Every Newport Cigarette Type: A Guide

WARNING: Cigarettes are addictive.

Newport is the second largest cigarette brand in the United States and the largest menthol brand, made by R.J. Reynolds since 2015 and by Lorillard for the 58 years before that. Its US line runs to roughly 30 pack styles across two families, menthol and non-menthol, in king and 100 mm lengths and in box and soft packs. This guide lists every current style by the name printed on the pack, explains how the families and colors relate, and covers the brand’s history and where its menthol packs can and cannot be sold.

Last verified September 11, 2026 against the New Jersey (June 2025) and Oregon (July 2026) state tobacco directories, which list every style certified for sale. A listing means the style is legal to sell in that state, not that every store carries it. Sources at the end.

The brand

The lineup

Menthol styles

The green pack is the original 1957 product and the one most people mean by “Newport.” Gold, Blue, Smooth Select and Platinum are separate blends within the menthol family. Newport Lights became Newport Menthol Gold in 2010 when the FDA banned “light” and “mild” as descriptors; the word “Smooth” in Smooth Select is part of the registered product name as printed on the pack, not a description, and it is listed here for that reason.

Non-menthol styles

Lorillard launched the first red-pack Newport Non-Menthol in November 2010 and Non-Menthol Gold in October 2013. Reynolds has added most of the rest since 2021, several of them in response to state menthol bans (see below).

Styles that have appeared in state directories or retail listings but are not in the current Oregon or New Jersey lists, and may be discontinued or regional: Newport Boost and Boost Gold (menthol capsule filter), Newport EXP Menthe, Newport Platinum Silver, and the Newport Medium and Newport Platinum names still used in some catalogs.

History

Lorillard, the oldest tobacco company in the United States, introduced Newport in May 1957 as its first single-entry menthol brand, in the same wave that produced Salem (1956) and the repositioning of Kool. Sales peaked at 8.7 billion cigarettes in 1965, fell to 4.1 billion by 1972, and then grew for three decades on the strength of the menthol segment: Newport Lights arrived in 1977, the box 100 in 1984, and by the end of 1992 Newport had passed Kool and Salem to become the largest menthol brand and the third largest cigarette brand overall. It has been the No. 2 brand behind Marlboro since the mid-1990s.

Reynolds American agreed to buy Lorillard for $27.4 billion in July 2014, chiefly to get Newport, and completed the deal on June 12, 2015; to satisfy antitrust review it sold Winston, Kool, Salem, Maverick and the blu e-cigarette brand to Imperial’s ITG Brands for about $7.1 billion. British American Tobacco bought the rest of Reynolds in July 2017. Newport was made at Lorillard’s Greensboro plant, which passed to ITG, for a transition period, and is now made at Reynolds’ Tobaccoville plant near Winston-Salem. BAT reported Newport’s US volume down 11.1% in 2024, in line with the market, while noting growth in the soft-pack styles.

Menthol and the law

Because most of Newport’s sales are menthol, the brand is the one most affected by menthol restrictions. The FDA proposed a nationwide ban on menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes in May 2022, sent a final rule to the White House in October 2023, and never issued it; the proposal was withdrawn on January 21, 2025, and the lawsuit seeking to force it was dismissed on October 27, 2025. No federal menthol ban is in effect or pending.

Two states ban menthol cigarette sales: Massachusetts since June 1, 2020, and California since December 21, 2022, plus more than 170 cities and counties. After the California ban took effect, Reynolds introduced Newport Non-Menthol Green and the EXP non-menthol styles there; in April 2023 the California attorney general determined that Non-Menthol Green was “presumptively flavored” because it contained a synthetic cooling agent, Reynolds sued, and California amended its law to cover cooling sensations. Reformulated 2025 versions of the green non-menthol pack and the Newport Reserve line tested with no detectable cooling agents and are on California’s unflavored list. Texas, where Saucey delivers tobacco, has no menthol restriction.

FAQs

Are Newport cigarettes menthol? Most are. The five menthol families (Menthol, Menthol Gold, Menthol Blue, Smooth Select and Platinum Blue) are the core of the brand; the non-menthol line has grown to about nine families since 2010.

What is the difference between Newport Menthol and Menthol Gold? They are different blends with different filter designs. Gold was sold as Newport Lights until 2010; the descriptor was banned because it implied a lower risk that does not exist, and the color name replaced it. Neither pack discloses a menthol or nicotine figure.

Who makes Newport? R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, in North Carolina, owned by British American Tobacco. Lorillard made it from 1957 to 2015.

What do Newports cost? The cigarette is a small part of the price; federal tax ($1.01), state tax (17 cents to $5.35 depending on the state) and local taxes are most of it. The full breakdown, with every state’s rate, is at How Much Does a Pack of Cigarettes Cost?

How does Newport compare to other brands? On facts, in the comparison pages: Marlboro vs Newport, Camel vs Newport and American Spirit vs Newport.

Sources

• Oregon Department of Justice, Tobacco Directory, July 21, 2026; New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, Tobacco Directory, June 30, 2025
• Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising, Newport brand history
• Reynolds American, Building Brands; BAT, completion of the Reynolds acquisition, July 25, 2017
• Tobacco Reporter, Nielsen brand shares, December 2023; menthol rule withdrawn, January 2025
• Public Health Law Center, Proposed menthol rules withdrawn; California Attorney General, Unflavored Tobacco List and 2023 determinations