20 Best Lump Charcoal For Kamado (2023 Updated)

I have been buying Big Block for over 5 years. In the last year, I have noticed a significant decrease in the overall quality and size of the lumps. As the name implies, they used to be fairly large blocks with a few small pieces.

The last 4 bags I purchased (2 from Lowes and 2 from Amazon), were horrible in that the size of the charcoal was extremely small with NO big blocks in the bag. The bag I opened up last weekend had a big black ROCK in the bag, and my name is not Charlie Brown.

I cannot believe the quality has gone so far downhill in the last couple of years. Since it has the Kamado Joe brand on the bag, I expect top-rate lump charcoal. If things do not change, I will be looking at other brands for my charcoal!.

Not every bag is consistent in lump size. The lumps in most bags of this charcoal vary from gargantuan to tiny. Occasionally there are very few giant and gargantuan lumps in a bag. Often the very largest chunks are too big to be suitable for what I am grilling so I keep a hatchet handy to knock them down to merely giant size.

Even knocked down to giant size they are often quite a bit larger than in other brands of lump charcoal. (I’m looking at you, Cowboy) Every bag always has settlement of the smallest charcoal bits to the bottom.

This is not unique to this brand. Only the gargantuan and giant lumps will be on the top of the heap inside the bag so you must dig around some inside the bag to create good mix of large, medium, and small chunks for a long burning fire with even heat.

The smallest pieces will light quickly and they in turn kindle the medium and large chunks which then burn hot and long. Use a chimney starter for easy results. If you don’t do this and only use large chunks your fire will be slow to start and then, if the lumps aren’t stacked just right, — which they won’t be if you dump them out of a chimney starter — it will never get really hot.

I learned this the hard way over several bags of this brand. If you are of the mindset that you are not bothered by the little bit of extra effort required to make your fire “just right” you will love this charcoal.

Get yourself some disposable kitchen gloves for handling the job of sorting chunks and rooting through the bag. If you just want to put your charcoal into your grill and light it you may find the extra effort annoying which is why I only gave it four stars.

I have always purchased the Big Block at Lowes and loved the product. The last couple of bags are not even the same product any longer. The most recent didnt even have blocks of charcoal. The bag will filled with charred pieces of 1×3 timber like framing lumber.

Horrible, wont even light. Looks like Kamado Joe quality is going down hill. Will never purchase again and definetly do not waste your money.

This is a great lump charcoal and a good value. As good as more expensive brands and easier to get (at Walmart). Way better than Royal Oak! I use it in both of my Masterbuilt Gravity smoker/grills and get great results.

I’m sure it would work well in other grills if you use a charcoal chimney or fire starter cubes. Never use lighter fluid! That stuff is bad for you!.

I purchased the charcoal and fire starter bundle a couple of weeks ago. Overall I am very happy with the coal. It burns hot and clean. There is a bit of powder and small pieces in the bags due but you get that almost anywhere, but for the most part the coals were pretty uniform in size.

They are fast to light and since I have a gravity grill they relight very quickly as well. The fire starters are ok, in my opinion after several uses I seem to prefer a tumbleweed type of starter. These are a little slow to light sometimes.

I have never bought charcoal online, but the shipping was reasonable so I gave it a shot and I am glad I did. Delivery was prompt and I am very pleased with the quality of the charcoal and the starters.

Unlike the charcoal I usually use for my ceramic bbq, there is not a large amount of useless charcoal “dust” at the bottom of the bag. The starters light easily, although I have found that it is better to use two 2 squares rather than one to get a good start.

I love my Masterbuilt grill/smoker and am now a big fan of their charcoal as well!.

Having tested several of the top brands of lump charcoal, this is now my preferred charcoal and will continue to purchase it wherever I can find it. I was pleasantly surprised to see such a reduction in popping, cracking, and smoke I usually get from all the other lump charcoals I’ve used in the past.

Coming off Royal Oak which was the last bag of lump I bought, this is night and day difference. This Jealous Devil lump charcoal lit quickly and stayed HOT (KJ Jr. 550+ degrees) for the duration of my cook.

There was no excessive smoke taste that I could detect, and my wife agreed also. After closing off the vents on the grill, the charcoal cooled with minimal ash. I’ll be able to use the same charcoal for a second bbq.

