Charcoal review IMO

Over the years I have tried an absolute multitude of charcoals, woods, briquettes to aim to find the best results for smoking and grilling. Here is my small list of what I like for charcoals.

Alderline alder lumpwood charcoal.

Pros

-relatively inexpensive for large quantities

-a nice hot burn and very quick lighting

-sourced and produced in the UK

-reasonably smokeless making it good for adding woods to for extra flavour in short smokes

- big bags for a decent quantity of cooks

Cons

-burns itself out quickly for large groups need to top it up frequently

- not good for long smokes as it retains too much heat

- lumpwood size can be inconsistent from Amazon (I suspect down to the drivers and warehouse)

- if left in the chimney starter a bit too long you've lost all your coal

-quite a lot of ash and paperyness during and after the cook

Grading 6.5/10

If inexpensive quick and hot coal is what you are after these are quite great for that. With the intense heat these give off these are really good coals for lean red meats that can be served pink. Beef, lamb, prawns and skewers where you can add a lot of additional flavour to the meat is what's best on these coals.

Weber Briquettes

Pros

-hot for briquettes making them quite versatile

-retain heat for a bit longer than most lumpwoods

-quick lighting with relative ease

-quite easy to find at most supermarkets and garden centres

Cons

- I find these to burn out quicker than other briquettes

- These are better for quicker cooks don't stay lit as long as I'd like for long smoking

- the briquettes aren't overly dense I often find lots of broken bits at the end of a bag

- I personally find these coals expensive for what they are

-small bags so don't get a quantity of cooks

Grading 7/10

As a briquette they aren't bad for grilling and get hot enough for that. I don't much like these for smoking I just don't think they last long enough and at least when I've tried I've needed multiple bags to get the length of time needed for bigger smokes. These are quite versatile still and can offer a good solution if your just starting your BBQ journey. I find these coals good enough for pretty much any meat offering a good versatility.

Penfuels PenBead hog roast fuel

(Seems as though they have discontinued now)

Pros

- absolutely some of the longest burning Briquettes I've tried

- great control of heat for smoking with

- they do get hot enough to grill

- no need to refuel unless your cooking for 16hrs +

- produced in the UK (Bangor Wales)

- cheap for the length of time these last

Cons

- lighting these things is an absolute !?!(#?! You absolutely need a lot of firelighters

- they create a lot of mess when they do eventually burn out

- more fire risk with length of burn, not easy to put out once they eventually get going

- these do not get searing hot not the most versatile

Grading 8/10

I got quite a few bags of these for longer smokes I don't think there was a better coal for really long cooks like full size pork butts, briskets etc. In a pinch you could grill on these but at the end of the day it would have been quicker to go to the shop and get some lumpwood, light that then cook than just trying to light penbeads. Genuinely the worst thing about these coals was getting them going I often resorted to stealing my partner's hair dryer (which I've now adopted as mine) with a fistfull of fire lighters. Penfuels had two versions they had an extra long burn coal as well and in truth I don't think they were that much different the regular burned more than long enough.

Braai Wood UK (Ascot Berkshire)

There's a few different options they do perform slightly differently but I'll talk about Kameeldooring (camelthorn) as I have more regularly got this wood from them.

Pros

- excellent flavour transfer for grill

- super hot for real fast cooking (the other woods are actually hotter)

- quite versatile even though these can get hotter than most coals

- no need for additional woods for flavour

Cons

- the caveman mentality comes with groups of males that see a wood fire, we will put more wood on the fire making it longer to wait to actually get cooking

- hopefully you don't like hair on your hands and arms this wood will burn it off even when they've coaled up

- you cannot use this wood for smoking as a smoking wood its smoke is far too dense as a coal bed it's just too hot

- lighting and controlling the heat is a challenge your timings need to be on point

- all the wood is import (mostly Namibia)

Grading 8.5/10

Using wood definitely comes with its own challenges, stopping people putting more wood on is probably the biggest challenge. Steaks, chicken, skewers, seafoods, large sausages (boerewors IYKYK) really anything you can grill will work on this wood, this is proper open pit cooking at a full A+++ grade. These woods really do impart a flavour to your meats and vegetables that is unique and super tasty. South Africans big up their Braais for good reason. I really enjoy cooking on any of the braai woods but it is something I reserve to proper BBQ or food enthusiasts the normal Brit won't understand the flavour going on.

These are some of my personal favourite coals I've used, currently I'm on barbequick restaurant grade I've used both Namibian and south African sourced and I'm impressed with the versatility, I got a good 7+ hour smoke from the south African yesterday and grilled also, I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for that one again. Also a shout-out for green olive firewood co selection of coals these are probably on par with the other coals I've listed here if not better.

What is your go to coal and why?