20 Best Charcoal For Smoker (2022 Updated)

This is a great lump charcoal and a good value. As good as more expensive brands and easier to get (at Walmart). Way better than Royal Oak! I use it in both of my Masterbuilt Gravity smoker/grills and get great results.

I’m sure it would work well in other grills if you use a charcoal chimney or fire starter cubes. Never use lighter fluid! That stuff is bad for you!.

I purchased the charcoal and fire starter bundle a couple of weeks ago. Overall I am very happy with the coal. It burns hot and clean. There is a bit of powder and small pieces in the bags due but you get that almost anywhere, but for the most part the coals were pretty uniform in size.

They are fast to light and since I have a gravity grill they relight very quickly as well. The fire starters are ok, in my opinion after several uses I seem to prefer a tumbleweed type of starter. These are a little slow to light sometimes.

I have never bought charcoal online, but the shipping was reasonable so I gave it a shot and I am glad I did. Delivery was prompt and I am very pleased with the quality of the charcoal and the starters.

Unlike the charcoal I usually use for my ceramic bbq, there is not a large amount of useless charcoal “dust” at the bottom of the bag. The starters light easily, although I have found that it is better to use two 2 squares rather than one to get a good start.

I love my Masterbuilt grill/smoker and am now a big fan of their charcoal as well!.

I’ve tried a lot of brands and this is all around just a great lump. I use it on my kamado joe and there is very little ash production. Nice flavor and pleasant smell. I found one small rock in the 20lb bag, but no big deal.

Nice medium to large sized lump throughout.

We have purchased this product multiple times and for the price of the charcoal, our bags have had rocks, concrete chucks, and BARBED WIRE.

I have had to resort to mail order for my lump charcoal as the stuff I can get from the local harware store has started using branches and other bad-tasting scraps. While only my first bags of Primo, the bags had all medium-size lumps, very little dust, and burned really evenly and hot.

I start using a homemade chimney, and this lit fast, with a bed of red coals in 6-9 minutes. My food tastes great and I can cook my steaks with far higher heat than can ever be accomplished with briquets.

I am sold. This is a great charcoal that I hope reliably stays just like what was in these bags.

I have been buying Big Block for over 5 years. In the last year, I have noticed a significant decrease in the overall quality and size of the lumps. As the name implies, they used to be fairly large blocks with a few small pieces.

The last 4 bags I purchased (2 from Lowes and 2 from Amazon), were horrible in that the size of the charcoal was extremely small with NO big blocks in the bag. The bag I opened up last weekend had a big black ROCK in the bag, and my name is not Charlie Brown.

I cannot believe the quality has gone so far downhill in the last couple of years. Since it has the Kamado Joe brand on the bag, I expect top-rate lump charcoal. If things do not change, I will be looking at other brands for my charcoal!.

I have always purchased the Big Block at Lowes and loved the product. The last couple of bags are not even the same product any longer. The most recent didnt even have blocks of charcoal. The bag will filled with charred pieces of 1×3 timber like framing lumber.

Horrible, wont even light. Looks like Kamado Joe quality is going down hill. Will never purchase again and definetly do not waste your money.

I got my husband a new pellet grill for father’s day this year and he has been having a blast getting used to using it and pellets instead of our old propane gas grill. While it has been somewhat of a learning curve for him it has given our family the opportunity to come a little closer as a family while enjoying all kinds of a.

azingly delicious food he has made for us on his new grill. We have tried a few different brands of pellet charcoal and they definitely aren’t all created equal that is for sure but this one royal oak has quickly become one of his favorites because it makes great tasting food, burns long and clean, and isn’t all that expensive either.

Its a great all around pellet charcoal that won’t cost you an arm and a leg.

We generally use “standard” pellets in our smoker, but were thrilled to try out a charcoal wood version. The pellets seemed to heat evenly and cooked just as well as other pellets. The fire in the smoker was hot – and it did not take too long for it to heat up.

Overall, we are really happy with these pellets. I will say there was some slight disappointment, however, as the food flavor was not much improved. I love my smoker but do miss having a charcoal grill so I’d hoped this would emulate a bit of that specific taste.