This is a my third bag and I love cooking with them. The ease of starting a fire, longer burn and the flavor is wonderful. I won’t use any other now that I found these. Also the price is reasonable and TSC delivered promptly.

Live the new slide open bag too!!.

Consider by most to be the best lump charcoal available. JD burns HOT and clean. Noticable difference in reduction of ash from most brands. More expensive but a superior product. If you can find it. buy it.

because it can get hard to find!.

After trying several brands over many years, my experience is that you eventually get a bag that isn’t great. I have a BGE and started with their brand of lump. Bags consistently included junk (chunks of what looked like firebrick/ceramic, stones, metal banding) and way overpriced.

Never got a return communication from BGE so moved on. Went through a few different brands before settling on Rockwood as best overall lump. Overall, I get very good results from Rockwood – good burn time, maybe 2-3 hand fulls of ash per bag burnt, etc.

Yes, some bags have more dust at the bottom of the bag than I’d like but have yet to find a “dust-free” bag of lump and a little common sense when dumping the end of the bag keeps the dust cloud at a minimum (or just pick out the last pieces and throw the dust away!).

I use a MAPP torch to get things started quickly. To minimize sparking ( it’s not like using a haystack or paraffin/wood dust square!), keep the air inlet closed and try to focus the flame on the lumps from the previous burn instead of exclusively on the newly added lump.

The edges on the new lump are what “pop” using this method so I also focus on flaming the flats. You also don’t need to bury the torch tip in the lump – it’s a very hot flame. Once you get a few areas warmed up, open the air inlet and you’re quickly on your way to getting started.

A tank of MAPP lasts about 30 starts. A seven hour, 250 degree cook of a pork shoulder plus cool down time, for example, used about 20% of the full firebox on a large BGE. I find that this is what my BGE does best (low and slow) but I get great results from grilling too.

I’d give 5 stars but I think the pricing could be better. ACE coupons help take the edge off a bit so thank you for those!.

It was not what I was expecting. For the price I thought I would be getting better lump than Royal Oak. If I would not know better, this seems to be the leftover scrap at the end-of-the-day from Royal Oak that they put into Rockwood bags.

No large pieces just small and medium; plenty of chips and dust. Would not recommend dumping the bottom 1/4 of the bag without a respirator and safety glasses. The best time to use this brand is around the holidays.

Your guest and neighbors will love the fireworks when you light up this lump. Keep your safety glasses on as well. It may not be a bad idea to call the police and the fire department prior to lighting so that they are aware that you are just grilling with Rockwood Lump and the excessive smoke is not from your house being on fire.

Do not prep your food and have it ready to go when you light the lump. You’ll have plenty of time on your hands just waiting for this to get hot and burn clean. Light the Rockwood first, have a drink or two, then do your final prep work.

By then Rockwood should be ready to cook with. And last but not least make sure you have a big enough container when cleaning out the ashes; you’ll have more than you thought. Its always a good idea to have a separate bucket to throw the stones into.

From what I hear Rockwood will send you a bag of lump for every 20 pounds of rocks you collect. I give this brand 3 stars but took one away due to the high price. It is really just overprice averaged lump charcoal.

Picked up a bag on sale this past week, as I’ve been eager to try Rockwood but haven’t pulled the trigger due to the high price tag. Still more expensive per pound than any other brand I’ve come across, and given the premium price point and sterling reputation I was expecting excellent charcoal once I got home and opened the bag.

Not the case. The first thing I noticed is that not all of the pieces were completely carbonized. That didn’t completely turn me off, as I figured a large scale manufacturer will inevitably have some duds here and there.

After beginning to sort through the bag I quickly realized that there were next to no large pieces inside, and in fact, the overwhelming majority were about as tiny as I’d seen from Royal Oak. Again, not the biggest problem in and of itself (small pieces still burn), but when you pay a premium over garden variety brands, you expect a higher quality, more consistent product.

The few medium-sized pieces I managed to find all appeared to be made from scrap wood or 2x4s, which isn’t exactly evocative of the “100% Premium All-Natural Missouri Hardwood” that they have proudly emblazoned on the packaging.

As for how it burns, it’s comparable to other brands I’ve used, but even then, there were still issues. I like to light my lump with a MAPP torch, and the amount of sparks that violently flew out of this stuff was *far* beyond what I’ve experienced before.

