Trader Joes harwood bricqetts


 
G

Greg Muller

TVWBB Member
Here on Long Island we have a natural food store called Traders Joes. Was ion there today and saw trader joes Hardwood bricquetts. Has any one ever seen or used them.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by LarryR:
Good stuff, do a search on "Rancher" same product. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

You sure about this?

I bought 2 bags of the TJ briqs and it says its made in Argentina.

There have been no Rancher sitings at Trader Joes in Western Washington that I know of, I called around to a few when the rumour started and Cowboy Lump was all they stocked. I grabbed the briqs at the Lynnwood store and when I asked the manager about them he said its a seasonal item and probably wouldn't be around much longer. $6.99 for an 18lb bag seemed OK, but I'm still a Stubbs fan!
 
I'll concur with the guys above. Got some Rancher from Traders back in the spring. During the summer the bag changed, but the contents and price didn't.
 
Well now....I still have a few bags of Rancher left, just may have to do a side x side comparison cook!
There is no indication of who made it, but the Rancher says its made in Paraguay and the Tj's is from Argentina. Still not a bad price.
 
What Paul L said. The bag just changed. Funny thign though, if you check out the bar coding from the Rancher bag and the TJ's bag, it is the same numbers !!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Brian Moriarty:
There is no indication of who made it, but the Rancher says its made in Paraguay and the Tj's is from Argentina. Still not a bad price. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Argentina is a suburb of Paraguay
icon_smile.gif
(or is it the other way around) so not much of a difference. 9 out of 10 people in this country couldn't tell you where Paraguay is anyway. (members of this board excluded, of course). I also got some Rancher from TJ's earlier in the season and recently bought some charcoal in the TJ bags. I found both to be just fine. Long burning, less ash. I made the guess that the charcoal in the TJ bags was Rancher, but I've been known to be wrong. $6.99 for 18 lbs I thought was good for an all natural briquette. Works just as well in the grill as it does in the WSM IMO. So now, if I don't want to use up my lump, I use these.
 
I tried a bag of the Trader Joes in my Drum Smoker for a Hot n'Fast Brisket cook and the rest in the Cajun Bandit with the Rib-O-Lator to cook 4 racks of Loin Backs.
One thing I noticed besides the time it takes to get the cookers up to temp like the Rancher was that it does burn hotter and the coals are bright white when ashing over. No off smell, I'll know in the morning if it produced less ash. There was a LOT of broken and crushed briqs in this bag, but overall I'm satisfied with my cooks. I may take a stroll to pick up a few more bags.

IMG_1349.jpg


IMG_1348.jpg
 
I'm down to my last three bags of Rancher so I picked-up 4 bags of the Trader Joe branded "Rancher" yesterday and will cook on it tonight. Looks exactly the same, let's see if it cooks the same. The Trader Joe's sign actually said, "Rancher." on it and I asked the manager and he said as far as he knew it was the same charcoal just New Trader Joe packaging.
 
Crap, I forgot OSH had it, OSH Corporate is a client of mine, I should have gone there. I'll have to swing by OSH and pick-up a few bags too
icon_biggrin.gif
 
The stuff looks like Rancher (I took a picture and will updated this post when I download it), seems to burn like Rancher; I used about 2/3 chimney of unlit, 4 lit, let her bring my cooker up to temp (325 - 350) which took about an hour, cooked 12 lbs of thighs and it's about 4 hours since she got up to temp. and she's sitting steady at 335, I'll check her at the 5 hour mark again. I'm pretty sure it's the same with one exception, it smelled a little different to me. Could be in my head but I could have sworn Rancher had a bit of a sweet smell when lighting. Other than that, which as I said could be in my head it's burning just like Rancher. I'll check the ash in the morning.

UPDATE: Looks about right in terms of ash, however, whats odd is there were a couple of pieces that didn't burn. Never seen that before. Nice long burn, temps started dropping around the 5 hour mark, not bad for 3/4 a chimney and typical of Rancher.
 
My OSH is out of Rancher and will not be stocking it during the Off-Season. I can confirm that Trader Joes is Rancher as I was told that directly by The Original Charcoal Co, the maker or Rancher. The Manager at TJ told me that they too will not be stocking in during the non-summer months so stock up while you can.
 
I just received an email from Original Charcoal. Acording to the email, they are packing RANCHER briquettes in the TJ label. "Same high quality charcoal, in their TJ's bag."

MD
 
the original charcoal company is indeed rancher!!! nowif we could only get the deal we did at home depot where I bough over 1,200 pounds a couple of years ago on sale!!!

I know clorox put the screws to HD to keep it out but one can hope.

I believe the rancher was coming from central america aofew years ago so it may be a bit different from what it was originally but the TJ's stuff is decent!!
 
Dammit! STILL no Trader Joe's here north of 49!!
Its a must stop whenever I'm stateside, love those guys. My closest would Detroit, a 4 hour haul from Toronto. Enjoy fellows.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top