This is a first look, based on manufacturer specifications and FDA’s own paperwork — I have not used this product, so there are no scores. ZYN Menthol 6 mg is a 0.40 g pouch, 28 × 14 × 4.5 mm, with nicotine supplied as bitartrate dihydrate. Two documented things set it apart from its siblings: it is one of only two ZYN mints measured to contain menthol and no synthetic coolant, and FDA gives it a characterizing-flavour category of its own.
Scores on this site come from products actually used. I have not used this one, so there is no verdict and no flavour description — writing one would be inventing it. What a first look can do is say exactly what the thing is, and on an authorised, modified-risk-ordered product that turns out to be a great deal: FDA published a specification sheet, an order letter and a decision summary, and an independent laboratory has run the flavour chemistry across the whole ZYN mint range. For the company and the range, see the ZYN brand guide; for where it sits against everything else, the master ranking.
The specification
From Appendix A of FDA’s modified risk granted order of 30 June 2026, for this exact product — STN MR0000268.PD20 — cross-checked against the company’s own published figures.
| Specification | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Nicotine per pouch | 6 mg | FDA order, Appendix A: “Nicotine Concentration: 6 mg/pouch” |
| Nicotine form and origin | Nicotine bitartrate dihydrate; FDA records the nicotine source as “Tobacco” | ZYN US FAQ; FDA order, Appendix A |
| Characterizing flavour | “Menthol” — recorded as its own category, not as generic “Flavored” | FDA order, Appendix A |
| Pouch mass | 0.40 g; company says “approximately 0.4 grams”; independently measured at 405±18 mg across twelve ZYN pouches | FDA order; ZYN US FAQ; Jabba et al. 2023 |
| Dimensions | 28 mm long × 14 mm wide × 4.5 mm thick | FDA order, Appendix A |
| Pouches per can | FDA’s authorised specification says 15; the can currently sold is titled 20 Ct. See the next section | FDA order; ZYN product page |
| Declared can quantity | 6 g (15 × 0.40 g) | FDA order, Appendix A |
| Can | “Polypropylene Can and Polypropylene Lid” | FDA order, Appendix A |
| Format | Dry. ZYN’s own page contrasts it with the Ultra line: “Unlike ZYN nicotine pouches, which use a dry format, ZYN Ultra features a hydro-boosted moist pouch design” | ZYN product page |
| Other ingredients | Hydroxypropyl cellulose; “Micro crystalline cellulose, maltitol, and gum arabic”; sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate; acesulfame K; flavourings | ZYN US FAQ (line-wide, not flavour-specific) |
| Made in | “ZYN is produced in both Kentucky and Sweden at Swedish Match factories.” | ZYN US FAQ |
| pH | Not published by ZYN for any product, and not measured for this flavour by anyone | — |
| FDA authorisation | PMTA marketing granted order 16 January 2025; modified risk granted order 30 June 2026 | FDA |
| Other strengths | Menthol is sold at 1.5, 3, 6 and 8 mg. Only 3 and 6 mg appear on FDA’s authorised list | ZYN shop; FDA authorised list |
Fifteen pouches or twenty — the paperwork and the shelf disagree
FDA’s authorised specification for this product records “Portion Count: 15 pouches” and a “Product quantity” of 6 g. ZYN’s current product page for the same flavour and the same strength is titled “ZYN Menthol 6mg | 20 Ct Nicotine Pouches”. Its on-page FAQ explains why: “Most ZYN products now contain 20 nicotine pouches per can. Certain products and strengths may vary, so please refer to the product packaging or product page for specific pouch counts.”
Both counts are live inside this one flavour on one day. The 1.5, 3 and 6 mg Menthol pages are titled 20 Ct; the 8 mg Menthol page is still titled 15 Ct. Meanwhile ZYN’s general FAQ still states, flatly, “Every can of ZYN contains 15 nicotine pouches.” and “ZYN Nicotine Pouches are available in two nicotine strengths: 3 milligrams and 6 milligrams.” — a page that is now out of date on the count, the strength ladder and the flavour range, since the same site sells 1.5, 3, 6, 8, 9 and 11 mg and lists more than the “ten ZYN varieties available nationwide” the FAQ names. Treat that FAQ as a historical document rather than current specification; the current statement is on the product overview page, which says strengths “currently available in the U.S. include 1.5 mg, 3 mg, 6 mg, 8 mg, 9 mg, and 11 mg per pouch.”
