The Best Charcoal for Grilling
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When the smoke cleared, we found the best briquettes and lump charcoal.
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Charcoal doesn’t get the credit it deserves in world history. Wood burned in a low-oxygen environment yields charcoal, which burns hotter and longer than its original component. Without it, the smelting of metals that brought us into the Bronze and Iron Ages probably would have taken much longer to achieve.
Today, we view charcoal as a cooking medium, whether compressed into briquettes or in lump form. Each has its merits, with briquettes being easy to light and use in a single-use format. Lump charcoal, including Binchō-Tan, takes a bit more work to light and typically carries a higher price tag, but it has the benefit of being reusable. Smother the fire by cutting off the oxygen, and the remaining charcoal is ready to use the next time, which significantly improves the economy of the lump form. While I use lump for my barbecue, we don’t stick to a hard and fast rule about which type of charcoal to use for specific applications. So, we reviewed both formats and included our insights from testing 12 top brands.
Best Overall: The Good Charcoal Company Premium Hardwood Lump Charcoal
Pros: It burns clean in both high-heat and low-and-slow cooking scenarios with almost no ash and no sparking.
Cons: The string closure for the bag could present challenges for people with strength issues.
Test results aside, let’s start with the reasons we love The Good Charcoal Company. It sources Acacia wood from Namibia as part of its efforts to fight bush encroachment on grasslands, which threatens wildlife and human sustainability; it’s created 150 local jobs and counting; and it fights food insecurity in U.S. cities by hosting barbecues for people in need.
The charcoal comes in the ubiquitous bag with a string-sewn closure, which pulls away easily. The charcoal is pretty uniformly sized, with very little charcoal dust in the bag. We started the charcoal in a chimney lighter, which took about 15 minutes to fully light, and there was little change to the volume of charcoal in the chimney due to the density of the lumps. As for cooking, The Good Charcoal produced mild smoke and little flavor, which lets you taste the meat. It burned clean and produced little ash, thanks to almost full combustion and no annoying popping or sparking.
Price at time of publish: $20
Sizes Available: 8 and 15.4 pounds
Food & Wine / John Somerall
Best Value: Royal Oak All Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal
Pros: It ignites and is ready to cook quickly and has a campfire-like smell when cooking.
Cons: While it presents a good value for the price, a more durable package would be an improvement.
Royal Oak is a mixed bag of sustainably sourced American hickory, oak, and maple. It lit quickly, about five minutes in a chimney starter, and was ready to cook in 15 to 20 minutes in our low- and high-heat tests. There was little dust in the string-closure bag, and the chunks ranged in size. It produces minimal smoke and ash while imparting a light smoky flavor that does not overwhelm. This is a good, multi-purpose charcoal, suitable for high heat, slow cooking, and smoking, with a strong value proposition when compared to its quality.
Price at time of publish: $15
Sizes Available: 8, 15.4, and 30 pounds
Best Splurge: Big Green Egg Natural Oak and Hickory Lump Charcoal
Pros: It burns hot and clean with very little ash or smoke.
Cons: It’s designed with a kamado grill in mind and burns faster outside of that environment.
It’s difficult to think of a “luxury charcoal,” but Big Green Egg fills that niche. The Natural Oak and Hickory Lump Charcoal is designed for use in its eponymous kamado grill, where heat regulation is a key feature, but it functions well in just about any charcoal grill. It comes in a simple brown paper package with the standard string closure. It lights quickly, ready to cook in five minutes for high-heat and 20 for low-heat cooking tests.
The charcoal is made from American hickory and oak woods, and we found little dust and no sparking or popping when lighting it. A downside is that outside the controlled environment of the kamado grill, the charcoal burns quickly when using a chimney starter. In terms of taste and flavor, it skews towards smoky, but not overly so. Still, if you prefer a clean flavor, this may not be the charcoal for you.
Price at time of publish: $60
Sizes Available: 17.6 and 20 pounds
Best Hardwood: Jealous Devil All Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal
Known for its purity, Jealous Devil's lump charcoal is made from South American hardwoods that are 30 percent denser than oak. This leads to clean, efficient burning with minimal smoke and total combustion, leaving just clean ash to dispose of later. Though it gets intensely hot, it won't spark or pop. The hardwood flavor can stand up to bolder ingredients like beef but won't overwhelm fish or poultry. The price is higher than many of its competitors, but with its powerful heat and clean burning, you can use less of it. Because you'll use less charcoal, the bag's design affords longer storage time and shelf life. It's water resistant, resealable, and has a carry handle for convenience.
Price at time of publish: $40
Best for Flavor: B&B Charcoal Oak Lump Charcoal
Pros: It burns hot and clean with a distinct smoke flavor.
Cons: The bag is difficult to open and tears easily, and there was more popping than many of the other charcoals we tested.
