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We found this relatively new charcoal at our local Ace Hardware store. Reading the statements on the box, you might wonder
what is inside. The box is literally covered (all six sides) with information about this charcoal, and you probably should read it when you have
the time. Is Black Diamond charcoal lump charcoal or is it something different, something better? Well, it's charcoal, that's for sure. It is
made in Russia from "center-cut kiln dried" birch hardwoods. It comes in a box which means easier handling and storage, as well as providing better
protection to the charcoal in side than a paper bag.
It is also, as far as we can recall, the first lump charcoal
we have ever reviewed which is actually certified organic by a governmental agency (as opposed to the loosely tossed about
claims of being organic that you see on so many products.) See these marks which appear on the box:
The symbol on the left is a mark of conformity, issued by Rospromtest, a certification authority in Russia. It shows that mandatory certificate
of conformity has been issued. Further, the Black Diamond website states that the charcoal has been certified organic by
Ecoglobe, LLC, a certification company located in Armenia and registered with, among others, the USDA Organic Certification
Program.
As for the symbol on the right, regular readers will recognize that is the symbol of the Forestry Stewardship Council which
certifies that companies are, among other things, managing their forests in sustainable ways.
The next thing that is a bit unusual about this charocal is that the box is not marked with
a weight, but rather with a volume, specifically 1.18 cubic feet. The manufacturer states on their website that they sell
by volume since no one weighs the charcoal they put into their cooker. We might point out that virtually no one measures the weight OR
volume of lump charcoal they put into their cooker. Typically they put in as much as they think they need, regardless of volume or
weight. Certainly, in the case of kamado-style cookers, there is no need to measure the charcoal. You just fill up the firebox,
knowing that any left over will be used the next cook.
In any event, we always check to see if you are getting
what is advertised on the package when we review brands of charcoal sold by weight, so we needed to figure something
out for this brand sold by volume. We don't know exactly how products are
measured for volume when they are a mixture of sizes and shapes like lump charcoal. We can
only assume that the volume stated is somehow related to the volume of the box. So we measured the interior volume of the box and
it comes out to be 1.07 cubic feet, or only about 90.6% of the stated volume. We thought perhaps they might be
using the exterior dimensions of the box to come up with the volume of the box, but that only comes out to 1.09
cubic feet or about 92.8% of the stated volume. Either way, the box cannot hold 1.18 cubic feet of charcoal.
Now, we are going to spend a considerable amount of breath on discussing the size distribution of the charcoal. As you will
see, this effort is warranted.
The following table shows the distribution of sizes (which is how we do all our reviews) for the first box of charcoal
that we opened.
| Large |
0.0 pounds |
0.0% |
| Medium |
2.7 pounds |
27.6% |
| Small |
6.7 pounds |
68.8% |
| Chips/Dust |
0.3 pounds |
3.6% |
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| Total |
9.7 pounds |
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As you can see, there were no truly large pieces of charcoal, the entire contents of the box consisting of medium and small pieces. This
is a bit deceptive since many of the "small" pieces were borderline medium. What the maker appears to be doing (and states as much on the
box) is providing uniform pieces of charcoal roughly the size of briquettes. Some will find this desirable, others will miss the larger
pieces that they use as a foundation for laying low and slow fires. In either case, the 3.6% chips and dust found in this first box puts Black Diamond in the top 10
of all the brands we have tested to date.
But that is not the end of the story. We ended up purchasing 8 boxes of this charcoal and we weighed each one. We wanted to see how
selling charcoal by volume translated into how much charcoal you actually get. We discovered a very large variation in weight between
all the boxes. The contents of the heaviest box weighed 13.6% more than the lightest box. That's pretty shocking, knowing how charcoal sold by weight
would never have such a great disparity. It's like buying two "20 pound" bags and finding that one bag weighs roughly 20 pounds and the other bag weighs 17.6 pounds.
We surmised that this variation in weight could be due to measuring the charcoal by volume. You can pack the charcoal much more densely and get more weight in the box
if the pieces are small than if the pieces are large. Think about a bucket of BBs versus a bucket of canon balls. The BBs will be
packed closely together occupying most of the volume of the bucket. The cannon balls will leave huge gaps between them and occupy much less volume.
