ZYN Blackcurrant Frost | 5 Cans

ZYN Blackcurrant Frost: Dark Fruit at Serious Strength

ZYN Blackcurrant Frost is where the range's fruit shelf and its heavy artillery meet: dark, tart cassis layered under a genuinely cold menthol frost, at 13.5mg per pouch in the moist Regular format. That is the XX-Strong tier, five dots on the lid, with only Menthol Ice above it in the entire UK range. A 5-can pack at NicotineBuzz costs £19.99, £4.00 a can against the official £6.50 single-can price.

Its previous-generation sibling, the 12.5mg Icy Blackcurrant, is still stocked separately; this page is the current 13.5mg Frost. Swedish Match, maker of the world's No.1 nicotine pouch brand and part of Philip Morris International, kept exactly one fruit flavour at this altitude, and blackcurrant earned the seat for a reason: it is one of the few fruits assertive enough to stay audible under this much cold.

Menthol First, Cassis Close Behind: The Taste

The order matters, and ZYN's own description gets it right: this is a cooling taste of menthol topped by dark berries, not a berry flavour with a chill. The first minute is proper frost, sharp and glassy, the kind that makes you inhale through your teeth on purpose. Then the blackcurrant surfaces underneath, tart and dark rather than sweet, closer to cassis than to Ribena, and the two settle into a long, cold, softly fruity equilibrium that holds for 30 to 45 minutes.

The berry is the supporting act and never pretends otherwise. People who want fruit-first should read that sentence twice before buying, because the frost here is structural. What the blackcurrant does brilliantly is round off the menthol's edges; where a pure ice pouch can turn austere by minute twenty, the dark fruit keeps this one interesting to the end. Honest caution from the strong-ice genre generally: at this strength and cold, the first few sessions can genuinely burn a little under the lip. It settles with familiarity, but the first can is an initiation, not a misprint.

13.5mg and Five Dots: What XX-Strong Actually Means

The ladder context makes the number meaningful. ZYN's UK scale runs from 1.5mg X-Low up through 3, 6, 9 and 11mg to this 13.5mg XX-Strong, with the 16.5mg Max tier above it belonging solely to Menthol Ice. Five of six possible dots. The format amplifies it: at 13.5mg the Regular pouch carries around 40 per cent moisture, the wettest spec ZYN makes, so release is immediate and full. In practice this pouch suits established users stepping up from 11mg, ex-heavy-smokers who found the middle tiers polite, and cold-flavour devotees who want fruit without surrendering strength. There is no lighter Blackcurrant Frost, no Mini, no half measure. It is this or a different flavour.

Blackcurrant: The Most British Berry ZYN Sells

An aside worth having, because it explains this flavour's UK following. Blackcurrant is a strangely regional taste; American palates barely know it, the fruit having been widely banned from cultivation in the US for a century, while every British childhood involves it in squash, sweets and winter remedies. That cultural memory is exactly what this pouch trades on. The cassis note lands on a UK palate as deeply familiar even at first try, which softens what would otherwise be an intimidating first can at this strength. It also explains why the flavour has no meaningful American twin to muddy the reviews; what you read about Blackcurrant Frost is written by people tasting the same thing you will.

Who Steps Up to This Tier, and Why

The 13.5mg tier is not a destination most people plan; it is where certain journeys end up. The typical Frost buyer followed one of three roads: the ex-heavy-smoker who found even 11mg fading into the background after a few months; the strong-ice devotee who wanted a second flavour beside Menthol Ice that was not simply more menthol; or the dark-fruit loyalist from Black Cherry who kept wishing it hit harder. All three arrive for the strength and stay for the balance, because this is the only place in the official UK range where XX-Strong and fruit coexist. What the tier does not suit is curiosity shopping. The strength gap between a 6mg Mini and this can is not a step; it is a flight of stairs.

