XQS - The Menthol | 10 Cans

XQS The Menthol: The Strongest XQS, and the Coldest

XQS The Menthol is the can the rest of the XQS range was missing. For two years the Swedish brand sold Britain a fruit bowl with one mint in it, and its strongest pouch was an 11.2mg Arctic Freeze. The Menthol arrives in two strengths, 11mg and 17mg per pouch, and the 17mg is the strongest XQS made, printed on the lid with all six bars of the brand's strength row filled in. The brand describes it in six words on its own site, "sharp menthol with a cool, invigorating burn", and that is fair: this is a menthol that hits fast with a clean, icy lift, builds quickly, and stays sharp without tipping into harshness. Each slim, all-white, tobacco-free pouch comes 20 to a can, and NicotineBuzz sells the 10-can pack for £39.90, which is £3.99 a can, dropping to £3.50, £3.33 and £2.99 a can as more 10-can packs of any brand share the basket.

Two things to know before buying. First, this is menthol, not mint: the cooling comes from the menthol compound itself rather than from a sweet peppermint or spearmint oil, so it reads colder, cleaner and more medicinal than The Peppermint, and there is very little sweetness to hide behind. Second, the 17mg is a serious can. XQS prints its nicotine per pouch, so 17mg is the dose you get, and that is more than double the 8mg most of the range runs at. If you have never used a pouch above 11mg, buy the 11mg.

Sharp First, Then the Cold Builds

The first minute is all menthol: a sharp, clean sting on the gum and a cold that climbs into the nose within a few breaths. There is no fruit and almost no sugar, which is the point; where Arctic Freeze is a peppermint with a sweet aftertaste, The Menthol is the cold without the sweet. By minute five the cooling has built to its peak and the nicotine has arrived with it, and on the 17mg that arrival is unmistakeable: a proper head-clearing hit that experienced strong-pouch users will recognise and everyone else should approach slowly.

From there it holds. The menthol is the longest-lasting flavour in the XQS range in our experience, still clearly cold at half an hour when the fruit cans have faded to a memory, and the nicotine on the 17mg outlasts the flavour rather than the other way round. The brand's own advice for any XQS is fifteen to sixty minutes; on this can the first one is better at fifteen, and the finish is clean, with none of the sweet residue a peppermint leaves.

It is the coldest of the four XQS mints. The Spearmint is soft and sweet, The Peppermint is bright and crisp, Arctic Freeze is icy peppermint with sugar, and The Menthol is the one with bite. If you like a VELO Ice Cool or a Nordic Spirit Mint at the strong end, this is the XQS for you.

Two Strengths: 11mg and 17mg per Pouch

XQS prints its strength per pouch, on the front of the can, under a six-bar row. The Menthol 11mg prints "11 MG" and five of six bars, and the brand's own site files it under Extra Strong; The Menthol 17mg prints "17 MG" with all six bars filled, and the brand calls that Ultra-Strong, a word it uses for no other can. On our site-wide scale the 11mg is listed as Extra Strong, to match the brand and our Arctic Freeze listing, and the 17mg as High, which is where every 13 to 19mg pouch we sell sits.

Per pouch, 11mg is level with Arctic Freeze, a four-dot VELO or a ZYN 11, and just above a Clew 10mg. 17mg is a different rung entirely: level with the strongest VELO and Nordic Spirit cans sold in the UK, above anything ZYN sells here, and about where a Killa lands once you convert its per-gram label. The brand publishes the pouch weight for its fruit cans (0.5g) and for Arctic Freeze (0.7g) but not for the mint line, so we do not quote a per-gram figure for The Menthol; if it uses the 0.7g pouch, 17mg would be about 24mg/g, but that is our arithmetic, not the brand's.

The step between the two is bigger than it looks. Six milligrams a pouch is the whole dose of a light can, so going from 11mg to 17mg is not "a bit stronger", it is half as much again. Our rule: 11mg if you use an 8mg XQS now or any four-dot mainstream pouch, 17mg only if you already use a strong pouch and the 11mg feels thin after a week. Nobody should start on the 17mg, and the XQS strength finder on our brand page will not suggest it to anyone who is not already there.