One footnote worth having, because it makes the change less novel than it looks. Swedish Match’s own launch release for ZYN, dated 13 December 2016, reads: “En dosa ZYN består av 20 prillor, så kallade Niqopods®, som väger 0,4 gram vardera” — a can of ZYN consists of 20 pouches of 0.4 grams each. Twenty was the original Swedish configuration. The 2026 American move from fifteen to twenty is a reversion, not an innovation. Our count-by-brand page is here and will need updating as this rolls through the range.
What has actually been measured in a ZYN Menthol pouch
One study, and it is a good one. Jabba and colleagues, funded by NIDA and FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, bought ZYN in six flavours “at 3 and 6 mg nicotine/pouch strength between July and October 2022”, quantified the flavour chemicals by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and tested the extracts on human receptors. Their result for this flavour:
“Menthol was the only flavourant present in Zyn Cool Mint (5406±259 μg/pouch) and Zyn Menthol (1390 μg/pouch; online supplemental table 1).”
So: about 1.4 mg of menthol per pouch, as the only flavour chemical the method detected, and no synthetic coolant. The per-strength detail sits in a supplementary table I could not reach, so the honest scope is that the figure comes from a sample bought at both 3 and 6 mg and the published text does not resolve it to one. Set against the siblings measured in the same run, in the same laboratory, on the same day:
| ZYN flavour | What was detected |
|---|---|
| Menthol | Menthol 1390 µg/pouch — the only flavourant; no WS-3 |
| Cool Mint | Menthol 5406±259 µg/pouch — the only flavourant; no WS-3 |
| Peppermint | WS-3 201±11 µg; menthol 1,925±140 µg; menthone 791±55 µg; menthyl acetate 105±9 µg |
| Spearmint | WS-3 209±15 µg; carvone 1180±185 µg; menthol 470±44 µg |
| Chill | WS-3 234±7 µg — the only major flavourant |
| Smooth | Nothing detectable by their method |
That is a real distinction and it is measured rather than asserted. ZYN Menthol and ZYN Cool Mint ran on straight menthol with no synthetic coolant; Peppermint added menthone and menthyl acetate on top of WS-3; Spearmint ran mostly on carvone; Chill was coolant only. A later independent measurement at Roswell Park found slightly less menthol across ZYN flavours than Jabba reported — “menthol: 0.9 ± 0.1 vs. reported 1.4 mg/pouch in ZYN menthol” — and attributed the gap to “the difference in extraction time (15 minutes vs. 7 days) or from variations between ONP batches.” Two laboratories, the same compound, the same order of magnitude.
Why that matters for what a menthol pouch does to your mouth is set out in why some pouches burn and others don’t: menthol activates both the cold receptor TRPM8 and the irritant receptor TRPA1, while the synthetic coolants activate the cold receptor and barely touch the irritant one. A straight-menthol pouch is the more irritating chemistry of the two, on the receptor data. See also why mint pouches feel stronger than they are.
What has not been measured on this product: its pH, its free-base nicotine fraction, its declared-versus-recovered nicotine, and its release profile. Altria’s dissolution study measured ZYN Cool Mint 6 mg — 78.26 ± 0.77% soluble filler, 3.52 ± 0.08% moisture, pH 7.62 ± 0.01, 0.38 ± 0.002 g pouch weight, 5.4 ± 0.03 mg of nicotine recovered against a 6 mg label — and that is a different flavour, measured in a study funded by a competitor. None of it transfers. CDC’s seventy-product survey is scoped to products “labelled as being ‘tobacco-free’ nicotine”, which this is not.
What menthol is, in regulatory terms
Menthol is listed in 21 CFR 182.20, among essential oils and natural extractives “that are generally recognized as safe for their intended use, within the meaning of section 409 of the Act”, and separately in 21 CFR 172.515 as a synthetic flavouring substance, “Menthol; 2-isopropyl-5-methylcyclohexanol.” It does not have a part 184 GRAS affirmation — searching the whole of part 184 for menthol returns nothing. Those are three different statuses and it is worth keeping them apart.
