As you can see I'm quite the noob but am just curious if this is a common noob experience or if I'm not doing it right.
It could be all of the above or none of the above. There are so many combinations of hardware and software out there that anything could change your experience; and that's part of the interest. You will eventually settle into your own comfort zone... and eventually get bored of that. Or never get bored. Who knows?
But on the matter of a menthol juice, I think it's also you getting used to it. I've vaped menthol juices so much in one sitting that I got a brain freeze. No kidding. But when I started on a simple mentholated root beer from up north, it was hard to take. I liked the root beer taste (sucker for root beer) but the menthol was just distracting and made me gasp. Eventually I worked up to a super mentholated freezing honey dew. I was stuck on that freezing juice for a few days because I had actually gotten veper's tongue and couldn't taste very much and the menthol was the only thing that gave my taste buds a reaction. The more I vaped that, the more I could vape. So yeah, your body does get used to it and you can do more at a more comfortable level.