We have a new brand of lump charcoal that has just appeared on the market, brought to us by the makers of
Carolina Cookwood, one of our highest scoring brands of lump charcoal.
GATA charcoal is made in Colombia, SA and then brought into the US and distributed by Carolina Cookwood. To the right
is a map helping you locate Colombia.
GATA charcoal is made from a wood called "trupillo", a wood that was new to us until we started doing a little
A young trupillo tree.
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research. Trupillo is similar to kiawe which we came across before when we reviewed Ono charcoal
from Hawaii. (Both come from the legume family and both are considered
mesquites.)
One interesting fact about trupillo is that it contributes to the spread
of malaria, as mosquitoes seek out the fruit of the trupillo looking for sugar. Trupillo is also considered an invasive
weed, so cutting it down to make charcoal is probably a good thing. Another interesting fact about trupillo is that its
roots can grow to great depths in search of water. One plant in Arizona was found to have roots growing to a depth of
175 feet.
So, onto the review! We first dump that bag out onto the ground for inspection and sorting. What we found was a
decent distribution of sizes with plenty of large pieces, but no monster logs which have to be broken up. There was
a sizable quantity of medium sized pieces, so as you can see in the following table, almost 65% of the entire bag
was medium and large pieces. Almost 11% of the bag was chips and dust which is Average compared to other brands of
lump charcoal. So all in all, a very nice distribution of sizes. Also, we found no scrap wood and only a few tiny
pieces of wood which appeared not to have been carbonized.
| Large |
4.9 pounds |
24.4% |
| Medium |
8.0 pounds |
40.2% |
| Small |
4.9 pounds |
24.6% |
| Chips/Dust |
2.2 pounds |
10.8% |
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| Total |
20.0 pounds |
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In our lighting test, GATA lump charcoal took 4 sheets of newspaper to establish a fire in a
standard chimney starter. This is Average compared to other brands of charcoal. There was very
little sparking or popping while the charcoal was starting up. The smoke during lighting was
moderately strong and essentially smelled like burning wood, as opposed to the somewhat perfume
smoke of many South American charcoals.
Moving on to the maximum temperature test, GATA burned at a blazing 1019°F, which is Very High
compared to other brands. There was an occasional spark or pop, but nothing excessive. And the
speed that the fire spread in the cooker with both vents wide open was moderate.
Next, we did our burn time test and GATA burned for quiet a long time, which was High compared to
other brands. When lighting the charcoal using a MAP/Pro torch, there was a moderate amount of
sparking and popping. In addition, when we used the torch to light some GATA to cook some chicken
in a MiniMax Big Green Egg, there was some fairly violent popping. So as always, we strongly recommend
that you use caution when using a torch to light any lump charcoal.
Finally, the amount of ash produced from our burn test ranked Low compared to all other brands of
charcoal.
Before we sum up, we'll relate to you that we cooked some chicken over GATA charcoal without using
any sort of smoking woods. As GATA charcoal is made from a wood in the mesquite family, we wanted
to see how much flavor the charcoal imparts to the food. As many people seem to have an aversion to
mesquite, it is a useful observation. We can report that the chicken had a mild grilled flavor, and
did not take on any overly strong flavors. We can't imagine anyone objecting to the having an issue
with the flavor of this charcoal.
So, time to sum up. GATA charcoal has a nice distribution of sizes, isn't overly difficult to light and
burns very hot if given unlimited airflow. It burns a long time with relatively little ash. We give it
our Recommended rating.