My first instinct was “this is probably why it was on sale”, but I’d like to think that an ethical company with an otherwise solid reputation wouldn’t just dump whatever didn’t meet their standards on the consumer and call it good.

Maybe I received a bad batch; it happens, but the fact that there were so many issues with this one bag in particular is cause for concern.

I have used a lot of B&B charcoal in the past and when I saw the Hickory Blend I was excited to try something new. I was extremely disappointed. This burns extremely fast and hot. First use was just grilling some hot dogs which I noticed an odd flavor but thought it may have been the hot dogs.

Today I used it to smoke a dozen chicken legs and after the were done the flavor was disgusting and couldn’t eat the chicken. My wife complained that it had a chemical flavor to it. I first thought that this was charcoal that used hickory wood to make the charcoal but that is not what it is.

Apparently they use a different wood and try to inject some kind of hickory seasoning in the wood. Don’t know exactly how but I don’t like it. I will discard the rest of it and go back to Royal Oak.

I have been cooking with charcoal exclusively for the past four years, after attending Myron Mixon’s barbecue school. After experimenting with multiple charcoal types, I found that the hickory blend, supplemented with apple wood chunks, imparts a delicate, sweet flavor to pork.

I cook for my family, friends and community servants that work to make my community great. I have cooked hundreds of pounds of pork butts and have received nothing but positive feedback from those who try it.

You honestly cannot go wrong with B&B. I cook at temperatures between 250-275, and have also been pleased when cooking at high temps.

I only use B&B Hickory charcoal after trying other brands for decades. I’ve been cooking with charcoal for over 40 years, I don’t even own a gas grill. I cook with this charcoal in a Weber 37″ Ranch Kettle and 22″ grill with excellent results.

I use it on its own for extra heat direct grilling steaks and burgers or mix with charcoal briquettes to dial in my perfect temperature on a “low and slow” cook using indirect heat for smoking ribs and pork butt.

This charcoal imparts a wonderfully sweet smokey flavor in the meat. In the fall, I char and smoke hot peppers for the freezer with the same great results.

I’ve tried a lot of brands and this is all around just a great lump. I use it on my kamado joe and there is very little ash production. Nice flavor and pleasant smell. I found one small rock in the 20lb bag, but no big deal.

Nice medium to large sized lump throughout.

We have purchased this product multiple times and for the price of the charcoal, our bags have had rocks, concrete chucks, and BARBED WIRE.

I have had to resort to mail order for my lump charcoal as the stuff I can get from the local harware store has started using branches and other bad-tasting scraps. While only my first bags of Primo, the bags had all medium-size lumps, very little dust, and burned really evenly and hot.

I start using a homemade chimney, and this lit fast, with a bed of red coals in 6-9 minutes. My food tastes great and I can cook my steaks with far higher heat than can ever be accomplished with briquets.

I am sold. This is a great charcoal that I hope reliably stays just like what was in these bags.

In over 20 years of smoking on a Kamado smoker/griller this is the worst charcoal product I’ve used. By far. It is really hard to start. The temperature variations are much larger than with any other charcoal I’ve used.

And it just does not hold temperature well at all, constantly changing during the cook. Low and slow was impossible. But even cooking at higher temps (350° or so) this charcoal would either drop dramatically in temperature or go through the roof.

For extra credit I sent customer service a note explaining the problems and never heard back from them. Yup, FOGO ignored my request for help. Do not buy this. You will regret it. In 20 years of smoking I’ve never been more disappointed in a charcoal, nevermind one that is labeled “premium”.

This is impressive coming out if the bag with large chunks of wood. When lighting this charcoal it is akin to lighting a sparkler. It releases a shower of sparks that fly upwards and outwards. Fortunately my kamado is on a stone patio.

I find that food cooked with this lump is smokier in an unpleasant way. I typically use B&B and Kamado Joe lump. I find the food to taste more balanced and lighting the grill to be safer without the fireworks.

Do not buy this lump charcoal. This stuff pops and sends hot embers like crazy when using a Torch or Grill gun. I’ve used many lump charcoals in my 2 Kamado Joe’s and thus stuff is terrible to light.

I’m always scared to lite this becuse it pops SO BAD. The plus is you can get some really huge pieces with very little small wasteful pieces but that’s about it. If you want to burn your house down, start your deck on fire, or have them hit you while lighting then this is the right stuff for you.