We recommend the B&B to those who want a smoky flavor. In our testing, it didn’t produce excessive smoke, but it infused chicken legs and hamburgers with a distinct smokiness. For lighting, we used a propane torch rather than a chimney and found the charcoal lit quickly – about five minutes – and was ready to cook in about 20 minutes. It did spark and pop, a sign of moisture or collected charcoal dust, despite little evidence of dust in the bag. Aside from that, it burned clean, reducing to about ½ cup of ash after cooking.
Price at time of publish: $20
Sizes Available: 20 pounds
Best for Ceramic Grills: FOGO Super Premium Lump Charcoal
Pros: It burns hot and clean, and we liked the mild smokiness it gave strip steak during our high-heat testing. .
Cons: Outside of the more controlled environment of a ceramic grill, the charcoal took a bit more babying for our low-and-slow test.
In an open grill, the FOGO showed a little more popping and smoking than expected but quieted down when closing the lid for low-and-slow cooking. These annoyances are minimal in a closed environment, however, like a ceramic grill. With the more controlled airflow of a ceramic grill, there’s no need to baby the coals for long cooks. The Salvadoran oak chunks are pretty random in size with little uniformity, and the chimney lighting took 12 minutes. It produced a mildly smoky flavor and performed best in our high-heat cooking tests with a New York strip steak.
Price at time of publish: $30
Sizes Available: 17.6 and 35 pounds
Best for Smoking: Cowboy All Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal
Pros: It has a long burn time and a distinct smoky flavor.
Cons: Sparking and popping posed some safety issues when lighting it.
This mixed hardwood charcoal imparted chicken with a definite smoky flavor without overwhelming – more like a campfire flavor than heavy smoke. It lit easily using a propane torch, taking about five minutes, and then another 15 minutes for high-heat and 25 for low-heat cooking tests. It comes in the standard sting-closed bag, which proved easy to open, and the bag itself is constructed of a heavier-duty material than most.
When lighting, the charcoal produced a reasonable amount of smoke, but that settled down as the flames died. One irksome issue was sparking and popping while lighting it. But again, that issue quieted as the flames died. After all that, the charcoal served well in our low-and-slow testing, with long burn times and very little ash to clean up.
Price at time of publish: $44
Sizes Available: 8.8 and 20 pounds
Best Large: Kamado Joe Big Block XL Lump Charcoal
Pros: It’s easy-lighting, full-burning charcoal that produces very little ash.
Cons: It has a very light smoke flavor, which could be good or bad, depending on your outlook.
Kamado Joe’s Big Block consists of large chunks of Argentinian hardwood (guayacan, guayaibi, mistal, and white quebracho), with some variation of sizes in the bag. It’s designed for long burns, and re-lighting should any remain after your cook. It took about 12 minutes to light in our tests, with no sparking or popping. We found the smoke barely perceptible, which meant a very mild flavor. The bag is a little stubborn to open, and the packaging is durable, resisting moisture and rain.
Price at time of publish: $30
Sizes Available: 20 and 30 pounds
Best Briquettes: Royal Oak Premium Charcoal Briquettes
Pros: It’s got a strong, natural smoke flavor and is quick and easy to light.
Cons: We would prefer waterproof packaging.
Royal Oak gets high marks for consistent quality, versatility, and value. Because of its composition, which is more hardwood than other brands, it burns hotter and longer than many of its peers. Rather than the pillow-shaped design that most briquettes sport, these larger pieces have a groove down the center of the top and bottom surfaces, enhancing airflow to achieve higher temperatures and burn time. That airflow also makes these briquettes easier to start than many.
Price at time of publish: $30
Sizes Available: 7.7, 15.4, and 18 pounds
Best for Beginners: Kingsford Match Light Charcoal
Pros: It’s easy to use for beginners or when you don’t have a starter or fluid, but it provides good results.
Cons: It produces more ash than lump charcoals, and you must burn off all traces of the lighter fluid before cooking.
Kingsford Match Light is easy, unintimidating, and gives excellent results for those just starting out in grilling. All you have to do is lay the charcoal out, light two or three briquettes, and the pre-treated charcoal does the rest of the lighting work for you. No lighter fluid or advanced paper folding is necessary. It's easy to find and use, and you have coals ready to cook in 20 minutes or so with no fuss.
Price at time of publish: $12
Sizes Available: 4, 8, 12, and 14 pounds
Best Binchō-tan: Jealous Devil ONYX Binchotan Charcoal
Pros: It provides intense far infrared heat and is meant to be used multiple times.
Cons: It’s expensive and dries food out during long cooks.
Made from obscure South American hardwoods, like Jealous Devil's lump offerings, the Onyx line gives charcoal the Binchō-Tan treatment of curing the wood at over 2,300°F. This process allows the charcoal to burn at 1,200°F with little to no smoke and no visible flame. The result is an infrared heat that cooks the food evenly from the inside out while providing an intense sear. The only downside is the dry quality of the heat – it’s best for quick cooking, as it will rob your food of moisture over time in slow cooking methods.
Price at time of publish: $50
Sizes Available: 20 pounds
Our Favorite
For its quality and the company’s commitment to natural and economic sustainability, The Good Charcoal Company Lump Charcoal takes our top spot.