I may need to try out other meats, but so far it has not made a different in that department. Either way, we will keep using these pellets and are otherwise happy with them!.

I actually used these in my charcoal grill. I added them to some briquettes. I was hoping to get a nice wood, smoky flavor. Definitely created more smoke, which helped give my baby backs a really solid bbq grilled flavor.

But I didn’t get any specific woody aromas. If you’re looking for that, (on a charcoal grill) you might be better off adding chunks of hickory. These are also very small. A lot fell through my mound of briquettes and landed in the ash tray.

Next method I think I’ll place them in a foil bed and throw that on top of the coals and let it smoke that way.

Having tested several of the top brands of lump charcoal, this is now my preferred charcoal and will continue to purchase it wherever I can find it. I was pleasantly surprised to see such a reduction in popping, cracking, and smoke I usually get from all the other lump charcoals I’ve used in the past.

Coming off Royal Oak which was the last bag of lump I bought, this is night and day difference. This Jealous Devil lump charcoal lit quickly and stayed HOT (KJ Jr. 550+ degrees) for the duration of my cook.

There was no excessive smoke taste that I could detect, and my wife agreed also. After closing off the vents on the grill, the charcoal cooled with minimal ash. I’ll be able to use the same charcoal for a second bbq.

This is a my third bag and I love cooking with them. The ease of starting a fire, longer burn and the flavor is wonderful. I won’t use any other now that I found these. Also the price is reasonable and TSC delivered promptly.

Live the new slide open bag too!!.

Consider by most to be the best lump charcoal available. JD burns HOT and clean. Noticable difference in reduction of ash from most brands. More expensive but a superior product. If you can find it. buy it.

because it can get hard to find!.

After trying several brands over many years, my experience is that you eventually get a bag that isn’t great. I have a BGE and started with their brand of lump. Bags consistently included junk (chunks of what looked like firebrick/ceramic, stones, metal banding) and way overpriced.

Never got a return communication from BGE so moved on. Went through a few different brands before settling on Rockwood as best overall lump. Overall, I get very good results from Rockwood – good burn time, maybe 2-3 hand fulls of ash per bag burnt, etc.

Yes, some bags have more dust at the bottom of the bag than I’d like but have yet to find a “dust-free” bag of lump and a little common sense when dumping the end of the bag keeps the dust cloud at a minimum (or just pick out the last pieces and throw the dust away!).

I use a MAPP torch to get things started quickly. To minimize sparking ( it’s not like using a haystack or paraffin/wood dust square!), keep the air inlet closed and try to focus the flame on the lumps from the previous burn instead of exclusively on the newly added lump.

The edges on the new lump are what “pop” using this method so I also focus on flaming the flats. You also don’t need to bury the torch tip in the lump – it’s a very hot flame. Once you get a few areas warmed up, open the air inlet and you’re quickly on your way to getting started.

A tank of MAPP lasts about 30 starts. A seven hour, 250 degree cook of a pork shoulder plus cool down time, for example, used about 20% of the full firebox on a large BGE. I find that this is what my BGE does best (low and slow) but I get great results from grilling too.

I’d give 5 stars but I think the pricing could be better. ACE coupons help take the edge off a bit so thank you for those!.

Picked up a bag on sale this past week, as I’ve been eager to try Rockwood but haven’t pulled the trigger due to the high price tag. Still more expensive per pound than any other brand I’ve come across, and given the premium price point and sterling reputation I was expecting excellent charcoal once I got home and opened the bag.

Not the case. The first thing I noticed is that not all of the pieces were completely carbonized. That didn’t completely turn me off, as I figured a large scale manufacturer will inevitably have some duds here and there.

After beginning to sort through the bag I quickly realized that there were next to no large pieces inside, and in fact, the overwhelming majority were about as tiny as I’d seen from Royal Oak. Again, not the biggest problem in and of itself (small pieces still burn), but when you pay a premium over garden variety brands, you expect a higher quality, more consistent product.

The few medium-sized pieces I managed to find all appeared to be made from scrap wood or 2x4s, which isn’t exactly evocative of the “100% Premium All-Natural Missouri Hardwood” that they have proudly emblazoned on the packaging.

