Dwain Pannell
TVWBB Hall of Fame
Kingsford for briquettes, Royal Oak for lump.
If you think charcoal is expensive, what about the price of beef!? I’d rather toss a bag of coal than ruin a good piece of meat! I think some of it becomes what you get used to as much as the charcoal itself...without gravel of course!Trying different brands is kind of expensive but I like to separate fact from marketing. I tried a generic briquette years ago, it had gravel in it!
John, I fell in love with Weber Briquettes. But since they stopped sales in the US, I have tried multiple different brands at different price points. I have used Royal Oak Chefs Select, Royal Oak All Natural, B&B orange bag, Blue Hog Briquettes, and B&B Char Logs. I love the Blue Hog Briquettes, really liked the B&B orange bag, but they are pricey. Then I tried Cowboy All Natural Hardwood Briquets because of the experiences of others here and I am amazed the how high of a quality this charcoal is for half the price of B&B orange bag and Blue Hog Briquettes. I have not found a charcoal that I think is near this good for this price. I put this right there with B&B orange bag, Blue Hog Briquettes. I will keep using this for as long as I can keep finding it.Everything is getting expensive. I figured everyone could throw in their preferences to narrow down the field of what works for them. The quality of meat seems to be going down as the price increases.
Oh yeah, those Cowboy briquettes are pretty good, I just finished my first bag yesterday, I'll be going back to TSC for more! I have tried everything on your list, except for Blues Hog and B&B briquettes are my favorite, but they're hard to find in stock at Ace. Cowboy will be my go to if I can't get my hands on B&B.John, I fell in love with Weber Briquettes. But since they stopped sales in the US, I have tried multiple different brands at different price points. I have used Royal Oak Chefs Select, Royal Oak All Natural, B&B orange bag, Blue Hog Briquettes, and B&B Char Logs. I love the Blue Hog Briquettes, really liked the B&B orange bag, but they are pricey. Then I tried Cowboy All Natural Hardwood Briquets because of the experiences of others here and I am amazed the how high of a quality this charcoal is for half the price of B&B orange bag and Blue Hog Briquettes. I have not found a charcoal that I think is near this good for this price. I put this right there with B&B orange bag, Blue Hog Briquettes. I will keep using this for as long as I can keep finding it.
Before I started using Cowboy All Natural Hardwood Briquets, that is exactly what I would do, try to get B&B orange bag from Ace, and if I could not I would order Blue Hog. I would also always try to see if the B&B Char Logs we're available, I love those for the WSM.My favorite is B&B Competition briquettes. It’s out of stock at ACE so I ordered 4 bags of Blues Hog briquettes. Never tried them but figured I’d give them a shot.
A lot of Mexican markets have huge bags of Mesquite lump for cheap. I use it once in a while, great for carne asada.I like cheap lol!
Since there's been no kbb sales, I bought 6 20# bags of off brand lump from the local Mexican market at $6 a bag. It's been ok so far, it's a little snappy at startup but smells good.
I splurged for a bag of Jealous devil a few months ago just to try it. It seems to last for 3-4 hh cooks, so the value is there. But I still find it difficult to pony up that much $$ per bag...