Al Fakher Hypermax Prime 50K Prefilled Pods – Blackcurrant Mint

Blackcurrant and mint is one of those pairings that sounds obvious on paper and still manages to surprise you in practice. Al Fakher's Hypermax Prime 50K takes a proper, jammy blackcurrant, the sort of deep purple fruit flavour you get from good cordial, and threads a clean minty coolness through it. The result isn't a fruit vape with a mint garnish. It's two flavours pulling equal weight, and that balance is what makes this pod worth talking about.

Layer by layer: how the flavour unfolds

On the first pull, blackcurrant leads. It's dark, slightly tart and unmistakably fruity, closer to real blackcurrant cordial than the sweeter, more artificial "purple" flavour you sometimes get in vapes. There's a jammy weight to it that sits nicely on the tongue before the mint has a chance to properly show up.

By the middle of the draw, the mint arrives and changes the shape of the whole thing. It's not an icy blast, more a clean, herbal coolness that runs alongside the fruit rather than covering it up. Think fresh mint leaves rather than menthol crystals. The two flavours sit side by side here rather than blending into a single new taste, which is part of what makes this pod interesting to vape slowly and actually notice.

The exhale is where it gets genuinely refreshing. The blackcurrant softens into a light sweetness while the mint takes over, leaving your mouth feeling clean rather than sticky. There's no heavy sugary residue the way some fruit vapes leave behind, and no harsh chemical cold either. It's closer to the feeling after eating a mint imperial with a glass of blackcurrant squash on the side, if that combination makes any sense at all, and once you've vaped it a few times, it will.

Best moments for this flavour

Blackcurrant Mint works particularly well after meals, when a lot of sweeter dessert-style vapes can feel like too much. The mint cuts through and cleans the palate rather than adding to a sugar hit you've already had. It's also a strong pick for warmer days or stuffy indoor spaces, where the cooling side of the flavour genuinely earns its place rather than just being decorative.

It suits vapers who like their menthol flavours to have real fruit substance behind them, rather than plain minty vapes with nothing else going on. If you've ever found straight menthol a bit thin or found straight blackcurrant a bit heavy on its own, this is built to solve both problems at once.

Late evening is another spot where this flavour tends to shine, particularly if you're winding down and don't want anything too sugary right before bed. The mint keeps it feeling light rather than indulgent, so it sits somewhere between a treat and a palate cleanser depending on when you reach for it. Vapers switching over from menthol cigarettes often find this an easier bridge than an unfamiliar dessert flavour, since the cooling element is already something they recognise, just with proper fruit depth added underneath it.

Blackcurrant Mint against other menthol and fruit blends

Compared to a classic blueberry ice or watermelon ice, Blackcurrant Mint reads as darker and more grown up. Berry ice flavours tend to lean sweeter with the cold sitting on top, whereas here the mint and fruit are properly intertwined, so neither one dominates for long. Compared to straight menthol or spearmint, it's got far more depth and won't feel one-note if you're vaping it for hours.

If you're someone who usually reaches for a citrus and mint combo, this will feel familiar in structure but noticeably richer, since blackcurrant carries more weight than lemon or lime ever could. To stop your palate settling into it and stopping noticing the flavour, which happens with any vape you use heavily, rotate in something entirely different: a straightforward tropical fruit like mango or pineapple works well as a contrast, since it has neither the tartness nor the cooling edge that defines this one.

A few practical notes worth knowing

• Because these are replacement prefilled pods, the flavour is consistent pod to pod, but each individual pod tends to taste most vivid in its first day or two of use before gradually settling into a slightly softer version of itself.
• Short, slower puffs let the blackcurrant and mint separate out properly on the tongue. Very fast, hard draws tend to blur the two together into a generic "cool fruit" taste, which loses a lot of what makes this flavour distinctive in the first place.
• Swapping to a fresh pod the moment the current one starts tasting flat, rather than persevering to the very last few puffs, is the easiest way to make sure you're always tasting this flavour at its best rather than its faded tail end.

As with any nicotine product, these pods are for over-18s only, and UK nic salt e-liquid is capped by law at 20mg/ml, so you're always vaping within that legal limit rather than anything stronger.

Is Blackcurrant Mint very strong or overpowering?

It's balanced rather than intense. The mint is cooling without being sharp, and the blackcurrant is fruity without being cloying, so most vapers find it comfortable for extended use rather than something you need to build up to.

Does the mint fade faster than the blackcurrant, or the other way round?

Both tend to hold up well through the life of the pod, though like most flavours the overall intensity softens gradually as the pod empties. Slower draws help both notes stay noticeable for longer.

Is this a good pick for someone who doesn't usually like menthol vapes?

Quite possibly, yes. Because the mint here is gentle and fruit-led rather than an icy blast, it often works for vapers who find straight menthol too harsh but still like a bit of coolness alongside their fruit.