As for how it burns, it’s comparable to other brands I’ve used, but even then, there were still issues. I like to light my lump with a MAPP torch, and the amount of sparks that violently flew out of this stuff was *far* beyond what I’ve experienced before.

My first instinct was “this is probably why it was on sale”, but I’d like to think that an ethical company with an otherwise solid reputation wouldn’t just dump whatever didn’t meet their standards on the consumer and call it good.

Maybe I received a bad batch; it happens, but the fact that there were so many issues with this one bag in particular is cause for concern.

I was pretty disappointed in this. I really like what the brand is doing, and I was hoping to have them be my new jam. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the bag were pieces about a third the size of a charcoal briquette.

The pieces are so small they fall through the grate on my charcoal rack in my grill and the rack in my chimney starter. This makes everything a huge mess and a huge pain, and the small pieces burn quickly to boot.

Unfortunately I have to recommend staying away from this brand.

we bought a new bag of Kingsford Match Light a week before Thanksgiving. We have a tradition of grilling our turkey, and have been using Kingsford for almost three decades. This year, however, it did not turn out well.

I set up the grill, a Weber Kettle, as usual, put in the charcoal, AND IT WOULD NOT LIGHT. I finally had to resort to a sizeable dose of charcoal lighter fluid to start the coals, and even then, the coals did not get hot enough to adequately cook the turkey.

I finally had to resort to finishing it on our gas grill, and still ended up with a delayed dinner. I don’t know what happened to Kingsford, but will be looking for another alternative in the future.

I recently switched to charcoal from gas in August of 2020 after many years of propane. I absolutely love it and will never go back to gas. I buy my Kingsford charcoal at Lowe’s in the economical 2x20lb packs.

Kingsford was recommended to me for its price, quality and consistency. My first 2 pack performed flawlessly. I noticed my second 2 pack took longer to light in my chimney starter, crackled very loudly and produced more “dirty” white smoke.

Being a charcoal noob I didn’t think much of it. I tried a 3-4 hour low and slow and my meat was ruined. It had taken on too much acrid smoke. Needless to say I was bummed. I reached out to Kingsford and dealt with two customer service reps (Alexandrea and James.

) Both were excellent and very sympathetic. I received a coupon for a free bag in the mail shortly after. Kingsford really tried to make things right. I now store my bags in Kingsford charcoal caddies in my garage just to make sure they stay dry.

They definitely have my repeat business!.

Attached are pictures of my club’s bbq 8/28/2021. Here are a few facts. We racked 518 chicken halves averaging 1. 523 pounds or 24. 4 ounces each. What a slab of meat. Total of meat weighed 790 pounds but only 520 pounds charcoal, that’s 26 20# bags.

That means it only required 0. 659 # to grill a pound of chicken for 2 hours. Chicken bbq is a major fundraiser for Mount Sidney Ruritan Club as we have monthly bbq dates to grill approximately 4500 -5000 during the grilling season.

Kingsford has done a good job for us over the years and purchase 5-6 pallets for the year. Thank you Kingsford, Wayne BBQ Chairman.

I just want to say; that we are all better than this. We all have used charcoal at some point in our life. Let’s not lie to one another. we have all bought from several suppliers throughout our time.

They ALL provide us with a quality product. You all know that these bags are not filled with rock or cement. These people work hard for you all, and these companies do their best to give you what the community needs.

No one company is ever perfect, but to try and purposely harm someone, or something, or a business, is unkind. Why does everything always have to be about hurting something? We are all equal. We should all help each other’s businesses to be successful.

There doesn’t need to be a winner or a loser. I try to visit all businesses and whether I like their items or not, it’s a way of being a real community. Can’t everyone just leave a nice comment? Why must there be bullying to each other’s businesses? It isn’t accomplishing anything at all.

Can’t we just be respectful to one another; please????.

I have used Royal Oak lump for many years. Unfortunately, the quality over the last few years has deteriorated. Too many crushed pieces per bag. I have contacted Royal Oak about my concerns, and they have explained it’s all due to shipping.

