Hello and welcome sln88!
I'm pretty new myself, only been vaping for a month, but happy to share what I have learned.
Was a pack a day smoker, Marlboro 100's.
Much was learned from the people here, but there was quite a bit of info overload for me.
I got a Joye 510 manual starter kit from Cignot and I think it was a good decision for me to start out with the 510. It's small, extra parts are fairly cheap and can be found at nearly every ecig vendor on the net. You can try using cartridges and atomizers, cartomizers, tank systems, and just dripping on the atty to see what works best. Yes, I did buy a little of everything so I could learn for myself. I personally like tanks best, though the regular tanks for a 510 are far too small, so if you go that route get the XL ones. The Boge cartomizers are pretty good as well.
If you spend a lot of time in front of a computer get a passthru, much better than using batteries all the time.
The 510 has a fairly short battery life, I go through one battery every 5 hours at work, but I'm not constantly vaping there. Outside of work they last me anywhere from 2 to 4 hours depending on what I'm doing and how often I vape. You can get the mega batteries as well, I have not tried them yet.
As for the hands free part, you have to remember that ecigs are heavier than a regular cigarette. I think it can be done with the 510's, auto batteries would be a must for hands free. But then you have to worry about frying the battery if anything were to leak.
I'm not a menthol smoker myself, but a guy I work with bought a starter kit after I got mine and he got menthol cartridges with his and they smelled great, but I didn't try them.
As for the liquids I like the 80pg/20vg, I usually get a 24mg nicotine strength. Maybe you should go for something between 6mg and 18mg nicotine strength?
And as for the sweet flavored stuff, I vape a lot of waffle and having that sweet flavor so often seems to have drastically cut my junk food cravings (raspberry and spearmint do that for me too). I say get sample sizes of anything that sounds good and see what works for you. I've tried quite a few(and have several new flavors on the way) and have a few favorites and many I thought I'd like and just don't.
The only thing else I can think of is take the different recommendations into consideration, check out the different models suggested and decide what you think will or will not work for you. Everyone is different and likes different things, only you can decide what you need.
Good luck and I hope you find what works best for you!
