Best Charcoal Briquettes  

When you head out to the market to purchase a charcoal briquette, do you ever consider buying the best one available or simply go for what’s on sale? Purchasing a charcoal briquette is evidently all about the price you pay. In simpler terms, if you’re not investing in the best charcoal briquettes, you’re really not making a cost-efficient investment. For all the buyers that can’t differentiate between a normal charcoal briquette and the best one, it’s simply making the choice of finding and buying a natural product. Quality coal briquettes not only exclude the risk of spoiling your food by offering chemical-free making, but they also heat up quickly while lasting longer.

Now here’s a spoiler: All briquettes are not created equally. This different structure and design of briquettes mainly differentiate the best and the basic ones. In order to ensure that you can analyze this difference and make the best value purchase, we’ve tested tons of charcoal briquettes. After thorough testing we have created this list comprising of the best of em’all. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and explore the quality briquette models you can purchase for long-term quality usage.

Top Charcoal Briquettes Reviewed

Jealous Devil Max XL Hardwood Charcoal Pillow Briquettes – ⭐Best Pick

 

Check Price on Amazon

If budget is not a problem for you, then it’s simply impossible to go wrong with these devilishly good charcoal briquettes. Packed in an exceptionally cool 20lb box, these briquettes comprise a larger-than-average pillow design. With Jealous Devil promising the production of its charcoal with Quebracho trees that are harvested sustainably in South America, you can expect nothing less than a VERY hard wood used to make these b&b charcoal briquettes.

The exceptionally high-quality making of these barbecue briquettes results in super-hot and clean burning of these jealous devil charcoal briquettes. Once the briquettes are burnt, they will generate a high temperature. This temperature can be ideal for faster cooking while using less charcoal. With this beneficial feature, you can grill all your favorite classics at high heat in a limited time as compared to its competitor’s performance – allowing you to enjoy your steaks, chops, burgers, and even wings to the fullest. On top of all this, the large size simply makes them the best charcoal briquettes for smoking, as long as you are able to control the airflow.

What We Like:

• Lasting Packaging: the packing of these best charcoal briquettes for smoking in a resealable box or a weather-resistant bag makes it easy to store and use without having the quality of the charcoal affected.

• Longer Burn Time: The extra-large size of these briquettes allows you to use fewer briquettes while having them burn for a longer time. 
• Natural and Healthy Ingredients: The presence of sustainably harvested South American Quebracho Blanco trees wood and the lack of any chemical additives adds to your cooking/grilling quality. 

What Could’ve Been Better:

• Limited Usage: The XL size of the briquettes can limit its usage to only larger grills and hibachis. 
• Excessive Ash: In case of poor burn conditions or improper burning of the briquettes, the briquettes may produce extreme ash deposits. 

Duraflame Cowboy Natural Hardwood Briquettes – ⭐Best Value 

 

Check Price on Amazon

When it comes to being all-natural b&b charcoal briquettes, Duraflame has you covered with this 14-pound pack of Cowboy Natural Hardwood Briquettes. Its 100% natural ingredients exclude all doubts and health risks that coal, chemicals, or added fillers often bring along. The pillow-shaped design of these even and prolonged heating briquettes makes them a preferably ideal option for all your outdoor grilling and cooking needs.

All these factors sum up to make this affordable 14lb pack of charcoal briquettes for grilling a value investment option for anyone in need of a top-quality product within a limited budget. On top of all this, the hardwood blend of these briquettes adds to the authentic food flavor they pass on to your food – making it difficult for others to determine whether you cooked on a fire or used coal briquettes.

What We Like:

• All-Natural: The no-coal and no-chemical making of these briquettes offers you a tastier and healthy cooking/grilling experience.
• Even and Lasting Heating: Its pillow-shaped design provides even heating that ensures your food isn’t left uncooked or cold in any way. This design also adds to the ability of these briquettes to last for a longer time.
• Light on the Pocket: The Duraflame barbecue briquettes come in a decent size and quantity combined with quality – all at an affordable rate.