However, I have seen the Big Green Egg bags and those pieces stay large (same charcoal). My latest bag contained several rocks. It’s good charcoal, but I’m becoming more frustrated with each bag purchased.

I have used this a few times and admit there is a learning curve when coming from plain charcoal. First off, take heed of the “high heat” part of the description. If you don’t, you will char your food if you aren’t careful.

It is great for searing, but if you aren’t careful, you may sear a little more than you want and be left with a leathery mess. But, if you are careful, it does produce a nice sear to seal in the juices.

If you are grilling things that you don’t want higher heat, there are better options for you. But if you you have this and can’t get to a store to get other, you can still use this. Just keep the food far enough away from the coals and watch it carefully.

The bag mentions just extinguishing the charcoal when you are done by closing your grill vents because you can reuse it. I skipped that part of the instructions the first time and wasted it. And the subsequent times, I had some, but limited success at reusing.

A big reason for this is my grill, which is not great for letting the fire go out in the coals. So, you may have more luck than I did with that. The better your grill, the better your results will be.

But if you are someone that just has a cheapo grill to cook out maybe once a week in the summer, there might be better options for you. I am somewhat in between those two groups of people, so I would definitely consider getting this for use sometimes, along with regular charcoal briquettes for when I just want a quick bite to eat.

You have to decide what category of griller you fall in.

In over 20 years of smoking on a Kamado smoker/griller this is the worst charcoal product I’ve used. By far. It is really hard to start. The temperature variations are much larger than with any other charcoal I’ve used.

And it just does not hold temperature well at all, constantly changing during the cook. Low and slow was impossible. But even cooking at higher temps (350° or so) this charcoal would either drop dramatically in temperature or go through the roof.

For extra credit I sent customer service a note explaining the problems and never heard back from them. Yup, FOGO ignored my request for help. Do not buy this. You will regret it. In 20 years of smoking I’ve never been more disappointed in a charcoal, nevermind one that is labeled “premium”.

Do not buy this lump charcoal. This stuff pops and sends hot embers like crazy when using a Torch or Grill gun. I’ve used many lump charcoals in my 2 Kamado Joe’s and thus stuff is terrible to light.

I’m always scared to lite this becuse it pops SO BAD. The plus is you can get some really huge pieces with very little small wasteful pieces but that’s about it. If you want to burn your house down, start your deck on fire, or have them hit you while lighting then this is the right stuff for you.

I have used a lot of B&B charcoal in the past and when I saw the Hickory Blend I was excited to try something new. I was extremely disappointed. This burns extremely fast and hot. First use was just grilling some hot dogs which I noticed an odd flavor but thought it may have been the hot dogs.

Today I used it to smoke a dozen chicken legs and after the were done the flavor was disgusting and couldn’t eat the chicken. My wife complained that it had a chemical flavor to it. I first thought that this was charcoal that used hickory wood to make the charcoal but that is not what it is.

Apparently they use a different wood and try to inject some kind of hickory seasoning in the wood. Don’t know exactly how but I don’t like it. I will discard the rest of it and go back to Royal Oak.

I have been cooking with charcoal exclusively for the past four years, after attending Myron Mixon’s barbecue school. After experimenting with multiple charcoal types, I found that the hickory blend, supplemented with apple wood chunks, imparts a delicate, sweet flavor to pork.

I cook for my family, friends and community servants that work to make my community great. I have cooked hundreds of pounds of pork butts and have received nothing but positive feedback from those who try it.

You honestly cannot go wrong with B&B. I cook at temperatures between 250-275, and have also been pleased when cooking at high temps.

I only use B&B Hickory charcoal after trying other brands for decades. I’ve been cooking with charcoal for over 40 years, I don’t even own a gas grill. I cook with this charcoal in a Weber 37″ Ranch Kettle and 22″ grill with excellent results.

I use it on its own for extra heat direct grilling steaks and burgers or mix with charcoal briquettes to dial in my perfect temperature on a “low and slow” cook using indirect heat for smoking ribs and pork butt.

