BBQ Coconut Shell Charcoal Review
Good charcoal can be hard to come by. Some charcoal claims to be restaurant grade but isn’t. Other charcoal burns very quickly making it useless for low and slow cooking. Others are really smokey too. In my BBQ coconut shell charcoal review, I’ll put it to the test and see how it compares to natural lumpwood charcoal.
| First impression: This isn’t charcoal – feck. | Woods: None, coconuts! | Lump size: 5 cm |
| Bag size: 12 kg | Bag price: £24.95 | Price per kg: £2.12 / kg |
ABOUT BBQ coconut shell charcoal
This charcoal is made with a mix of 100% totally natural hardwoods. The species of hardwood that are used are a mix of hardwoods to ensure the best quality of lumpwood with a longer burn and more intense heat. Apparently, this charcoal only has large pieces which “range from 3cm -20cm to allow for the home BBQ to the professional kitchens”. It it offers a totally natural cook with high intense heat. Let’s put this to the test!
FEATURES & SPECIFICATIONS
- Bag weight: 12 kg
- Made from: coconut shell
- Lump size: 3 – 5 cm
- Burn time: 8 hours+
Charcoal lighting Tips
Firstly, it’s important not to use accelerants to start the charcoal burning. This is especially true in kamado ovens as they’re constructed from porous ceramic. The ceramic will absorb some of the lighter fluid. And this will cause your food to taste and smell awful. Anyway, the use of lighter fluid and kamados is a whole other discussion which you can read here if you like.
Secondly, when lighting any kamado or BBQ, I’d recommend wearing a long sleeve t-shirt or jacket and sunglasses. This will protect your arms and eyes as some sparks can be thrown. You can read my how-to guide about how to light charcoal here.
BBQ COCONUT SHELL CHARCOAL REVIEW RESULT: ⭐⭐
| Smoke: | ⭐ |
| Performance: | ⭐ |
| Quality: | ⭐⭐ |
| Value: | ⭐⭐ |
| Overall Rating: | ⭐⭐ |
Unfortunately, I’ve hated all my cooks with this charcoal in my Kamado. I really wanted to like this charcoal for its green attributes but it’s difficult to light and is the smokiest charcoal I’ve ever used. Also, it’s very dirty. Normally there’s some dust when you open a bag of charcoal, but when I even moved this bag of charcoal, lots of soot falls out of the fabric bag.
Once you do get it lit, it does deliver good flavours and relatively stable temperatures. But, unlike conventional lumpwood charcoal which can be used a couple of times, this is single use charcoal. The lumps simply turn to dense soot and dust after a cook. This means that it’s very uneconomical to use and doesn’t last anywhere near as long as other hardwood lump charcoal.
Priced at £24.99 for 12 kg, it’s €2.45 per kg. On the face of it, that’s good enough value for money for charcoal. However, when you consider that it’s single use charcoal, it’s awful value for money. I won’t be buying it again…unfortunately.
WHERE to BUY BBQ coconut shell charcoal?
BBQ coconut shell charcoal is available to buy from Amazon for £24.99