Which Cigarettes Have the Most Menthol?

WARNING: Cigarettes are addictive.

Menthol cigarettes are 37% of all cigarettes sold in the United States, the highest share on record, and every one of them contains menthol at a level the manufacturer does not publish. There is no official table of menthol content by brand, so this page explains what menthol is, how it gets into a cigarette, why some packs have more than others, which brands are built around it, and where it can and cannot be sold in 2026.

Last verified September 11, 2026. Sources at the end.

What menthol is and how it is added

Menthol is a compound found in peppermint and corn mint, and most of what goes into cigarettes is made synthetically. Manufacturers add it three ways, according to the FDA’s 2022 rulemaking record: sprayed onto the cut tobacco during blending, applied to the filter or the inner foil so it migrates into the tobacco over time, or sealed in a small capsule inside the filter that the smoker crushes to release it. A cigarette described as menthol typically contains at least 0.3% menthol by weight of tobacco, with some products running several times that. The federal government requires menthol cigarettes to be labeled as such but sets no minimum or maximum and requires no disclosure of the amount.

Its effect is physical rather than a flavor in the ordinary sense: menthol activates the cold receptors in the mouth and throat, which is why it reads as cooling and why it reduces the irritation of smoke. Public health agencies cite that property as the reason menthol cigarettes are easier to start on and harder to quit, and it is the basis for the regulatory history below.

Which cigarettes contain the most menthol

Nobody outside the manufacturers knows by brand, and the published research measures products rather than ranks them. What can be said from the record:

• Capsule cigarettes deliver the most menthol when the capsule is crushed, because they carry menthol in the tobacco plus a second dose in the filter. Most of the “Crush,” “Fusion” and “Oasis” style products sold by Camel, Newport and others are capsule designs.
• Within a brand, the “menthol” and “menthol gold” or “silver” packs contain different tobacco blends and filter designs, not different disclosed menthol levels. The color names replaced the “light” and “mild” descriptors banned in 2010 and describe the pack, not a menthol figure.
• Cigarettes sold as non-menthol can still contain menthol below the level at which it becomes a “characterizing flavor.” California’s attorney general has ruled on several such products since its flavor ban took effect, deciding in 2023 that some non-menthol packs from Camel, Kool and Newport were compliant and others were not.

So the honest answer is that “most menthol” is a property of the format (capsule versus none) more than the brand, and no brand publishes a number.

Brands built around menthol

Newport, launched by Lorillard in 1957 and owned by Reynolds (BAT) since 2015, is the best-selling menthol cigarette in the US and the second best-selling cigarette overall, with a 12.9% share of all cigarette sales in Nielsen’s December 2023 data. Three of its five current packs are menthol. Kool, introduced by Brown & Williamson in 1933 and now an ITG Brands product, was the first widely sold menthol cigarette and remains menthol-led; ten of its fifteen current packs are menthol. Marlboro, Camel, Pall Mall, L&M, Maverick, Winston and most other brands sell menthol packs alongside their non-menthol ones. The pack-by-pack lists are in the type guides: Newport, Kool, Pall Mall, Winston, L&M and Maverick.

Menthol’s share of the market

Federal Trade Commission data as compiled by the FDA and CDC.

Where menthol cigarettes are banned

The 2009 Tobacco Control Act banned every characterizing flavor in cigarettes except tobacco and menthol. The FDA proposed removing the menthol exemption in May 2022, sent a final rule to the White House for review in October 2023, and never issued it; the administration withdrew the proposal on January 21, 2025, and the lawsuit that had been filed to force the rule was voluntarily dismissed on October 27, 2025. There is no federal menthol ban and none is pending.

Two states have banned menthol cigarette sales outright: Massachusetts, since June 1, 2020, and California, since December 21, 2022. More than 170 cities and counties, most of them in California, had their own menthol or flavored-tobacco sales bans as of the CDC’s last count in 2023. Texas, where Saucey delivers tobacco, has no menthol restriction. Whether a menthol pack is available to you depends on your address.

Sources

• CDC, Menthol Tobacco Products and Addressing Menthol Products
• FDA, Tobacco Product Standard for Menthol in Cigarettes, proposed rule, May 4, 2022
• Tobacco Reporter, New administration withdraws FDA’s menthol ban bid, January 24, 2025
• Public Health Law Center, Proposed menthol rules withdrawn, February 2025
• Tobacco Reporter, Nielsen brand shares, December 2023
• Truth Initiative, Menthol: facts, stats and regulations