors that followed.
Fruit flavors
Fruit is the category nearly every vape shop stocks deeply, because almost everyone likes it. Typical choices are strawberry, melon, dragon fruit, pineapple, guava, mixed berries, watermelon and cantaloupe. Their main advantage is that they hold up over a long stretch of use. A novelty flavor can wear thin quickly, while a fruit blend is something most people are happy to come back to day after day.
Sweet and dessert flavors
Dessert fans are well served. Alongside the circus cookie and glazed donut blends mentioned above there is Holy Cannoli French Toast, plus at least three milk-based pairings: milk with Cookies, with Donuts, or with Loops, the last one being a cereal-bowl flavor. If your taste runs to older-style desserts, apple bread pudding is the one to try.
Adventurous flavors
This group is for people who like to try something off the usual list. Bacon e-liquid exists, and so does a Red Bull flavor. Other adventurous flavors we like:
- Cheesecake fantasy
- Egg custard
- Pancakes
- Circus coconut cake
- Rocket pop, modeled on the summer-holiday ice pop
As a rule, if you can imagine a flavor, somebody probably bottles it. When nobody does, you can blend flavors to make your own.
Plain weird flavors
One step past adventurous sits the strange end of the market. A few of the weird ones we like:
- Crab legs
- Black pepper
- Beer
- Hot dog, without the mustard or ketchup
They are odd, and nobody will judge you for being curious.
Where to go from here
Whichever group you land in, there is a flavor made for it, and trying a few is a cheap experiment in what you like. Once the flavor is settled, the next decision is the device. Our guide to choosing a vape covers that.