This charcoal imparts a wonderfully sweet smokey flavor in the meat. In the fall, I char and smoke hot peppers for the freezer with the same great results.

I have use royal oak for years and pretty much love everything about it. it lights fast, has a nice smokey aroma where i never have to think about adding any more hard wood for added smoke, it burns hot and leaves very little ash.

the only other i have used besides RO was cowboy which i did not like nearly as well. i bought the wicked good mainly because of all the positive reviews here and elsewhere and it was on sale so why not.

well when you compare wg and ro lump to lump the wg is like 3 times denser however i don`t think that necessarily translates into 3x longer cooking time plus it is more of a neutral not as smokey aroma as the ro so all in all i still like the ro better.

i just wish it came in bigger bags around here and it had more large pieces in every bag. so wg is good not great for me and i will have to mix the 2 together till the wg is gone.

Do not waste your money. this stuff is junk. To begin with it is filthy but thats not the bad part. This stuff does not burn hot and it is hard to keep lit. The first time I used it I thought since this type of charcoal was new to me maybe I was using it wrong.

I tried three different times adjusting the vents trying to keep lit but nothing worked. I am throwing this in the trash where it belongs. It may grill ok but don’t waste your time trying to smoke with it.

I never had a problem with Kingsford and thats what I am going back to.

Finally tried B & B Oak Lump Charcoal, and I must say that I’m absolutely impressed. This product has the best quality of pieces of lump in the bag compared to the overpriced garbage other companies put out.

By no means am I a spokesman for this brand, but I’ll I’m gonna say, is try it. It’s the best and you won’t be disappointed!!.

I am an avid griller and smoker, so I was very excited to try these charcoal briquettes. Typically, I grill meats with regular charcoal briquettes, and I smoke meats with hardwood chunks. I have now found the perfect product for in the middle those two cooking methods.

These briquettes, although enhanced with Pecan wood, will not replace the robust taste of smoking with all lump hardwood, but I don’t think that’s what they were designed to do. Instead, these briquettes are excellent at adding additional flavor in those situations where you would have just used regular charcoal.

I’ve found the best use of these briquettes is grilling steaks over direct heat. Again, the pecan flavor is mild, but it adds another layer of flavor to every meat that you grill. In my experience, chicken and beef absorbs the pecan flavor best.

The great thing about these briquettes is that you get to use them just as you would use the regular briquettes. The light just as easily, and seem to get to the exact same temperature as the standard briquettes.

The only real difference is added flavor. All in all, these briquettes won’t replace my traditional briquettes, or my lump hard wood, but I am absolutely adding them to my grilling tool bag. And, I would recommend that anyone who wants a simple way to add subtle, but delicious, flavor do the same.

In full disclosure, I did receive this item at a discounted price in exchange for my review.

Over the past year and a half, I’ve burned over 50 bags of Royal Oak All Natural Briquets. Over the past several months, I noticed a significant drop in quality. The briquets weren’t well formed, they produced a crazy amount of smoke at startup, and they burned up more quickly.

After contacting Royal Oak, they were gracious enough to send a few coupons for a couple free bags of their charcoal. After finishing the seven bags I had remaining (all of which were of the same poor quality), I used the coupons to pick up a couple bags of their lump charcoal and a couple bags of briquets.

Sadly, the briquets had not improved, and the lump was equally disappointing (nearly 100% gravel). The only reason I give two stars instead of one is that once lit, it smells great, cooks well, and the price is very competitive.

However, the decline in quality is enough to make me start using a different brand.

I remember as a child those grand summertime cookouts when family got together and set up lawn chairs and tables outside in the grass. The centerpiece of the event was the large round grill which was filled up with a large bag of black charcoal, then they were soaked in lighter fluid, set aflame, then let to sit for awhile until they were turning gray.

Hamburgers, hot dogs, and steaks sizzled away and you couldn’t wait until they where done so you could chow down at the table with homemade potato salad. Cooking this way was a seldom enjoyed, unique experience and the food always tasted so much better than you could make on the stovetop or oven.

To complicate matters, these days most people prefer to cook outdoors on propane gas grills. These are convenient, easy to work with, and deliver good tasting grilled food. However, there is no substitute for the old-fashioned charcoal grilled meal.