It’s grilling time. The newer version of Kingsford briquettes, are a better option. Still some retailers only sell the original. Be sure to have lighter fluid, and a bit more patience. Don’t worry these still work, but require a little more dedication.

Also work too, as comparatively, you have to move these to keep heat at an even temperature. That’s not a major headache. Kingsford has been around who know many years. You will be able to find this almost anywhere.

Pricing is very reasonable. I like the taste more of charcoal grills, than the fancy gas ones. Part of this is being traditional, yet those gas tanks and the tubing, can be rather frightening. Charcoal is more easy to regulate the temperature, and I especially love this for kabobs.

Big difference in taste. If this is available, bring your A game.

I am an avid griller and smoker, so I was very excited to try these charcoal briquettes. Typically, I grill meats with regular charcoal briquettes, and I smoke meats with hardwood chunks. I have now found the perfect product for in the middle those two cooking methods.

These briquettes, although enhanced with Pecan wood, will not replace the robust taste of smoking with all lump hardwood, but I don’t think that’s what they were designed to do. Instead, these briquettes are excellent at adding additional flavor in those situations where you would have just used regular charcoal.

I’ve found the best use of these briquettes is grilling steaks over direct heat. Again, the pecan flavor is mild, but it adds another layer of flavor to every meat that you grill. In my experience, chicken and beef absorbs the pecan flavor best.

The great thing about these briquettes is that you get to use them just as you would use the regular briquettes. The light just as easily, and seem to get to the exact same temperature as the standard briquettes.

The only real difference is added flavor. All in all, these briquettes won’t replace my traditional briquettes, or my lump hard wood, but I am absolutely adding them to my grilling tool bag. And, I would recommend that anyone who wants a simple way to add subtle, but delicious, flavor do the same.

In full disclosure, I did receive this item at a discounted price in exchange for my review.

My husband and I are really enjoying this charcoal. As compared to the original Kingsford we find this one to be more smoky, woody, and nutty. in this most pleasant way. They’re quick to heat up and the coals stay hot for more than enough time for us to cook all of our grill standards (BBQ chicken, burgers, hot dogs, steak, sausages, and corn on the cob).

When the food is finished cooking, we’ve noticed that this charcoal imparts a really neat flavor on it. As I said, the best way I can describe it is smoky, woody, and nutty. You get a lot in the standard sized bag and we found the price to be fair for what you get.

I also appreciated how durable the bag was – despite being shipped it arrived in perfect condition with no mess – no charcoal residue. I even felt comfortable leaving this bag in the living room for a couple days waiting for the weather to warm (a first for me as charcoal bags are usually a mess and stored only in the garage).

We were surprised at these high end features from Kingsford which we’ve always considered a more affordable, down to Earth brand. Nice to see that they’re now offering a luxury briquet without the luxury price tag.

I received a sample of this product in exchange for my fair and unbiased opinion.

I have used this product before and have been quite happy with it. It lights easily and, as long as you wait for the grill to stabilize, burns cleanly. There are other products that are comparable and can be obtained locally, however the pieces are so small (likely from shipping and handling) they more closely resemble coarse ground coffee rather than lump charcoal.

While there were still some pretty small pieces with the Kamado Big Block (which was mail-ordered), they are significantly larger than almost anything I could get locally.

I used this charcoal in my Kamado Joe Classic several times. The first time I used it on chicken. It gave the chicken a kerosene flavor. I thought maybe I did not let the charcoal get hot enough (a problem I have never had with other charcoal).

I tried the charcoal again making sure that all of the charcoal was burning and then I adjusted the air vents on my Joe to get the heat down to 300. Again the flavor of the chicken was like Kerosene.

We could not eat it. I have had my Joe for about (5) years and have never had this issue with other charcoals. I have purchased other Joe products and I have no complaints but I will not use this charcoal again.

I just want to say; that we are all better than this. We all have used charcoal at some point in our life. Let’s not lie to one another. we have all bought from several suppliers throughout our time.

They ALL provide us with a quality product. You all know that these bags are not filled with rock or cement. These people work hard for you all, and these companies do their best to give you what the community needs.

No one company is ever perfect, but to try and purposely harm someone, or something, or a business, is unkind. Why does everything always have to be about hurting something? We are all equal. We should all help each other’s businesses to be successful.