The Tests
We put 12 bags of lump charcoal through a series of objective and subjective tests. First, we examined the packaging, evaluating whether the bag was waterproof and how easy it was to open to determine if people with strength or mobility issues might have a difficult time with it. Then, we examined the bag's contents for uniformity of the chunks and how much dust was inside. Moving towards more objective testing, we timed how long the charcoal took to light via chimney or propane torch and how long it took the coals to be ready for cooking. We put each charcoal through a high-heat and low-heat cooking test to see how much and how strongly the charcoal flavored the foods, how much ash was left after cooking, and how long it took to burn out after cutting off the air supply to the grill. We took all of these observations, scored and averaged them by category, and then averaged the results for a final score. To choose the best briquettes, we drew on our own grilling experience and spoke with chefs with grilling expertise.
Factors to Consider
Briquettes vs. Lump Charcoal
Briquettes are faster-lighting and burn longer, but while they burn longer, they don't burn as hot as lump. Briquettes are smokier than lump and have a distinctive flavor that permeates the food, largely from the binders and fillers added. Lump can be difficult to light, but it burns with a clean smoke. While it imbues your food with flavor, it doesn't assert itself like the flavor of briquettes.
Burn Time
Many charcoals reviewed here tout long burn times, and some are intended for reuse when finished grilling. This adds to the value of the bag of charcoal by extending its useful lifespan. Others are manufactured with the intent of burning fast and quick, easy disposal. The longer-lived charcoal can be beneficial if you're grilling at home, but if you're camping or at a picnic, you might want the shorter-burning varieties.
Flavor
Most of the charcoals mentioned here carry a flavor. You might want the bold flavor of oak or the distinctive flavor of Kingston. Either way, consider what you're cooking and what flavor the charcoal brings before purchasing.
Grill Size
When buying charcoal, consider the size of your grill. A 16-inch portable grill with low clearance between the charcoal and grill may be too small for large lump charcoal. Likewise, a larger grill will quickly burn through small pieces of hardwood charcoal, leaving you scrambling to find hot spots to cook on.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is lump charcoal made?
Lump charcoal is made by heating hardwood near 750 degrees Fahrenheit in a low-oxygen environment. The lack of oxygen prevents the wood that would otherwise catch fire in the process from flaming, while the heat extracts water, sap, and other liquid compounds from the wood. The result is super-dehydrated wood, charred but not burnt to ash, which we know as charcoal.
How do you light lump charcoal?
You can light lump charcoal with a handful of methods, including electric lighters, roofing torches, or building a small fire of tinder and kindling. A chimney starter is a reliable and easy way to start your fire, and you can ignite it with paper and vegetable oil, according to Katsuji Tanabe, the executive chef of a’Verde in Cary, N.C. Duane Nutter, chef and partner of Southern National in Atlanta takes another approach: "I like those wax cubes you get from the Green Egg store. I like them better than the electric lighters. Sparks don't fly and I can walk away for a few minutes and prep stuff," he says.
How are charcoal briquettes made?
Charcoal briquettes are a mixture of ground charcoal, sawdust, sometimes coal, a binder like starch, an adjunct like lime or even sand (which increases the burn time), and an accelerant, usually petro-chemicals if the briquettes are self-lighting. This mixture gets fed to a press at temperatures intended to remove residual moisture and come out as the familiar pillow shape.
How do you light charcoal briquettes?
Nutter's preferred method is to use a chimney lighter or "chute with newspaper," as he refers to it. Whichever name you choose, this method is one of the cleaner methods of lighting briquettes. You can always use lighter fluid, but allow it to burn off completely before adding food. Also, best practices say to apply the lighter fluid to the charcoal and allow it to soak in for three to four minutes before lighting so that you're not just burning the fluid from the surface without creating burning coals.
Can you mix lump charcoal with briquettes?
Absolutely. "Sometimes, [for] the nostalgia of what my uncles and all those guys used to do, I mix them both. I can get that old-school flavor of the Kingsford [briquettes] that my uncle used to love and some of that wood that I've grown to love as a cheffy person," Nutter says.
Other Charcoal We Tested
Strong Contenders
Masterbuilt Lump Charcoal ($15 at Amazon)
Masterbuilt had more dust in the bag than many others, and it sparked, popped, and smoked during lighting and left more ash than others.
Rockwood All-Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal ($38 at Amazon)
The bag closure provided challenges that may be difficult for people with strength issues to open, and the charcoal itself popped and sparked during lighting more than we’d like it to.
Mr. Bar-B-Q Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal ($42 at Amazon)
Popping, smoking, and dust in the bag lowered the score for Mr. Bar-B-Q, which otherwise produced fairly good results.
Harder Charcoal Natural Restaurant Style Lump Charcoal ($38 at Amazon)
Harder presented issues with packaging, ease of lighting, and the amount of heat generated.
Our Expertise
Greg Baker is an award-winning chef, restaurateur, and food writer with four decades of experience in the food industry. His written work appears in Food & Wine, Tasting Table, Food Republic, and other publications.
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