Thanks Kevin.
For a few years I used kb for everything and could not notice any off taste issue some talk about, in fact I liked the "grilled" taste. Maybe a year ago, while doing some high heat searing I found kb added a mineral iron like taste to burgers. And that that flavor wasn't there with more natural charcoals like stubbs, kingsford competition, or wicked good briquettes. Some day I'll give kb another go for grilling to see if this is still the case. But I've mostly switched away from kb for grilling. That said kcomp is the best briquette made for grilling IMO.
But for smoking, it's all about kb. There's a lot of debate on the web on whether kb is perfectly fine for smoking/indirect cooking. I believe it is. I can't imagine a pork butt smoked over kb (once the igniter smoke has passed) is much different than using kcomp, stubbs, etc. And I wanted to get your input. It seems you may agree.