There doesn’t need to be a winner or a loser. I try to visit all businesses and whether I like their items or not, it’s a way of being a real community. Can’t everyone just leave a nice comment? Why must there be bullying to each other’s businesses? It isn’t accomplishing anything at all.

Can’t we just be respectful to one another; please????.

I have used Royal Oak lump for many years. Unfortunately, the quality over the last few years has deteriorated. Too many crushed pieces per bag. I have contacted Royal Oak about my concerns, and they have explained it’s all due to shipping.

However, I have seen the Big Green Egg bags and those pieces stay large (same charcoal). My latest bag contained several rocks. It’s good charcoal, but I’m becoming more frustrated with each bag purchased.

I have used this a few times and admit there is a learning curve when coming from plain charcoal. First off, take heed of the “high heat” part of the description. If you don’t, you will char your food if you aren’t careful.

It is great for searing, but if you aren’t careful, you may sear a little more than you want and be left with a leathery mess. But, if you are careful, it does produce a nice sear to seal in the juices.

If you are grilling things that you don’t want higher heat, there are better options for you. But if you you have this and can’t get to a store to get other, you can still use this. Just keep the food far enough away from the coals and watch it carefully.

The bag mentions just extinguishing the charcoal when you are done by closing your grill vents because you can reuse it. I skipped that part of the instructions the first time and wasted it. And the subsequent times, I had some, but limited success at reusing.

A big reason for this is my grill, which is not great for letting the fire go out in the coals. So, you may have more luck than I did with that. The better your grill, the better your results will be.

But if you are someone that just has a cheapo grill to cook out maybe once a week in the summer, there might be better options for you. I am somewhat in between those two groups of people, so I would definitely consider getting this for use sometimes, along with regular charcoal briquettes for when I just want a quick bite to eat.

You have to decide what category of griller you fall in.

I was pretty disappointed in this. I really like what the brand is doing, and I was hoping to have them be my new jam. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the bag were pieces about a third the size of a charcoal briquette.

The pieces are so small they fall through the grate on my charcoal rack in my grill and the rack in my chimney starter. This makes everything a huge mess and a huge pain, and the small pieces burn quickly to boot.

Unfortunately I have to recommend staying away from this brand.

This charcoal is more expensive than what we usually use and had good reviews. The pieces are smaller than what we get with Red Oak, B&B or Cowboy. This makes it harder to control the temp for a longer, slower burn and more suitable for fast, hot cooks like pizzas.

We won’t buy it again.

we bought a new bag of Kingsford Match Light a week before Thanksgiving. We have a tradition of grilling our turkey, and have been using Kingsford for almost three decades. This year, however, it did not turn out well.

I set up the grill, a Weber Kettle, as usual, put in the charcoal, AND IT WOULD NOT LIGHT. I finally had to resort to a sizeable dose of charcoal lighter fluid to start the coals, and even then, the coals did not get hot enough to adequately cook the turkey.

I finally had to resort to finishing it on our gas grill, and still ended up with a delayed dinner. I don’t know what happened to Kingsford, but will be looking for another alternative in the future.

I recently switched to charcoal from gas in August of 2020 after many years of propane. I absolutely love it and will never go back to gas. I buy my Kingsford charcoal at Lowe’s in the economical 2x20lb packs.

Kingsford was recommended to me for its price, quality and consistency. My first 2 pack performed flawlessly. I noticed my second 2 pack took longer to light in my chimney starter, crackled very loudly and produced more “dirty” white smoke.

Being a charcoal noob I didn’t think much of it. I tried a 3-4 hour low and slow and my meat was ruined. It had taken on too much acrid smoke. Needless to say I was bummed. I reached out to Kingsford and dealt with two customer service reps (Alexandrea and James.

) Both were excellent and very sympathetic. I received a coupon for a free bag in the mail shortly after. Kingsford really tried to make things right. I now store my bags in Kingsford charcoal caddies in my garage just to make sure they stay dry.

They definitely have my repeat business!.

Attached are pictures of my club’s bbq 8/28/2021. Here are a few facts. We racked 518 chicken halves averaging 1. 523 pounds or 24. 4 ounces each. What a slab of meat. Total of meat weighed 790 pounds but only 520 pounds charcoal, that’s 26 20# bags.

