Both Nonsmoking Youth and Smoking Adults Like Sweet and Minty E-liquid Flavors More Than Tobacco Flavor

Abstract

Smokers may reduce their health risk by switching to electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use. As e-cigarettes are not harmless, concerns exist about e-cigarette use by nonsmokers and youth. E-liquids are available in many different flavors that increase sensory appeal. Flavor preferences may differ between user groups, which could open doors for product regulation. We investigated which e-liquid flavors are attractive to specific user groups by comparing liking between adolescent nonsmokers (n = 41; mean age 16.9 ± 0.8), young adult nonsmokers (n = 42; mean age 22.7 ± 1.7), and adult smokers (n = 56; mean age 39.7 ± 11.1). Participants smelled tobacco- (n = 6) and nontobacco (n = 24)-flavored e-liquids and rated liking on a 9-point labeled hedonic scale, and familiarity, overall intensity, perceived sweetness, perceived bitterness, and irritation of the odors on a 100-unit Visual Analog Scale. Mean liking ranged from 2.3 (whiskey) to 6.7 (peppermint). Within all groups, the typically sweet and minty flavors (e.g., wine gum, watermelon, peppermint, menthol) were liked significantly more than the tobacco-flavored e-liquids. The set of tobacco-flavored e-liquids was significantly, but slightly, less disliked by adult smokers (3.9 ± 0.2) than adolescent (3.1 ± 0.3) and young adult (3.4 ± 0.3) nonsmokers (P < 0.001). No between-group differences were observed for sweet and minty flavors. Liking correlated significantly positively with odor sweetness (R = 0.49) and familiarity (R = 0.48) and negatively with odor bitterness (R = -0.58), irritation (R = -0.47), and overall intensity (R = -0.27). Thus, sweet- and minty-flavored e-liquids are liked equally by young nonsmokers and adult smokers, and more than tobacco flavors. Banning all flavors except tobacco will likely reduce e-cigarette appeal; potentially more for young nonsmokers than adult smokers.

Keywords: consumer research; electronic cigarettes; flavors; hedonics; liking; smell.

Figure 1.

Mean liking ratings for individual e-liquids (n = 30), assessed by adolescent nonsmokers, young adult nonsmokers, and adult smokers. Products were ranked from highest to lowest mean liking score across all users (n = 139). The letters on the right y axis represent the categories of the 9-point hedonic scale: DE, dislike extremely; DVM, dislike very much; D, dislike; DS, dislike slightly; N, neither like nor dislike; LS, like slightly; L, like; LVM, like very much; LE, like extremely. Vertical bars represent standard errors of the mean. Significant differences between user groups are indicated with an asterisk (*). The same data are presented in Supplementary Appendix Table A2.