Are NJOY Ace Pods Discontinued? What Classic Tobacco Fans Can Try Next

Not officially, and not permanently as far as anyone has said. NJOY’s own status page describes ACE products as “currently out of market and not available for purchase” and says the company has no confirmed timeline for a return. That is different from a product being discontinued, and it is different again from a company closing. NJOY is still operating, and its other products are still sold.

What “out of market” means for you is simpler: stores cannot restock ACE pods, so whatever was left on shelves after spring 2025 was the end of the supply. If you have been driving between gas stations hoping the next one has a pack, that is why the shelves are empty.

One more thing worth knowing before you read on. NJOY’s current lineup, as listed on its status page, is the Daily disposable in Rich Tobacco and Menthol. There is no Classic Tobacco version of the Daily. If Classic Tobacco was the reason you used ACE, NJOY does not currently sell a product with that profile.

This was a patent case, not a safety matter and not an FDA action.

In June 2023, Juul Labs filed patent infringement complaints against NJOY with the U.S. International Trade Commission. On January 29, 2025, the ITC found that the ACE device and pods infringed Juul patents and issued a limited exclusion order along with cease and desist orders. Under those orders, ACE products could no longer be imported into the United States or distributed and marketed here. Imports stopped on March 31, 2025, and retailers were allowed to sell through the inventory they already had. That sell-through is what most people experienced as the pods slowly disappearing over the following months.

A few things that circulate online are not accurate. Nothing was recalled, and no court took the pods off shelves; the orders came from the ITC, a federal trade agency, and applied to importation and sale going forward. The FDA took no action against NJOY. In fact, in April 2022 the FDA issued marketing granted orders for the ACE device and for the Classic Tobacco 2.4% and 5% and Rich Tobacco 5% pods, which means those products were FDA-authorized for marketing. Authorization to market a product and a patent dispute over its design are two separate matters, and one did not cancel the other. The FDA is also clear that a marketing authorization is not the same thing as an approval.

In April 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection ruled that a redesigned device and its sealed pre-filled pods, referred to as the New NJOY ACE, do not infringe the patent claims behind the exclusion order and are therefore outside its scope. That ruling was requested by NJOY and its parent, Altria.

It is a real step, and it is also a narrow one. The CBP ruling settles whether the redesigned product can be imported under the existing order. It says nothing about whether the product is authorized for sale, when it might reach stores, or whether it will taste like the original. Altria’s second quarter 2026 earnings release, published on July 30, 2026, states that its guidance assumes NJOY ACE does not return to the marketplace in 2026. NJOY itself has said it will share news if anything changes.

The practical reading: do not plan around a return date, because nobody has given one.

The dates that matter

• June 2023. Juul Labs files patent infringement complaints against NJOY with the U.S. International Trade Commission.
• January 29, 2025. The ITC finds that the ACE device and pods infringe Juul patents and issues a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders.
• March 31, 2025. Imports stop. Retailers may sell through the stock they already hold.
• April 22, 2026. U.S. Customs and Border Protection rules that the redesigned New NJOY ACE falls outside the exclusion order.
• July 30, 2026. Altria’s second quarter release says its guidance assumes NJOY ACE does not return in 2026.

Ask people who used ACE Classic Tobacco for years what they miss, and the same qualities come up again and again. This is what they describe, in their own words.

• A mild, neutral tobacco character. Many describe it as barely flavored, closer to the plain taste of an unlit cigarette than to any “tobacco” flavor they have tried since.
• Little or no sweetness. The most common complaint about replacements is that they taste like candy, caramel, or perfume.
• No ice, mint, or cooling finish. People who never smoked menthol are surprised how often a “tobacco” pod or disposable turns out to have a cooling finish they did not expect from the label.
• A meaningful throat hit. The draw felt like something, without being harsh.
• Restrained vapor. Little cloud, little smell, easy to use quietly.
• Small, simple hardware. A pod that clicked in and worked, with nothing to adjust.
• A refillable option that does not become a hobby. Plenty of people say they would go refillable if it meant filling a pod, not maintaining a device.

If that list reads like your own, you are the person this guide is for.

Most of the frustration comes from a simple mismatch: the products easiest to find are built for a different palate.

Other closed pods. They keep the convenience, but the liquid is a different recipe, and many former ACE users describe the tobacco flavors as sweeter, heavier, or perfumed. Pod capacity, battery behavior, and price per week also differ, which is why “just switch brands” rarely ends the search.

Tobacco-flavored disposables. Disposables are generally formulated for strong, sweet flavor, and many people report a cooling finish even when the flavor is labeled simply “tobacco.” They are also designed to be thrown away, so the taste you find this month may not be the taste you find next month.

NJOY Daily. It is NJOY’s current product, but Rich Tobacco is a different profile from Classic Tobacco, the Daily is a disposable rather than a pod system, and there is no Classic Tobacco version.

