This lump comes to us from Dobie Dad, in the Chicago area. It says on the bag "Product of Canada", so we were wondering if this could be a replacement for Maple Leaf charcoal which is no longer available in the United States. Well, let's see:
We don't know what types of wood are used to make this charcoal, but in appearance, it does resemble Maple Leaf charcoal. We suspect this is some type of mixture of beech, birch and/or maple.
We forgot to take a photo of the lump sorted into piles like we usually do, doh!, but the following table should give you a sense for the distribution which was quite a bit to the small end of the scale. The 18.3% of the bag being chips and dust was average. Almost 20% of the bag by weight is unusable. As you can see, the bag did contain just a bit more weight than advertised.
| Large |
3.9 pounds |
19.3% |
| Medium |
5.6 pounds |
27.7% |
| Small |
7.0 pounds |
34.6% |
| Chips/Dust |
3.7 pounds |
18.3% |
|
|
|
| Total |
20.2 pounds |
|
|
And lest anyone think that we don't look through the bags of charcoal with any care, we found some small pieces of what appears to be plastic that had been melted and slightly carbonized. You can see photos below. We also found some sparklies, which we believe to be nothing more that volatiles driven off from the wood which may get trapped in pockets in the kiln and then crystalized/carbonized. Pictures of the sparklies are also below.
The charcoal took 3.5 sheets of newspaper to get started in our chimney starter test, which is average. There was very little sparking or popping while the charcoal was getting going in the chimney. The smoke is exceptionally mild and very pleasant. There is no harshness or strong woodsy aroma in the smoke at all. Frankly, this is one of the best-smelling charcoals we have ever experienced. When starting the fire in a cooker the fire spreads with fairly quickly, with no sparking or popping while burning. Also, when started with a MAPP torch, there was very little sparking and popping. There was the occasional mild pop, but nothing like we are accustomed to. The charcoal burned at a maximum temperature of 690 degrees, not rip-roaring, but plenty hot for most grilling uses.
As for burntime, this charcoal set a new Whiz world record, burning longer than any charcoal we have ever tested. Longer than Brassiero, longer than Kamado extruded coconut. The ash produced in our test burn was very low.
So, is this charcoal the equivalent of Maple Leaf, or even Maple Leaf rebagged? We think not. We haven't burned any Maple Leaf in a long time (we are saving the two bags in the main vault at Naked Whiz Plaza for something special like if our kid finds a cure for cancer), but we remember Maple Leaf having a stronger smoke. So, forgetting about Maple Leaf, we think this is another outstanding charcoal. The only thing bad we can say about it is that the size distribution of the pieces makes this a bit more expensive than it seems. It would be great if the manufacturer could screen the charcoal better and get the unusable portion down to 10 percent. Also, the manufacturer needs to keep an eye on the raw material going in to prevent things like the pieces of plastic that we found from getting into the product. Otherwise, this charcoal is relatively inexpensive, easy to light, smells fantastic and burns FOREVER. We give it our Recommended rating.
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