The bucket of BBs will weigh much more than the bucket of cannon balls, yet if you are measuring by volume, in both cases you have one bucket.
So, we noticed that the box we chose to review was, by chance, the lightest box of the 8. What might the size distribution look like if we
had chosen the heaviest box? We guessed that it would have fewer pieces on the large end and more pieces on the small end.
Here is how the heaviest box turned out:
| Large |
0.0 pounds |
0.0% |
| Medium |
0.3 pounds |
2.6% |
| Small |
8.5 pounds |
76.8% |
| Chips/Dust |
2.3 pounds |
20.6% |
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| Total |
11.1 pounds |
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What a difference! We averaged the two values for the chips and dust for purposes of rating the size distribution. 12.1%
comes out only as average compared to all brands tested. And you can't see it in the photos below where we show both boxes sorted by size, but the
second heavier box had a much higher proportion of very small pieces in the pile of "small" pieces. Overall, this second box was
extremely disappointing in this regard. So, as ludicrous as this might sound, we wouldn't consider it crazy to take a kitchen scale
with you to the store, weigh all the boxes, and only buy boxes that weigh about 5000 grams, or under 10 pounds. This price of this charcoal
is quite high, and getting a box of little pieces would be a great disappointment. You may think that you are getting less charcoal in the
lighter box, and you are. But you are getting more USABLE charcoal in the lighter box. Based on our numbers, if you buy the lighter box, you
are getting 9.3 pounds of usable charcoal. If you buy the heavier box, you end up getting 8.8 pounds of usable charcoal, and the sizes of the
pieces of charcoal in that heavier box are not as desirable as in the lighter box. If you buy the heavier box, you lose on both counts. Remember, buying the heavier box means
you will be throwing away over 20% of the box.
We think it is pretty clear that Black Diamond needs to
screen their charcoal better in order to ensure that all boxes contain a reasonable amount of usable charcoal. Based on the weight of the
8 boxes that we purchased, 4 appear to be "good" boxes, 3 appear to be "dismal" boxes, and 1 was in between.
As for scraps, funny things that don't belong, and uncarbonized wood, we found nothing in the box save for charcoal. So let's get on to some burning!
In our chimney starting test, Black Diamond lump was quite easy to start, requiring only 3.5 sheets of newspaper to start. That's low compared to other
brands of charcoal. While starting the charcoal, there was absolutely no sparking or popping of any sort. Also, there was very little smoke and almost no
smell from the smoke. Regardless of how this charcoal does on any other tests, you might wish to keep some around if you want to cook with little or no smoke flavor
being added to the food. We cooked some chicken and hamburgers over fresh Black Diamond lump and could taste only the faintest amount of smoke flavor.
Obviously, this gives you almost total control of any smoke flavor you wish to add using smoking chunks or chips.
In our maximum temperature test, Black Diamond burned at 1121°F, third highest among all the brands of charcoal we have tested. Needless to say, this
is very high compared to other brands of charcoal.
Moving on to our burn time test, we again noted very little smoke when lighting the charcoal for the test. When lighting with a MAP-Pro torch, there
was almost no sparking or popping. The charcoal burn time was very high compared to other brands of charcoal. In fact it ranked number 5 among the
over 100 brands we have tested to date.
Finally, the ash produced by Black Diamond charcoal is very low compared to other brands of charcoal.
As for a final rating, Black Diamond is easy to light, burns a very long time with little ash,
and it burns very hot with little smoke. Black Diamond was headed straight for a highly recommended rating until we opened that second box. You
are paying top dollar for this charcoal and you expect top charcoal. In light of the fact that you only have a 50% chance
of getting a "top" box, coupled with questions about the ability of the box to hold the volume of charcoal stated on the box, we can only see our way to giving this
charcoal a Recommended rating, and with an asterisk next to it. While it appears to be very good charcoal, you stand a very good chance of not getting your
money's worth. You can make your own decision, knowing how it is packaged and what you really may end up getting.
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To the left is the rating that our readers have given this charcoal. If you have used this charcoal and would like to rate it and leave your comments, Click Here
To view reader ratings of all brands, Click Here.
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"BLACK DIAMOND BOX (patent pending) Eliminates the need for charcoal caddy. Proteects CharWood from crushing while making it
cleaner to transport and handle during use and storage."
