Mouth-to-lung is how most people vape in this country. You draw the vapour into your mouth first and then inhale, exactly as you would on a cigarette, and it is the style nearly every pod kit and vape pen is built around. Our guide to the advantages of each vaping style covers the difference in full.

The liquid you put in matters as much as the kit. An MTL device wants a balanced 50/50 blend at a reasonably high nicotine strength, and getting that pairing right is the difference between a device you enjoy and one that ends up in a drawer. Here are ten that work, and what to know about choosing.

1. QSalts Grape Ice

An icy hit of juicy black grape, and one of the more popular things we make. Nicotine salt at 5mg, 10mg or 20mg, around £3.32. The cooling note makes it an easy all-day option and the salt base keeps 20mg comfortable.

2. QSalts Pink Lemonade

Bubbly fizzy lemonade with a sweet strawberry mixer. Lighter than the iced flavours and a good choice if you find menthol too sharp. Available from 2.5mg through to 20mg, which is a usefully wide ladder, at around £3.32.

3. QSalts Blue Lemonade

Sweet raspberry crushed into zesty lemonade. Sits alongside the Pink Lemonade as the fruitier of the two, and holds up well as an everyday vape rather than a novelty. 5mg to 20mg, £3.32.

4. QSalts Lemon and Lime

Zingy, zesty and bubbly. The sharpest of the citrus options here, which makes it a good palate reset when a sweeter flavour has stopped registering. 5mg to 20mg, £3.32.

5. QSalts Banana Shake

Straight from the fridge and made fresh on the counter, as our own description has it. Creamy rather than sharp, and one of the gentler flavours in the range. From 2.5mg to 20mg, £3.32.

6. QSalts Strawberry Mango

Smooth strawberry yoghurt with a mango sauce running through it. More going on than a single-fruit liquid without becoming complicated, which suits people who tire of simple flavours quickly. 5mg to 20mg, £3.32.

7. QSalts Blueberry Gum

A blast of blueberry bubblegum, and unashamedly nostalgic. Sweeter than most of this list, so worth pairing with something sharper if you plan to vape it daily. 5mg to 20mg, £3.32.

8. QSalts Peppermint Candy

Cold and creamy peppermint. Softer than a straight menthol, which makes it a sensible bridge for anyone moving away from menthol cigarettes but finding full ice too aggressive. 2.5mg to 20mg, £3.32.

9. Pure Ice Menthol

Our most popular flavour across the whole shop, and the standard recommendation for former menthol smokers. A blast of minty chill backed with menthol. This one is freebase rather than a salt, from 0mg to 20mg at around £4.16, so expect a firmer throat hit at the top of the range.

10. Pure Virginia

Included because plenty of MTL vapers want tobacco rather than fruit, particularly in the first weeks. Blended for a smooth vape and a favourite among tobacco enthusiasts. Freebase, 0mg to 20mg, £4.16.

What makes a liquid right for an MTL kit

The ratio: 50/50

MTL kits use small, higher-resistance coils. A balanced 50/50 blend is thin enough to wick through them properly. Put a thick high-VG liquid in and it cannot keep up, which produces the dry scorched taste people mistake for a faulty coil. Everything on this list is suited to MTL hardware.

The strength: higher than you would think

Because each puff delivers a modest amount of vapour, MTL needs a higher nicotine strength to satisfy. Most people moving across from a regular smoking habit start at 20mg, moderate smokers at 10mg to 12mg, and lighter smokers at 5mg or 6mg. The UK maximum is 20mg/ml and every nicotine bottle is 10ml or smaller.

Salts over freebase, usually

At 20mg a nicotine salt feels considerably smoother than freebase. That is why the QSalts entries dominate this list. Choose freebase, like the two Pure entries, if you actively want a firmer throat hit.

How much liquid an MTL kit actually uses

One of the quiet advantages of vaping this way, and something worth knowing before you stock up. A tight mouth-to-lung draw uses a fraction of the liquid a sub-ohm device does, because each puff produces far less vapour.

In practice a 10ml bottle lasts a moderate MTL vaper the best part of a week, sometimes longer. That has two consequences. First, the price per millilitre matters much less than it does for sub-ohm vaping, so the apparent premium on a 10ml bottle is largely theoretical. Second, buying six bottles at once is usually a mistake, because open liquid is at its best within a couple of months and you will be working through them for longer than that.

Two or three bottles at a time is the sensible rhythm. Enough to rotate between, not so many that the last one is fading before you reach it.

Coils, and which of these are kindest to them

MTL coils are small, and sweeteners shorten their life. The sweeter entries above, particularly QSalts Blueberry Gum and QSalts Banana Shake, will darken a coil faster than the citrus or menthol options.

Nothing is wrong when that happens and it is not a reason to avoid them. It just means keeping a couple of spare coils at home and changing them when the flavour flattens rather than waiting for a burnt taste. If you want the longest coil life, QSalts Lemon and Lime, Pure Ice Menthol and Pure Virginia are the lightest on sweeteners of the ten.

Choosing between them

If you have just switched from cigarettes and want the easiest possible start, take QSalts Pink Lemonade or QSalts Grape Ice at 20mg. Both are forgiving, neither is challenging, and the salt base does the work.

If you smoked menthols, Pure Ice Menthol is the closest match, with QSalts Peppermint Candy as the gentler alternative. If you smoked regular cigarettes and want something familiar for the first fortnight, Pure Virginia.

Buy two bottles rather than one, from different ends of the list. Having somewhere to switch to when a flavour fades is worth more than getting the first choice perfect.

Browse the QSalts range, our nicotine salts collection, the full 10ml e-liquid range, or the menthol and ice flavours. We are rated 4.8 out of 5 by over 4,800 UK customers, and our friendly advisers will match a liquid to your kit in about a minute if you bring it in.