the.com/menthol
The taste of cold, bottled from mint and sold as a lie to your throat.
means A waxy, cooling compound extracted from mint oil that tricks nerve receptors into sensing cold, used in everything from cough drops to cigarettes.
from From the Latin genus name 'Mentha' (mint) plus the chemistry suffix '-ol,' which marks it as an alcohol. The word itself was coined in the 1800s once chemists isolated the crystalline compound from peppermint oil — so the name is really just lab shorthand: 'the alcohol that comes from mint.' The cooling sensation it gives isn't actual temperature change at all; menthol binds to the same receptor (TRPM8) that fires in response to real cold, which is the 'lie' your skin and throat fall for.
- the trick
- triggers cold receptors without actually lowering temperature
- cigarette history
- marketed as soothing to disguise harsher smoke inhalation
- banned in parts
- flavored cigarettes outlawed in EU and Canada
- natural source
- extracted from peppermint oil, now mostly synthesized