Most bottled “tobacco” e-liquids. The broad category is built from flavoring recipes, often with sweetener, that aim at a tobacco impression rather than tobacco itself. This is the reason the search for a plain, unsweetened tobacco taste is so frustrating: the shelf is full of products that carry the word without the leaf. Our tobacco e-liquid roundup goes through the category in more detail.

A closed pod makes every decision for you: the liquid, its sweetness, its strength, the coil, and the airflow are all fixed by the manufacturer. That is convenient right up until the product disappears.

A refillable setup splits those decisions apart, and that is the whole point. You choose the liquid and its strength, and you choose a device. For a cigarette-like draw, Black Note’s guidance is a small refillable mouth-to-lung (MTL) pod with a coil of 1 ohm or higher, run under about 15 watts, paired with a 50VG/50PG or salt nicotine e-liquid. Most small pod kits ship with pods in that range; the resistance is printed on the pod itself.

Upkeep is smaller than the word “refillable” suggests. You fill the pod from the bottle, and when the flavor fades you replace the pod, which for most people is a matter of a week or two. There is no tank to rebuild and nothing to tune beyond choosing the right pod. A common early mistake is using a low-resistance, higher-power pod that turns a mild tobacco liquid warm and thin; the higher-resistance pod is the one that behaves like the closed system you are used to.

Two honest caveats. Vapor amount and throat hit come from the liquid and the hardware together, so no bottle can promise them on its own. And the first week on a different liquid is an adjustment; people who make the change usually say the new taste settled within a few days.

Special Blend Tobacco is Black Note’s classic cigarette-style tobacco profile. It is made from real tobacco leaves using naturally extracted tobacco, a process in which the leaves are slowly cold-macerated over weeks to draw out their flavor. There are no artificial flavors, no sweeteners, and no synthetic nicotine in the bottle. Within the Black Note line, Special Blend is also among the most coil-friendly blends, which matters in a small pod where a sweetened liquid would gunk a coil quickly.

The product page offers two flavor options, and the choice is yours to make there:

• Light Tobacco Flavor for a lighter, smoother profile.
• Full Tobacco Flavor for a fuller, richer profile.

Neither is an NJOY replacement, and it will not taste the same. It is a different kind of product: tobacco flavor drawn from leaf rather than composed in a flavor lab. What the two share with the pod you miss is the absence of sweetness and cooling, and a tobacco character that stays in the background of the draw instead of shouting over it.

For a small MTL pod, the 50VG/50PG or salt nicotine formulations are the natural fit. The 70VG/30PG version is made for larger, direct-lung hardware and is not the one to pair with a compact pod.

Special Blend Tobacco

Real tobacco leaves, naturally extracted.

No artificial flavors, no sweeteners, no synthetic nicotine. Choose Light Tobacco Flavor or Full Tobacco Flavor, then select the formulation and strength that fit your device.

• Light or Full Tobacco Flavor selected on the product page
• 50VG/50PG, 70VG/30PG, or salt nicotine formulation
• A small refillable pod keeps the setup simple

See Special Blend Tobacco

ACE pods came in 2.4% and 5%. It is tempting to look for the same number on a bottle and assume the experience will match. It will not, and not because of the bottle.

The number on a label is the concentration of nicotine in the liquid. How much of it you actually take in depends on the device’s power, the pod’s resistance and airflow, how long and how often you draw, and whether the nicotine is freebase or salt. A closed system holds all of that fixed. A refillable pod is different hardware, so the same printed percentage can feel stronger or weaker than what you are used to.

Treat strength as its own decision rather than a translation. Salt nicotine is the format most small pods are built around, and the product page lists the strengths available for each formulation. Start from how much you vape in a day and how the new pod behaves, not from the number on your old pack; notice how the first pod feels and adjust from there. Most people settle the question within their first bottle or two, and our team can talk it through with you if you would rather not guess.

It helps to know what you are tasting. Naturally extracted tobacco carries the flavor of cured leaf: dry, a little earthy, sometimes faintly nutty, with none of the caramel or vanilla that flavor recipes lean on to suggest tobacco. If your reference point is a pod that tasted mild and clean, the character will be familiar even though the details differ.

It will not reproduce a lit cigarette. Nothing that vaporizes rather than burns can give you combustion, smoke, or ash, and the honest comparison is “closest,” never “the same.” We cover what a vape can and cannot echo from a cigarette in a separate guide. Give it a few days. Palates trained on sweetened liquids often read an unsweetened one as quiet at first, and then the leaf comes forward. The absence of sweetener is also why Special Blend is easier on pods than most tobacco liquids: sweeteners and heavy artificial flavors are the main cause of coil residue.

WARNING: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

The information in this blog post is for educational and informational purposes only and is not health or medical advice. Market-status facts were checked against NJOY’s status page, the CBP ruling, and Altria’s second quarter 2026 earnings release on September 3, 2026; check NJOY’s status page for anything newer.