Fruit and mint vapes are the most popular flavour while less than 10% of vapes sold have either no or a simple tobacco flavour.
Data from online vape retailer Haypp shared with The Grocer shows that fruit flavours have accounted for 30.4% of vape sales since June’s disposable vape ban, followed by fruit and mint fusion (24.2%) and mint flavours (20.7%).
Before the ban, fruit flavours were even more popular, which Haypp said reflected a change in the products on sale rather than changing preferences.
Haypp also reported an age divide, with simple fruit flavours the most popular choice for vapers aged 18 to 54, and simple mint the most popular for those aged 55 and over.
“While overall, fruit flavours are most popular, there is a preference among older vape users for mint flavours,” said Markus Lindblad, Haypp head of external affairs. “This may be because older vapers who are former smokers may associate the flavour with menthol cigarettes, or mint may be a more familiar flavour for this age group.
“This does seem to be changing as flavour preferences are evolving, with people increasingly showing a preference for more complex and fusion-style flavours.”
Lindblad said the figures showed the importance of flavours for vapes and nicotine pouches to act effectively as alternatives to cigarettes, as the government considers introducing restrictions in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill currently progressing through parliament.
One-in-five 11 to 17-year-olds have tried vaping, according to the latest ASH youth survey. In a call for evidence, the government cited academic findings that children are attracted to fruit and sweet flavours and “fun and exotic flavour names”, and that “we will be consulting on restricting vape and nicotine flavour names in due course”.
Lindblad argued that restricting flavours would be more likely to drive an illicit market and reduce the number of adult smokers who switch to vapes.
“Academic research indicates that for adult smokers, flavours are an important reason they begin using vapes to quit cigarettes, and importantly, they are part of the reason they stay off cigarettes long term,” he said. “For many, flavours are the most important reason that smokers opt to switch to vapes, and so banning flavours does present a real risk of reducing rates of smoking cessation.
“There is real-world evidence of this happening. A study using a dataset involving 376,963 young adults in the US investigated how policies restricting the sale of flavoured vapes in the US affected smoking rates and cigarette smoking. The intention of the flavour bans was to reduce vaping, which it did, but it also saw an increase in rates of cigarette smoking.”
Earlier this month, ONS figures showed that vaping had overtaken cigarette smoking for the first time, with 5.4 million people aged 16 or over (10%) using an e-cigarette daily or occasionally in Great Britain, compared with 4.9 million smokers (9.1%) in 2024. The number of smokers has fallen from 19% in 10 years.
“The high number of adult smokers switching to vapes has been an important factor in this reduction,” said Lindblad.
He called for restrictions on marketing communications for vape producers and retailers to be relaxed. “Worryingly, recent data suggests that the rate of smokers making the switch to vapes has stalled. One of the reasons for this is that the majority of people in Britain who smoke now think that vaping is equally or more harmful. This misperception is now having a negative public health impact. It has arisen because of consistent misinformation about vapes in the media. The restrictions on what you can communicate about vapes needs to be reconsidered.
“The government needs to find a mechanism to enable manufacturers and retailers to communicate evidence-based information about the relative harm of alternative nicotine products or risk losing the progress that has been on smoking reduction over the past decade,” he added.
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