What Could’ve Been Better:

• Burning Smell: Once these briquettes start burning, they may produce an off smell that may be uncomfortable, especially if you’re using these briquettes for indoor cooking/grilling.

Kingsford Match Light Charcoal Briquettes – ⭐Faster Lighting

Check Price on Amazon

If you are sick and tired of the struggles of lightning briquettes during outdoor cooking or grilling activities, Kingsford Match Light Charcoal Briquettes are just what you need. The presence of just the right amount of lighter fluid in each of the briquettes makes it extremely easy and convenient to light them up. What adds more to this benefit is the Sure Fire Grooves these briquettes feature, which introduced smooth edges in the briquettes. These edges and the lighter fluid present in Kingsford charcoals can help you light the grill using just a single match.

For all the briquettes to evenly heat up and prepare the charcoal grill set up for you to begin cooking, you only need to wait for a maximum of 10 minutes. However, the fast lighting of these best charcoal briquettes isn’t all that they come along with in an 8lb pack. In fact, the high-quality ingredients used in them are also a plus one that adds to their quality and cost-efficiency. With the help of these quality-made briquettes, you can enjoy a long-burning performance while your food absorbs its authentic smoky flavor – making each cookout fast and delicious. 

What We Like:

• 10-Minute Preparation: Using these Kingsford’s best charcoal briquettes for smoking, you can grill up your favorite food and meat in just 10 minutes. 
• No-Lighter Needed: the presence of quality ingredients and real wood excludes the need to use a lighter to light up the briquettes. Just use a single match and get ready to cook or grill. 
• Fast Heating: The added edges and surface area of each briquette present in this 8-pound bag helps catch the flame quickly and evenly heat up and burn in less time. 

What Could’ve Been Better:

• Usage Limitations: With an 8-pound pack of Kingsford charcoal briquettes, you can only enjoy two uses.
• Presence of Chemical: Although the lighter fluids present in these briquettes may add to the lighting ease, they may not offer you a 100% natural grilling experience.

Royal Oak Chef’s Select Premium Charcoal Briquettes – ⭐Large Pack

Check Price on Amazon

To help you enjoy grilling season to the fullest, this Royal Oak Chef’s Select Premium Charcoal Briquettes comes in a large bag of briquettes. Royal Oak Chef’s Select Premium briquette pack comes in both a 20-pound bag and a 4-pound bag, depending on your usage frequency. With this large pack and the larger quantity of quality barbecue briquettes, you can keep up with your consistent summer grilling desires and please your taste buds with sizzling and freshly grilled meat – as many times as you want. These briquettes are made with a blend of American oak and hickory hardwood. It makes an ideal blend of briquettes comprising of a mouth-watering natural taste that effectively blends into your food, making it the right amount of tasty, savory, and healthy.

Being able to use these briquettes for low and high-heat cooking/grilling also adds to their usage versatility – making them multipurpose. So you are not limited to cooking a particular dish or your food at a certain heat level when you have these royal oak charcoal briquettes at home. On top of all this, the low-ash formula used in these briquettes also limits the ash produced by these briquettes by the time they are cooled off, taking away all the afterward clean-up struggle from your plate.

What We Like:

• Extra Quantity: The two 40-pound packs of these royal oak charcoal briquettes keep up with your consistent grilling and cooking demands with just enough quantity of briquettes that can last an entire summer. 
• Cleaning Convenience: With the low-ash formula used in these briquettes, you can say goodbye to the struggle of cleaning the ashes spread on your store or grill after the briquettes cool down. 
• Multi-Purpose Usage: The quality of these charcoal briquettes for grilling gives you the convenience of choosing between low and high-heat cooking/grilling. They also work exceptionally well on both the traditional as well as ceramic/non-ceramic grills – making them ideal for all types of grilling. 

What Could’ve Been Better:

• Transportation Trouble: The large size of the pack of these briquettes can cause inconvenience in carrying them along with you for outdoor cooking/grilling. 

