Dessert flavours are the indulgent end of vaping. Custards, ice creams, bakery notes and coffee blends, generally richer and heavier than fruit, and much better suited to the evening than to nine in the morning.

They also behave differently from everything else on the shelf, which is worth understanding before you buy. Coils wear faster, some blends need a few days to come into their own, and almost nobody vapes a heavy custard exclusively for long.

None of that is a reason to avoid them. It just means going in with realistic expectations gets you a better experience. Here are nine worth knowing about, and what to expect from the category as a whole.

1. Pure Vanilla Ice Cream

Pure Vanilla Ice Cream is our own-brand take, and the one to start with if desserts are new to you. You taste the ice cream on the inhale and a smooth, sweet vanilla on the exhale. Vanilla is the foundation most dessert flavours are built on, so this is a sensible reference point for judging the rest.

Around £4.16 for 10ml, available from 0mg through to 20mg, which is the widest strength range in this list.

2. Vampire Vape Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream

Vampire Vape Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream is creamy vanilla with sweet raspberry running through it, and a properly nostalgic one if you grew up with the tub in the freezer. The raspberry keeps it from being too heavy, which makes it more approachable than most ice cream blends.

Around £1.66, in freebase strengths from 0mg to 18mg. At 18mg the throat hit is firm, so bear that in mind if you want something smooth.

3. Elux Legend Strawberry Ice Cream

Ripe strawberry and fresh ice cream, described by the maker as the authentic flavour of the frozen treat. This is a nicotine salt at 10mg or 20mg, around £3.33, so it is the smoother option if you want a dessert at full strength without the throat hit.

4. Elf Liq Strawberry Ice Cream

Elf Liq Strawberry Ice Cream is a similar proposition from a different maker, again as a nic salt at 10mg or 20mg and around £3.32. Worth trying alongside the Elux if strawberry and cream is your thing, because the two are noticeably different in balance despite the shared description.

5. Elf Liq Rhubarb Snoow

Elf Liq Rhubarb Snoow is the most interesting one here. Sweet, rich vanilla custard contrasted against tangy rhubarb, which stops it collapsing into pure sweetness the way some custards do. If you find most desserts too much after an hour, the tartness in this one is what makes it work as a longer sit.

Nic salt at 10mg or 20mg, around £3.32.

6. Vampire Vape Caramel Latte

Vampire Vape Caramel Latte is smooth roasted coffee with creamy caramel. Genuinely good alongside an actual coffee in the morning, which is one of the few times a dessert flavour suits the early part of the day. Around £1.66 in freebase strengths from 0mg to 18mg.

7. Vampire Vape Pistachio Milkshake

Vampire Vape Pistachio Milkshake is rich, creamy milkshake with a nutty pistachio character. Nut flavours are difficult to get right and this is one of the better attempts. It is also distinctive enough to be a good change of pace when your usual has stopped registering. Around £1.66, 0mg to 18mg.

8. Seriously Donuts Strawberry Cream

Seriously Donuts Strawberry Cream is a shortfill rather than a 10ml bottle, so this one is for sub-ohm and direct-to-lung kits. Thick cream and sweet strawberries in a bakery frame. Around £10.83 for the bottle, sold nicotine-free, and you add a separate 10ml nicotine shot yourself if you want nicotine, which mixes out at roughly 3mg.

9. Seriously Donuts Glazed Biscoff

Seriously Donuts Glazed Biscoff is donut infused with Biscoff crumbs and topped with a sugar glaze. The most unapologetically dessert-like thing on this list, and a proper evening vape rather than an all-day one. Also a shortfill at around £10.83, nicotine-free until you add a shot.

What to know before you buy a dessert liquid

They are harder on coils

This is the main practical difference and it catches people out. The sweeteners that make a dessert taste like a dessert caramelise onto the coil as you vape, darkening it and dulling the flavour. Where a fruit or tobacco liquid might give you two or three weeks from a coil, a heavy custard can shorten that to one.

Nothing is wrong when this happens. Keep a couple of spare coils at home and change them when the flavour starts to flatten rather than waiting for a burnt taste.

They often need steeping

Dessert and custard blends frequently taste better after a few days sitting somewhere cool and dark with the cap on. If a new bottle tastes oddly flat, give it three or four days before writing it off. Fruit flavours rarely need this. Desserts often do.

Rotate them

Rich flavours are the quickest to stop registering if you vape them exclusively. Most people who enjoy desserts keep a lighter fruit or menthol alongside and alternate, which keeps both tasting as they should.

Sweet does not mean strong

Worth separating two things people often conflate. Sweetness is flavour, nicotine strength is nicotine, and they are entirely independent. A 0mg dessert liquid tastes exactly as sweet as a 20mg one.

This matters because some people assume a rich dessert flavour will feel more satisfying and choose it over getting their nicotine level right. It will not. If cravings are not settling, the answer is the strength on the bottle, not the flavour on the label.

Choosing your strength and format

In a pod kit, stay with the 10ml bottles above. Nicotine salts at 10mg or 20mg are the comfortable choice at higher strengths, and the freebase options give a firmer throat hit if you prefer that. The UK maximum is 20mg/ml and nicotine bottles are 10ml or smaller.

In a sub-ohm kit, the two Seriously Donuts shortfills are the right format. They are nicotine-free as sold, take a 10ml nic shot, and finish around 3mg, which is where direct-to-lung vaping belongs.

Browse the full dessert e-liquid collection, the drinks and coffee flavours if the Caramel Latte appeals, and our nicotine salts for the smoother higher strengths. We are rated 4.8 out of 5 by over 4,800 UK customers, and our advisers will happily point you at something close to a flavour you already like.