What the Label Says

The can is the 2026 XQS design: a glossy dark blue lid with a red slash, "THE MENTHOL", "NICOTINE POUCHES", the bar row and the milligrams, and "Deliciously Swedish, since 2006" around the rim. Inside are 20 slim, all-white pouches. The brand lists the format as slim on its site and does not print a pouch weight for this line. The ingredients are the standard XQS list: a plant-fibre bulking agent, water, nicotine, flavourings, salt, propylene glycol, an acidity regulator and a sweetener, with a UK nicotine warning and a batch number on the base.

The Menthol is part of the mint line XQS added to its UK range in 2026, after the March redesign, alongside The Spearmint at 6mg and The Peppermint at 10mg. It is a Swedish brand by origin, born in Jämtland and owned since 2023 by Scandinavian Tobacco Group, whose UK arm sells it from Hertfordshire; the brand's line is "Made by Sweden", and it does not say where the pouches are manufactured, so neither do we. The full story is on our XQS nicotine pouches page.

Wearing the Cold

Tuck one pouch under your top lip, slightly off-centre, and leave it. The menthol sting in the first minute is the flavour, not a fault; on the 17mg it is a sharp one for the first five minutes, and taking the pouch out early is the correct response, not a failure. Do not chew it, do not swallow it, and do not put two in at once whatever a forum says. The slim pouch sits low and drips very little, which is the thing XQS gets most right, and the cold makes it feel smaller than it is. Used pouches go in the bin, not the toilet; the can is fully recyclable once empty.

Two practical notes. Menthol and a cold drink do not mix, so if you want the full effect, keep the water for afterwards. And this is a can that suits short, deliberate sessions rather than an all-day habit: twenty minutes, out, and the cold lingers for another ten. Our how to use nicotine pouches guide covers the rest, and how many pouches a day is the question to read next before you commit to a 17mg habit.

The Strong Mint Shelf Is Crowded

At 11mg The Menthol competes with Arctic Freeze in its own range, with VELO's four-dot mints and with a ZYN 11 Cool Mint; the XQS advantages are the smaller, lower pouch and the cleaner menthol, and the disadvantages are packs of 10 only and a brand fewer people know. At 17mg the field is thinner: VELO's and Nordic Spirit's 17mg cans, Pablo Gold at a converted 17mg a pouch, and a Killa a little below. Against those The Menthol is the slimmest and the least sweet, and it is the only one in the group whose lid prints the exact milligrams per pouch rather than a word or a per-gram figure. Our mint nicotine pouches shelf puts them side by side, and our high strength shelf sorts the 17mg cans by dose.

Within the XQS Range

The Menthol 11mg and Arctic Freeze are the same rung on different pouches: Arctic Freeze is a sweeter peppermint on a heavier 0.7g pouch, The Menthol a colder, drier menthol on the slim mint-line pouch. If you like Arctic Freeze but find it sweet, move here; if you find The Menthol clinical, go back. Below both sit The Peppermint at 10mg, the all-rounder, and The Spearmint at 6mg, the soft one. Above The Menthol 17mg there is nothing in the XQS range at all; if you want stronger, Killa, Pablo and Iceberg start where XQS stops.

Who It Suits, and Who Should Buy Something Else

• Buy the 11mg if you use an 8mg XQS, Arctic Freeze, a four-dot VELO or a ZYN 11 and want a cleaner, colder mint at the same dose.
• Buy the 17mg if you already use a strong pouch, a VELO or Nordic Spirit 17mg, a Killa or a Pablo Gold, and want the same hit on a slimmer, less sweet pouch.
• Buy something else if you want sweetness (Arctic Freeze or The Spearmint), a single can to try (VELO and Nordic Spirit come by the can here), or anything above 17mg.
• Do not buy the 17mg as a first pouch, and do not buy anything here if you do not already use nicotine.

What Ten Cans Cost Here vs Out There

A pack of 10 cans of The Menthol, either strength, is £39.90 here, which is £3.99 a can and about 20p a pouch. Add a second 10-can pack of any brand and every can drops to £3.50, three packs to £3.33, four or more to £2.99. The brand's own UK shop sells single cans at £4.49, £3.49 a can in a 10-pack and £2.33 a can only if you buy 30, and runs a 4-can mint bundle for £12, which is the way to taste it before committing to ten. Every pack clears our free delivery threshold on its own, orders before 3pm Monday to Friday leave the same day, and next day delivery is £4.99.

The 11mg is waiting on the supplier as we write this, so its button says Back Soon rather than taking your money; the 17mg is in stock. Nobody has reviewed The Menthol with us yet, and we will not be inventing any stars before somebody does.