When you take the time to do it right, nothing else even comes close. Royal Oak has been making charcoal products for a long time and they know their craft. These Natural Hardwood Charcoal Briquets are easy to work with.

They heat up fast and last a long time so you can cook for many people late into the day. I’ve sampled good steak and hamburgers cooked over these and the taste is heavenly. You’ll get those familiar black grill lines imbedded on the meat and that juicy, smoke-tinged flavor is unlike anything else.

These days we don’t cook out very often and most of us use propane grills. But when you use the old style charcoal grill, your cookout will be talked about for days afterward.

These outstanding briquets combine the fast lighting, high heat, and clean burn of hardwood lump charcoal with the convenience, consistency, and long burn of briquets. That’s because they’re made of only natural hardwood lump charcoal and a vegetable starch binder to maintain the briquet form.

My family and I love the taste of the food grilled or smoked with these briquets. These briquets are a great value. They’re superior to the dominant “king” of briquets in the familiar blue and white bags, and at the time of this review you’d have to buy 36 pounds of the king to get its per pound price down to about 50 cents per pound like these.

The king now has its own line of “100% natural hardwood briquets” but they cost much, much more than these Royal Oak all natural hardwood briquets. These briquets recently disappeared from the shelves of my nearest Walmart stores.

I’m very glad they’re still available online but the headline to this review reflects my concern.

I recently received these to try and thought they’d be great for when my husband & I go outlanding with our friends. We have 2 Jeeps that we’ve converted into outlanding vehicles, with rooftop camper and my husband’s Jeep has a pull out kitchen and we have a grill that uses coals/brisquettes.

We’ve always loved using the grill and never knew these even existed! They’re perfect for our camping adventures because they’d ideally cut down on needing as much prep time with seasoning. Well, we used them and the result was interesting.

We could def smell the difference as soon as we opened the bag. It was not a scent I was expecting but you can tell there’s added onion & garlic. Those two carried over to the veggies and chicken we grilled, didn’t taste or smell paprika though.

Not a terrible thing bc in my honest opinion, paprika is more for looks than flavor anyways. There wasn’t extra smoke or anything different about how we needed to grill, but as far as not needing spices bc these have them, that’s not really the case.

These are more comparable to tourpines, they smell good and the scent carries over to the flavor a little bit but not enough to overpower spices used to add flavor. We used a garlic, pepper, ginger & soy blend for flavor and these added the extra layer of scent that made for a unique tasting experience.

Are these a must have? Probably not. Are they unique? Definitely will say they’re unique and would probably be great if you love grilling and experimenting with different scents and ways to add layers to your taste experience.

I’ve been waiting for something like this to come along and I have to say, I’m super impressed at the difference you can taste in your grilled food. I do alot of brining in which I use these particular spices; basil, sage, and thyme, and after grilling chicken breast using this charcoal, it tasted like I had brined the chicken.

It was a huge hit! The 8 pound bag in terms of cost is relatively average. Now that I’ve tried and enjoyed using this charcoal, I’d much rather buy it than the standard. The briquettes are the standard size and one side is just your typical charcoal look and the other side has your spices on them and are brown.

You do have to use lighter fluid to start but I used very little so as to not have a heavy chemical taste or smell. Speaking of smell, once you light the charcoal, it smells amazing! There are also a few more flavor options.

No matter if you season or marinade your food before grilling, the added flavor is just divine.

Kingsford charcoal products are a staple in my household. When I saw these new infused briquettes I couldn’t wait to bring them home to my hubby. My family’s barbecue game is strong and we take grilling seriously.

We got about three uses out of the bag. The BBQ briquettes were easy to light and we’re ready within 15 minutes. Everything burned evenly and smoothly. The smell and taste were authentic and rich. So far we have tried the Basil Sage Thyme with salmon and grilled chicken with excellent results.

The wonderful aromatics from these briquettes just make your mouth water. The flavor boosters really do infuse beautifully. I’m so excited to try all the flavors. Do not be scared to try these out as they are a delight!.