Using ethanol as a solvent and anethole as an internal standard, a method for determining menthol in cigarette and its smoke by capillary gas chromatography was established. The menthol in cut tobacco, filter, total particulate matter and butt of six brands of mentholated cigarettes was determined by the method and compared with the results obtained by UV-Vis method. The results showed that: 1) the detection limits reached 3.54-7.96 ng/cig., the recovery of menthol was from 98.8% to 101.8%, and RSD was below 4%; 2) there was no obvious difference between menthol contents determined by capillary gas chromatography and UV-Vis; 3) the menthol in mainstream cigarette smoke could be completely trapped by Cambridge filter pad; and 4) the sensory characteristic of mentholated cigarette could be reflected more exactly by the coolness characterized with menthol content in mainstream cigarette smoke.