For contrast, and because this gets written wrongly all the time: methyl salicylate, the wintergreen compound, appears in none of 21 CFR parts 172, 182 or 184. FDA addresses it instead in 21 CFR 201.303, a drug-labelling interpretation, which notes that “Because methyl salicylate (wintergreen oil) manifests no toxicity in the minute amounts in which it is used as a flavoring, it is mistakenly regarded by the public as harmless even when taken in substantially larger amounts. Actually, it is quite toxic when taken in quantities of a teaspoonful or more.” Nobody should write “FDA GRAS” for it.
Who this would suit, on the documents
On specification alone: somebody who wants the mainstream 6 mg tier in a dry, 0.40 g pouch at slim-ish dimensions, and who wants cooling from menthol rather than from a synthetic coolant. If you want less of the irritant chemistry at the same strength, a coolant-only product is the documented alternative; if you want more menthol, Cool Mint carried roughly four times as much in the same measurement. Whether any of that is pleasant I cannot tell you, and the regulatory position below applies in some states regardless of preference. Strength choice generally is the 6 mg tier; if you are coming off cigarettes, what strength should a heavy smoker start on.
Direct comparisons within the range: ZYN Peppermint 6 mg, ZYN Spearmint 6 mg and ZYN Wintergreen 6 mg, all first looks on the same basis. For mint products generally, the best mint nicotine pouches.
Regulatory status in the United States
This one is authorised, which is unusual among the products this site covers. FDA’s list states “There are 67 nicotine pouch products authorized by the FDA.” and “These are the only nicotine pouch products that may be lawfully sold in the United States.”, with page content current as of 30 October 2026. “ZYN Menthol 3 mg” and “ZYN Menthol 6 mg” both appear on it, as does “ZYN ULTRA Menthol 9 mg”. The list carries products under three manufacturer names — Helix Innovations LLC, Modoral Brands Inc. and Swedish Match USA, Inc. — though FDA itself states no company count on the page.
FDA’s standing caveat travels with all of that:
“While these products are authorized to be sold in the United States, it does not mean these products are safe, nor are they “FDA approved.” All tobacco products are harmful and potentially addictive. Those who do not use tobacco products shouldn’t start.”
On top of the marketing authorisation sits a modified risk order. “On June 30, 2026, FDA issued modified risk granted orders to Swedish Match USA, Inc. for 20 ZYN nicotine pouch products.” ZYN Menthol 6 mg is one of them. It is a single claim, a closed list of six named conditions, conditional on substitution for cigarettes:
“Using ZYN instead of cigarettes puts you at a lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis.”
Nothing else. No general claim that the product is safe, and emphatically no cessation claim: the orders run for “5 years from the issue date of this letter”, and FDA used the letter to put the company on notice that “any statements indicating that these products are intended to be used for the treatment or mitigation of tobacco dependence, including as smoking or tobacco cessation aids, would render the products to not be modified risk tobacco products under section 911”. A reduced-risk order is not a quit-aid endorsement, and FDA says so in the order itself. The products had already been authorised through the PMTA pathway “on January 16, 2025” — which was, in FDA’s words, “the first time the agency has authorized products commonly referred to as nicotine pouches”.
There is a gap worth naming. ZYN sells Menthol at 1.5 and 8 mg as well, and no ZYN product at either strength appears anywhere on FDA’s authorised list — nor do its Black Cherry, Peach or Dragonberry flavours. That sits against FDA’s own sentence about what may lawfully be sold. I am reporting the two strings side by side and drawing no legal conclusion from them. Our SKU, the 6 mg, is on the list.
Flavour bans: two states, and no menthol carve-out in either
California’s Attorney General describes section 104559.5 as a law that “prohibits the retail sale of most flavored tobacco products and tobacco product flavor enhancers”, and the statutory list of characterizing flavours expressly includes “menthol, mint, wintergreen, herb, or spice, or a cooling sensation distinguishable by an ordinary consumer during the consumption of a tobacco product.” The prohibition binds retailers.
