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Update (05/27/12):
It has been almost 7 years since our latest update to this review, so we decided to see if the charcoal is still as bad as it was then. Yes, it is still that bad, perhaps a little worse. While the burntime improved slightly, the ash produced is still as bad as before. And the amount of fines was higher. Nearly one third of the bag was unusable fines. So we see no reason to change our rating of this charcoal.
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NOTE: This is an update, or re-review, to our original review which was done in April of 2003. Since that time we have started performing more testing on each brand, and since we had the opportunity to get our hands on some of this charcoal again, we decided to conduct a new review using our current standards and methods. We also have a lot more brands of charcoal for comparison now, placing many of the observations in clearer context.
This mesquite charcoal comes to us from Two Trees Products. You can also get it in 20 pound bags, according to their website. The charcoal comes in a plastic lined bag, which is always a good thing when it comes to charcoal, as it helps to keep dust in the bag and off of you. As you can see from the following chart, there were a lot of large pieces and a lot of chips and dust, but a relatively small amount of small and medium-size pieces. We sorted a second bag that had a more even distribution of large, medium and small pieces, but the second bag contained an even larger amount of chips and dust.
| Large |
2.3 pounds |
35.1% |
| Medium |
1.5 pounds |
22.8% |
| Small |
1.1 pounds |
16.2% |
| Chips/Dust |
1.7 pounds |
25.9% |
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| Total |
6.6 pounds |
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Much of the charcoal seemed to be brittle and/or crumbly, which probably accounts for much of the chips and dust. However, we suspect that it is also a matter of the manufacturer not screening the charcoal so as to remove much of these small fines. Also, much of the charcoal seemed to have some faint brown color to it, giving the appearance that the wood wasn't completely carbonized. As you can see from the photo below, there were several pieces that clearly were not carbonized. We found no scrap, rocks or other funny stuff in the bags.
The charcoal was extremely easy to light, taking only 2 sheets in our chimney starter test. Once lit, the fire was quick to spread. When burning under airflow, it was quite sparky (see the photo below of the five-foot shower of sparks coming out of the top of our cooker), but there was very little popping. We were able to achieve a relatively hot 825 degrees in our maximum temperature test. The smell when burning was a fairly strong mesquite smell.
The burn time was average compared to other charcoals and the ash production was high compared to other charcoals. Considering these poor results in conjuction with fully a quarter of the bag being unusable, we can only give this charcoal our Below Average rating.
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