That means it only required 0. 659 # to grill a pound of chicken for 2 hours. Chicken bbq is a major fundraiser for Mount Sidney Ruritan Club as we have monthly bbq dates to grill approximately 4500 -5000 during the grilling season.

Kingsford has done a good job for us over the years and purchase 5-6 pallets for the year. Thank you Kingsford, Wayne BBQ Chairman.

Let’s be honest, lump charcoal is expensive. A 15 pound bag is normally $10-15, even more for the quality stuff. Royal Oak is your “bargain brand” variety. I try to buy the 30lbs bag when it is $15. I use lump charcoal for my 18 inch Weber Smokey Mountain smoker.

A bag will last me 3 or 4 smokes depending on the meat. I generally expect 60% of the bag to be medium or large chunks, 20% to be smaller, and the remaining 20% to be almost unusable. If I was paying the same price as other bags I would definitely switch.

Since this is usually at least 30% cheaper, I’m willing to put up with the pieces that fall through the grates in my smoker as I still probably come out ahead of the more expensive name brands.

Our family uses lump charcoal for our ceramic smoker and the 30 lb bag is a great size for all the smoking and grilling we do. The charcoal pieces are on the smaller size compared to other brands but works the same.

The price point was fair as well. I definitely recommend Royal Oak Hardwood Lump Charcoal. I received product reimbursement in exchange for my honest review.

i have never tried this brand of charcoal before. As soon as I opened the bag, I could smell the difference. The hardwood smell was amazing and transferred over to the meat. It burned well, just like traditional charcoal.

I will be using this all season! I received product reimbursement in exchange for my honest review.

Do not waste your money. this stuff is junk. To begin with it is filthy but thats not the bad part. This stuff does not burn hot and it is hard to keep lit. The first time I used it I thought since this type of charcoal was new to me maybe I was using it wrong.

I tried three different times adjusting the vents trying to keep lit but nothing worked. I am throwing this in the trash where it belongs. It may grill ok but don’t waste your time trying to smoke with it.

I never had a problem with Kingsford and thats what I am going back to.

Finally tried B & B Oak Lump Charcoal, and I must say that I’m absolutely impressed. This product has the best quality of pieces of lump in the bag compared to the overpriced garbage other companies put out.

By no means am I a spokesman for this brand, but I’ll I’m gonna say, is try it. It’s the best and you won’t be disappointed!!.

I don’t like traditional charcoal briquettes so I thought I would try hardwood charcoal. I wanted to love this but it took forever to get going. When we lit the pieces it made a clinking sound like glass breaking as they started to light, which was actually pretty cool.

Fifteen minutes after I started trying, I doused the coals in more lighter fluid and relit the coals, as time passed I was forced to eventually cook burgers inside because everyone was starving. Now an hour into waiting I grabbed some pine cones and buried them under the coals and lit them, finally the coals were burning! An hour later, I finally grilled 2 burgers because I spent so long trying I was determined to cook something.

That was my first grill experience after that I started the coals with pine cones and a little lighter fluid for subsequent cookouts. The bag said to use tumbleweeds which I have never seen so I had to make my own idea work with pine cones.

The flavor is a lot better when cooking foods over hardwood charcoal rather than briquettes but it wasn’t any easier getting the coals going it seemed more difficult for me personally. I would definitely recommend Royal Oak for ribs and brisket for the best charcoal grill flavors but It really didn’t light faster and it took me longer to get the hot coals.

Good alternative to the artificial briquettes in the market, ironically made by the same manufacturers! Folks that use lighter fluid, please do not do that as it adds that flavor to the food being cooked on the grill.

There are other methods of lighting charcoal, albeit, they take more time and require some patience but the results are well worth it. Having said that, this is good value for money. It is a natural product.

It may not be as good as the Doyon cuisine products, but it does the job and it does it well. There are other products that are more expensive(2x factor sometimes), but more than likely, you are paying for the name and nothing more.

Have been using Kingsford Original and Professional for many, many years. Thought since it was from Kingsford it would be worth a try. WRONG!!!! Kingsford should be ashamed to put their name on this stuff.

Does not produce enough heat for a smoker, burns out exceedingly fast, terrible smell and flavor. Will not even use the little bit that’s left in the bag. Terrible product.