Icy Blackcurrant, Frost, and the Occasional Forest

Two naming notes, both worth a paragraph of honesty. First, the family history: the 2026 refresh introduced the Blackcurrant Frost name alongside Icy Mint becoming Menthol Ice and Chili Guava becoming Guava Spice. But the previous-generation ZYN Icy Blackcurrant did not vanish; it is still sold as its own 12.5mg can, which we also stock. Treat the two as siblings: Icy Blackcurrant is the older 12.5mg pack, this Frost is the current 13.5mg spec, one dot-notch apart. Second, you will occasionally see this flavour listed as Blackcurrant Forest around the UK web, our own older listing included. Forest was never an official ZYN name; the official word is Frost, and the frost is very much the point. We have kept our web address stable for continuity while correcting the name everywhere it matters, so if you arrived here hunting either spelling, you are holding the right can.

What the Frost Regulars Say

Feedback at this tier is blunter than elsewhere, which makes it useful. The praise: long, cold, consistent, with several users noting the flavour survives the full hour better than any other strong pouch they have tried, the cassis keeping the back half interesting where pure ice tails off. The steady release of the high-moisture format earns repeated approval from ex-smokers who dislike the spike-and-fade of weaker cans. The criticisms are just as consistent: the first sessions bite, the berry is subtler than the artwork implies, and more than one reviewer wishes an 11mg version existed for easier days. Notably absent from the feedback is boredom. At five dots with dark fruit in the mix, whatever else this can is accused of, dull never comes up.

The Strong Shelf, Compared

Above 11mg the choices narrow sharply, which makes the remaining comparisons more useful, not less:

The sorting: Blackcurrant Frost is the only way to have dark fruit at the XX-Strong tier; Menthol Ice is the pick when strength itself is the goal and flavour can be pure cold; Blueberry Mint offers the nearest berry-plus-cooling profile one tier gentler. Everything at the heavy end of our shop, across all brands, lives in the high strength collection, and the full ZYN line-up with prices is on the ZYN collection page.

ZYN Blackcurrant Frost Specs at a Glance

Construction is the standard ZYN chassis: white pouch, nicotine salt on plant-based fibre, food-grade flavouring, pH adjusters, a sweetener and water in this moist format. ZYN's precise wording answers the tobacco question: the nicotine in ZYN is derived from tobacco, but ZYN does not contain tobacco leaf. Staining stays minimal, dark-berry artwork notwithstanding.

Handling 40 Per Cent Moisture at 13.5mg

Respect the spec and it behaves. One pouch flat under the upper lip, slightly off-centre, and expect the fastest onset in the ZYN range: cold, tingle and nicotine all report for duty inside the first minute. The initial prickle is stronger than anything the Mini tiers produce and settles within five minutes; newcomers to this tier sometimes mistake that settling-in for the pouch weakening, when it is actually their gum acclimatising. Sessions run 25 to 60 minutes, though plenty of users find 30 minutes ample at this strength, and there is no rule against retiring a pouch early; the can holds no grudges. Keep the tin somewhere cool and dry and the frost stays sharp to the last pouch. Swallowing saliva is fine, the pouch never is, and the catch lid stores the spent pouch. One at a time, especially here; this is the tier where doubling up stops being a joke and starts being a mistake with a name on it.

Not for You If

Walk past Blackcurrant Frost if you want fruit-first flavour, because the menthol owns the opening and never fully hands over; Black Cherry is the warm alternative and Blueberry Mint the cooler-but-gentler one. Skip it below an established 9mg-to-11mg habit; there is no beginner setting on this can and pretending otherwise ruins a £20 pack. And skip it if strong menthol has ever felt like an assault rather than a feature, because 13.5mg with 40 per cent moisture will not soften the argument. Newcomers belong in the low strength collection first. Still weighing pouches against Swedish snus generally? Our explainer on what snus actually is covers the tobacco and legality divide. NicotineBuzz sells to over-18s only, with age verified at checkout.

The Five-Can Maths

Official pricing is £6.50 a can, flat, no ladder discounts on-page. Our pack is five 20-pouch cans, 100 pouches, for £19.99, which is £4.00 a can, roughly 38 per cent under the single-can rate. Mix-and-match tiers then count every pack in your basket: two packs at £17.50 each (£3.50 a can), four or more at £15.00 each, £3.00 a can, and packs of any flavour or brand we stock all qualify, so a Frost habit can share a basket with something gentler for the mornings. The official listing is reachable via the official ZYN store, and if the real project is leaving nicotine behind, the free NHS Better Health service is the strongest thing on this page.

Updated July 2026. Strengths, formats and pouch counts checked against the official UK range at the time of writing.