Kingsford Original Charcoal Briquettes – ⭐Hotter Burning 

Check Price on Amazon

The struggle of waiting to get the briquettes to heat up evenly to the extent that they can perfectly warm your food is very tiresome. Only the wait seems to take decades at times. But with the Kingsford Charcoals barbecue briquettes, that is one thing you never have to experience again. Being effectively burning and high heat providing briquettes, you can certainly consider them an excellent value for your money.

The 16.7 lbs. bag of these coal briquettes also bring you the satisfaction of using all-natural ingredients. So even though they aren’t made with pure charcoal, they don’t even consist of any harmful chemicals that may affect the quality and taste of your food. The presence of groves in the design of these charcoal briquettes for grilling also makes them easier to light and manage smooth airflow in-between the briquettes – allowing you to stack the briquettes on top of one another without having witnessed any reduction in the burning consistency.

What We Like:

• Hotter and Faster Burning: These briquettes can burn in as little as 15 minutes and still give you a hotter and more consistent brining result.
• All-Natural Ingredients: Even though these briquettes may have more added ingredients than many others on the market, they emphasize only the presence of natural ones to maintain the healthy qualities of your food. 
• Mouth-Watering Flavor: The added flavor in the food grilled or cooked on these coal briquettes makes meals tastier.

What Could’ve Been Better:

• Less Burning Time: While these briquettes are light on the pocket, they will also burn for a lesser time than other similar options in the market. 
• Ash Production: Its excessive ash production as compared to other briquette options can add to the cleaning struggles.

Factors to Consider While Buying a Charcoal Briquette:

As a natural taste providing fuel for stoves and other cooking setups, coal or barbeque briquettes may seem like a simple product. But is that really true? With different briquettes made by different brands and in different ways, each offers different specifications and qualities too. These differentiating factors are what determine whether you are purchasing quality coal briquettes or not. Below are some crucial factors that you can consider when purchasing quality charcoal briquettes for grilling and barbecue – and ensure that your investment isn’t healthy and cost-efficient.

Usage of Natural Ingredients:

You might think that since a coal briquette is made of ‘coal,’ it has to be entirely natural. But that’s not true. Plenty of brands use chemicals and other materials in the making of charcoal briquettes for grilling, which ends up affecting the quality and taste of the food you grill/cook on them. Usually, the typical procedure of creating coal briquettes is by burning out wood until it becomes coal dust. This coal dust is then used to form the shape of a briquette. Most brands, afterward, spray chemicals as a top layer on these briquettes to make them easy to light and longer-lasting. This top layer may or may not affect the quality of your food. Hence, it is better to pick the most natural briquettes for safe and healthy grilling/cooking.

Ignition Time:

One of the crucial factors that adds more to the quality, performance, and ability to last of coal briquettes is the ignition time. Ignition here defines the time it takes for the briquettes to stop being on fire, i.e., for the flames to subside once you light the briquettes. The more or less ignition time taken by the briquettes determines how sooner or later you can start grilling. Some briquettes have an ignition time of 10-15 minutes, whereas the faster may take a maximum of 10 minutes.

Burning Time:

Coal briquettes serve best when their ignition time as well as burning time; both keep up with your cooking or grilling convenience. Here, the burning time is the timespan the briquettes burn for, defining how many times and for how long you can use them. For investing in the best charcoal briquettes, it is ideal to choose the ones that promise the longest burning time.

Size of Package/Amount of Briquettes:

As evident as it may sound, longevity isn’t only availed through quality but also through quantity. Depending on how often you grill in the summer season or how long you expect your briquettes to last, the size of the package or the quantity you get is a must-consider factor. Depending on different brands and their price ranges, the package size can vary. Hence, it’s preferable to choose a package size that can fulfill your frequent grilling demands in one go.

Conclusion:

Among the multiple options of best charcoal briquettes and even more variety of basic briquettes offered by different brands, what defines ‘best’ in the most realistic way is the option that fulfills your grilling needs. Once you pick grilling or barbecue briquettes that don’t just carry the title of being the ‘best’ but also fit perfectly in your briquette’s usage expectations, you can say goodbye to the health concerns and usage limitations that many coal briquettes bring along.