Trader Joe's Charcoal


 
I've compared the trader to Stubbs. I didnt notice any spark at all but trying to use it a second time it crumbles to pieces. The Stubbs burnt just as hot and as long and was reusable. Just my two cents worth.
 
i'm weaning myself off of reusing charcoal. tends to burn up faster and just causes more ash than what i like. and for me at least, i'm not saving much at all.
 
They bumped up the price to $7.99 a bag at my local TJ's, which is a bummer. However with Stubb's being the next best thing, at $8.99 for a measly 15# bag, I'll stick with TJ's.
 
I did a cook today with TJ. Another thing to dislike is when you pour the lit coals out of the chimney, briquettes can disintegrate if you try to move them around. When they fall apart they turn into flaming dust. This stuff is a fire hazard in a few ways.
 
Alan F said:
I did a cook today with TJ. Another thing to dislike is when you pour the lit coals out of the chimney, briquettes can disintegrate if you try to move them around. When they fall apart they turn into flaming dust. This stuff is a fire hazard in a few ways.
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Exactly. They needn't be burned up to crumble to pieces. Stubbs gets my vote between the two. The price difference isn't noticeable when you can use it twice.
 
if its that crumbly then something has changed or is wrong. i'm right now using a bag of rancher that is about 4-5 years old and stored outside and its perfectly fine.
 
I bought a few bags of this stuff a couple of months back and finally tried it last night to grill some burgerws, needless to say I was not impressed I had the same problems with it a few others here did, it never really lit like charcoal usually does, by the time I saw flames on top most of the chimney had burned up and when I when I did the dump it just crumbled and fell apart so I tossed a little lump on top which did finally catch. It took about 35-40 minutes to get the stuff going.
 
Don Reed said:
I bought a few bags of this stuff a couple of months back and finally tried it last night to grill some burgerws, needless to say I was not impressed I had the same problems with it a few others here did, it never really lit like charcoal usually does, by the time I saw flames on top most of the chimney had burned up and when I when I did the dump it just crumbled and fell apart so I tossed a little lump on top which did finally catch. It took about 35-40 minutes to get the stuff going.
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Same problem here Don. Don't even think of re-using that which lit. Try the Stubbs if you haven't already. I think you'll be impressed.
 
Neil, I've used Stubbs before and I like it, the TJ's was on sale so I figured I'd give it a go, thankfuly I only picked up 3 bags. It was so wierd the way it burned in the chimney, I've never seen anything like it before.
 
The TJs charcoal shipment just showed up in the pallets at my local store. I had to ask a store rep to bring out a bag for me. As always, they were very friendly and helpful.
I just tried it out, and it sure does smell different from the Kingsford Blue bag, and the briquettes were a bit larger. It did appear to burn more slowly with less ash. The smell is something I need to get used to, as I've kind of gotten accustomed to the smell of Kingsford. I'm not saying it smelled bad, just different, and not necessarily better.
I used 1.5 chimney starter full loads for a 4.5 hour smoke in my wsm build, and I still had some unused briquettes left over.
It's always good to start with a good, fresh bag of charcoal! And keep it out of the rain, my friends!
 
On the past i loved this stuff especially for long cooks due to the low ash but this years coal is horrible. i went through 3 bags already and its high ash, crumbles right away and doesn't seem to burn as hot. Im going to go back to restaurant depot royal oak lump for future cooks.
 
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I recently bought a few bags of TJ charcoal because I wanted to try something different on long cooks because KBB was suffocating itself with ash. Well Im currently doing an over night cook of pork shoulders. I filled the ring on my 18.5 with TJs with a can in the middle for minion method. i used the last bit of Kingsford Competition to in my chimney (14 bricks). i had it settled at 250* and went to bed. 7 hours later come out to 175*. maybe it was how i loaded it in the ring or that i started the minion with kingsford but so far I do not like this stuff. Has anyone else had problems doing minion with this charcoal????
 
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