Importantly, and contrary to how this is often written: the only California notice of determination naming ZYN covers “Zyn Chill 3 mg” and “Zyn Chill 6 mg”, on cooling-sensation grounds, and it is the sole ZYN entry on the Attorney General’s index. The widely quoted finding that the products “are presumptively FLAVORED under the California flavor ban law as of January 1, 2025” attaches to Chill, not to Menthol. No determination has been issued on this product.
Massachusetts binds manufacturers rather than only retailers, and reaches online sales in: “No person, retailer or manufacturer shall sell, distribute, cause to be sold or distributed, offer for sale any flavored tobacco product or tobacco product flavor enhancer in any retail establishment, online or through any other means to any consumer in the commonwealth”. Its definition of a tobacco product covers “a product containing or made or derived from tobacco or nicotine that is intended for human consumption”, and its characterizing-flavour list names menthol alongside mint and wintergreen. The statute’s out-of-state carve-out is limited to electronic nicotine delivery systems, so it does not help a pouch.
ZYN publishes no shipping-restriction list of its own — searching eight of its US pages for “Massachusetts” returns nothing — because it does not sell direct. Its only published hedges are “Not all products are available in all locations.” and that “due to local restrictions, not all varieties are available in all locations”. Where you can buy pouches state by state is covered in the global map.
The enforcement record
I queried FDA’s warning-letter database directly. Nineteen letters match “zyn”; eighteen concern ZYN and one is a substring false positive for an unrelated medical-device company. None is addressed to Swedish Match — a search for “Swedish Match” returns zero — and none mentions menthol. All eighteen go to online retailers and distributors, in two groups: selling non-US-authorised international ZYN varieties without a marketing order, and selling to a person under 21. A nonsense control term returns zero and “menthol” returns forty-two, so a zero from that endpoint is a real zero.
No marketing denial order exists against any ZYN product. And on counterfeits, the only usable material is the company’s own: ZYN states that its pouches, “like any other high-demand consumer good, are not immune to illicit trade”, and publishes guidance on broken QR codes and packaging errors. The FDA letters above are a record of diversion — unauthorised foreign-market stock sold into the United States — which is a different thing from counterfeiting, and I found no government record of the latter.
Sources
- US Food and Drug Administration, Nicotine pouch products authorized by the FDA, page content current as of 30 October 2026, read 4 November 2026.
- US Food and Drug Administration, Swedish Match USA, Inc. modified risk tobacco product applications — ZYN products, and the modified risk granted order letter of 30 June 2026, including Appendix A for STN MR0000268.PD20.
- US Food and Drug Administration, FDA authorizes marketing of 20 ZYN nicotine pouch products, 16 January 2025.
- Jabba SV, Erythropel HC, Woodrow JG et al., Synthetic cooling agent in oral nicotine pouch products marketed as “Flavour-Ban Approved”, Tobacco Control, 2023. Supported by NIDA (R56DA055996, U54DA036151) and FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products; no industry funding. The per-strength breakdown is in a supplementary table that was not reachable.
- Page M, Leigh N, Block A et al., Comparison of nicotine and selected flavoring contents between tobacco-free and tobacco-containing oral pouches, Nicotine & Tobacco Research. National Cancer Institute funded; one author discloses relationships with Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson outside the work.
- Platt SP et al., Dissolution and physical characterization of oral nicotine pouch products, Scientific Reports, 2026 — measured ZYN Cool Mint 6 mg, not Menthol. “This study was funded by Altria Client Services LLC, an affiliate of Helix Innovations LLC, the manufacturer of on! nicotine pouches.”
- Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, title 21 as of 30 October 2026: § 182.20, § 172.515, § 201.303, and the whole of part 184.
- California Department of Justice, California flavor ban, and Notice of Determination 24-11-A9, 12 November 2024, which covers Zyn Chill only.
- Massachusetts General Laws, c. 270 § 28.
- US Food and Drug Administration warning letter database, queried 4 November 2026 for “zyn”, “Swedish Match”, “nicotine pouch”, “menthol” and a nonsense control term.
- ZYN, ZYN Menthol 6mg product page, product overview and US FAQ, all read 4 November 2026. Company sources; the FAQ is out of date on pouch count, strength ladder and flavour range.
- Swedish Match, news release of 13 December 2016 announcing ZYN at twenty pouches of 0.4 g per can. Company source.
Last verified 4 November 2026.
