A special blend of lump charcoal that we import from South America. Similar to Wicked Good ... ALL HARDWOOD !! HUGE CHUNKS ! The Best we've found to date and a decent deal too. 26.5 lbs in a bag! We originally bought this off the back of a large truck from a Brazilian guy that only spoke Portuguese! I tried a few bags, loved the stuff and now we have a steady supply coming. Our local customers have grown fond of it also. You get 6.5 extra lbs in the same size bag as most 20 lb bags! That's because the denser, harder charcoal weighs more for the same volume which translates into more cooking time. Works great in a ceramic cooker or any BBQ Grill! WATCH THE VIDEO !!

 

 

The charcoal was fairly easy to light, taking 4.5 sheets of newspaper in our chimney starter test. This is average compared to other charcoals. The smoke was a moderate woodsy smoke as opposed to the somewhat perfumey smoke that sometimes is produced by South American hardwoods. While the charcoal was burning in the chimney starter there was no sparking or popping at all.

The charcoal also did reasonably well in our maximum temperature test, burning at 930 degrees which is high compared to other charcoals. Again there was no sparking or popping while the charcoal was roaring away in the cooker. And although the charcoal was pretty easy to light in the chimney starter test, it does seem that the fire takes a long time to spread once you dump it out into a cooker. We would recommend starting this charcoal in a chimney starter and making sure you get it going pretty good before dumping it out. If you do choose to start it with a MAPP torch, there is only moderate sparking and no real popping, but exercise caution as always.

Finally, in the burn time test this charcoal didn't distinguish itself, burning only an average length of time. However the ash production was a pleasant surprise, the ash produced being low compared to other brands of charcoal.

So, here we have a charcoal which is average on burn time, and lighting, and better than average on ash production, maximum temperature and waste in the bag. Coupled with a relatively high price of almost $1.00 per pound, we give this charcoal our Above Average rating.