The BEST Charcoal for Smoking & Grilling in 2024: Lump vs Briquettes

Getting ready to gear up your smoker... But not sure what the best charcoal for smoking is? In this video, we kill two birds with one stone by discussing the best charcoal for smoking AND grilling. We even tested both lump and briquette options from three different brands... So you're getting the full spectrum on what's offered. For this review, we tested lump & briquette charcoal from Cowboy, Jealous Devil, and B&B. So let's get into the details, shall we?
When determining the best charcoal for smoking or grilling... There are a few categories to look into. For our purposes, we tested a few different areas to get a more well-rounded feel of what charcoal is truly best. We tested how long the coals took to get to the white ash stage, cook time, overall burn time, and quality of the ash for cleanup. For the white ash stage, we were determining how long it takes for those coals to get hot and ready to use. The quicker the heat up time, the quicker you're smoking. Cook time describes how long the coals stayed hot enough to cook with, and total burn time describes how long the coals stayed lit in total. As for ash quality... This gave us an indication of how cleanly the coals burned. Was the ash fine and fluffy? Or was it a bit gritty?
Now that you have a solid idea of how our test was run... It's time to watch the video, and learn about the best charcoal for smoking and grilling.
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:10 Jealous Devil Lump Charcoal
0:33 Cowboy Lump Charcoal
0:55 B&B Lump Charcoal
1:27 Jealous Devil Briquette Charcoal
1:52 Cowboy Briquette Charcoal
2:16 B&B Briquette Charcoal
2:44 Overall Winner & Final Thoughts

[@mrblonde71384]

Living in Texas is a charcoal dream. I love B&B products. Particularly the Hickory lump and oak briquettes. Jealous Devil briquettes are also fantastic for high heat. I usually have a couple of bags myself

[@RTAOutdoorLiving]

We really liked B&B and would say Jealous Devil is a close second. We will watch for the Hickory Lump Oak Briquettes, which sounds interesting. Fortunately, we were able to purchase all of these at Walmart- do you have a specific place to buy charcoal?

[@mrblonde71384]

The hickory lump and oak briquettes are 2 different products. I also get charcoal from ace hardware and academy ​@@RTAOutdoorLiving

[@mrblonde71384]

The hickory lump and oak briquettes are two different products. I also like to shop at academy and ace hardware for charcoal

[@donte543]

Jealous Devil only cost me $20 at home Depot. Lucky me

[@RTAOutdoorLiving]

You are so lucky!!!

[@havalopez]

I’ve had trouble getting to higher tenpin with cowboy brickettes

[@RTAOutdoorLiving]

That's really interesting- we mostly cook slow and low. We appreciate the budget value of cowboy charcoal too.

[@RTAOutdoorLiving]

Which charcoal do you prefer?

[@JuanJimenez-bf9fw]

That’s what i use BB and the oher brand cowboy 😉

[@RTAOutdoorLiving]

Great choices! We really enjoyed B&B overall- make sure to follow our channel for more BBQ content!

[@noeltaylor3594]

Cowboy pops too much.

[@JuanJimenez-bf9fw]

🤔

[@Kunoooooo]

Hey Jordan

[@RTAOutdoorLiving]

Thanks for watching the video! Hope you have a great day!

[@rjsal246]

No kingsford charcoal?

[@RTAOutdoorLiving]

Wouldn't really recommend Kingsford for slow and low BBQing. Perfect for grilling but we wanted to cover some other brands outside of the typical brands.

[@jbubba1053]

I like jealous Devil but it it’s a bit expensive

[@RTAOutdoorLiving]

Totally agree with this statement. 👍

[@michaels5886]

I use Kingsford and B&B briquettes for burgers and Fogo and B&B Lump Charcoal for chicken,steak and everything else, I don't like the flavor of Jealous Devil Lump Charcoal.

[@RTAOutdoorLiving]

That's really interesting! Some people LOVE jealous devil. It really is all up tot he grill master what is used!

[@Kunoooooo]

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[@RTAOutdoorLiving]

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