The Mint Marathon: 26 Cans, Five Brands, One Podium

This is the mint roundup I kept promising in July. I said it would be up in August, and it's going up a day early. I tasted every pure mint pouch we stock against the others, 26 cans from five brands, until I had an overall winner and a pick for each category.

Stock note, October 2026: not all 26 are available today. Not currently listed: all three Iceberg mints, Pablo X Ice Cold and ZYN Icy Mint. Sold out, each with a notify-me form: the three Pablo Gold mints and White Fox Black Edition. Sold out at one strength: ZYN Cool Mint Slim 6, Spearmint Slim 11, the 1.5 mg minis and Menthol Ice 13.5. The winning cans (White Fox Double Mint, ZYN Spearmint Slim at 6 or 9, ZYN Cool Mint Slim at 9 or 11, Pablo Exclusive Frosted Ice) are all in stock, and I've left the results below as they were.

How we compared them

The first rule is pure mint only. If the fruit is the main flavor and the mint is just there to cool it down, the can is out. That rules out Apple Mint, Blueberry Mint, Cool Blueberry and Cool Watermelon. They're good pouches, but they belong with the fruit flavors.

Second, mint isn't one flavor. Peppermint is sharp and clean, spearmint is sweeter, and menthol numbs. Words like frosted or ice on a can usually mean a cooling agent is doing most of the work, not actual mint leaf. I won't go through all of that again here. Our guide to peppermint, spearmint and menthol and our guide to the cold words on cans have the details, and this post assumes you've skimmed at least one of them.

Third, I didn't rank by strength. A 30mg can that tastes harsh isn't a better mint than a 9mg can that tastes like a candy cane. Everything we sell is $9.99 a can, so price didn't break any ties either. Flavor came first and strength second.

Last, this is one person's taste, and people argue about mint more than any other flavor. Your picks may be different from mine. I still think mine are right.

Iceberg

Most of Iceberg's lineup is novelty flavors like Gummy Bears, so its mints are a nice surprise. There are three, all in one Standard strength of around 12mg, and none of them try anything strange. Iceberg Black is the brand's signature mint and the one I'd keep: a dark, clean, lightly sweet peppermint that tastes well made. Double Mint mixes peppermint and spearmint and comes out rounder than you'd expect. Sweet Mint is a dessert mint. If "after-dinner toothpaste" sounds like an insult to you, skip it. If it sounds fine, you'll probably like it.

Pablo: the same mints at three strengths

Pablo splits its mints across three lines. Gold has Frosted Ice, Frosted Mint and White Mint at 17mg. Original sits in the middle at 24mg with Ice Cold and X Ice Cold. Exclusive brings back Frosted Ice and Frosted Mint at 30mg, the highest strength we sell, and adds Blue Mint. Since the names repeat at different strengths, you can pick your mint first and your strength second, and I think that's the most useful setup of any brand here. Read our explainer on the three Pablo lines before you order any Pablo.

The Frosted cans taste more of cold than of mint, and I don't mean that as a complaint. Frosted Ice in the Gold line is the best-made Pablo mint, because at 17mg you can actually taste the cool without 30mg of nicotine drowning it out. Frosted Mint is just as cold, with a little less brightness. Ice Cold and X Ice Cold are blunt and cold, with not much else going on. White Mint is the mildest Pablo, and the one I'd give a ZYN regular who's curious about the brand. Blue Mint is the first of two cans in this roundup I won't buy again. It puts a sweet blue candy flavor on a 30mg pouch, and it doesn't work for either the candy crowd or the 30mg crowd. When I want candy, there's a whole Iceberg lineup for that. At 30mg, I just want the mint to do its job.

VELO

VELO names its mints like weather reports, and our post on VELO's mint names goes through all of them. Crispy Peppermint and Peppermint Storm each come in one strength, around 10mg, and honestly they're close enough that there's no reason to own both. Storm is the other can I won't buy again. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's too much like Crispy. Freezing Peppermint is the one with a real range of strengths: 10, 14 and 17mg. Polar Mint is the most underrated of the four. It's rounder and softer, it comes in 8mg (the 3-dot can) and 14mg (the 5-dot can), and it's the VELO mint I actually finish whole cans of.

White Fox

White Fox has five products in the store, and all five are cold mints, with no fruit or cola anywhere in the lineup. Original (12mg) is the famous one, piney and herbal. Peppered Mint (12mg) is in the same style but cleaner. Double Mint (12mg) layers spearmint over peppermint in one pouch, and I'll happily argue with anyone that it's the best mint in the store. Full Charge (16mg) is Original turned up. Black Edition (17mg) is the strongest White Fox, and it's my honorable mention for best strong mint, because it hits very hard and still tastes like something. No other brand in this roundup is this consistently good.

ZYN

ZYN comes from Swedish Match, a snus company through and through, and its mints are carefully made. There are six pure mints, and between them they cover the whole strength range. Cool Mint minis come in 1.5, 3 and 6mg, and Cool Mint Slim comes in 6, 9 and 11mg. No other brand here sells the same mint at both 1.5mg and 11mg. The flavor is a plain, decent mint, and the Slim at 9mg is my everyday pick out of all 26 cans.

Spearmint Slim (6, 9 or 11mg) is the best spearmint we sell. It's fresh and lightly sweet with no chemical aftertaste, and the Spearmint minis cover 1.5 to 6mg for lighter days. Icy Mint comes in 9.5 and 12.5mg (ZYN measures in half milligrams), and it's colder and sharper than Cool Mint. Menthol Ice (11, 13.5 and 16.5mg) is the only true menthol in the roundup: you get the numbing first and the flavor second. If menthol is what you like, nothing else we carry comes close.

The winners

Overall winner: White Fox Double Mint. It has two mints in one pouch, each doing its own job, with spearmint up front and peppermint underneath. At 12mg it's right in the middle of the strength range. The other twenty-five cans all got boring at some point during the test, and this one never did.

Best spearmint: ZYN Spearmint Slim. It's the cleanest spearmint we carry, and the mini version goes as low as 1.5mg.

Best everyday: ZYN Cool Mint Slim, 9mg. It's deliberately plain, and VELO Polar Mint in the 3-dot can is a softer runner-up.

Best strong mint: Pablo Exclusive Frosted Ice, 30mg. It's the coldest can we sell at the highest strength we sell, so go easy with it.

Best low strength: ZYN Cool Mint minis, 3mg. If you already use nicotine and want to try pouches, this is the gentle end of the range. Our roundup of the lowest-strength pouches covers all the lighter options.

Wouldn't buy again: Pablo Exclusive Blue Mint. Candy sweetness and 30mg are a bad match. I'd also skip VELO Peppermint Storm, since Crispy already does the same thing.

If none of these suit you, choose the kind of mint first (peppermint, spearmint or menthol) and the strength second. The brand usually sorts itself out from there.

All the picks

• Best overall: White Fox Double Mint, 12mg, with both mints at once. It never got boring.
• Best spearmint: ZYN Spearmint Slim.
• Best everyday: ZYN Cool Mint Slim in 9mg.
• Best strong mint: Pablo Exclusive Frosted Ice at 30mg.
• Lightest: ZYN Cool Mint minis at 3mg (the 1.5mg is sold out).
• Skip: Pablo Exclusive Blue Mint, and one of the two VELO peppermints. They're so alike that it doesn't matter which.

If you want to try them yourself, our mint page has every mint we carry right now.

WARNING: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.