We saw this lump on a few Facebook groups which indicated it could be found at Walmart. Sure enough,
they had quite a bit, so we made the buy. There was nothing on the bag to indicate its country of
origin, so we shot off an email to Masterbuilt asking that question as well as what types of wood it
was made from. Their reply was fascinating:
"Thank you for your interest in our charcoal. The charcoal is crafted in China and it is made from a
blend of hardwood - Guayacan, Guayaibi, Mistal, and White Quebracho."
If you are a regular reader of our reviews, you might recall that Kamado Joe Big Block lump charcoal
is made from this exact same blend of Argentinian hardwoods. Since these species don't grow in China,
we can only think that either Masterbuilt is confused, or they are shipping wood to China for processing
and then shipping charcoal back to the US. In light of the fact that Masterbuilt has bought Kamado Joe,
we think it far more likely that this is the same charcoal being sold by Kamado Joe and is being made
in Argentina from Argentinian woods and then shipped to the US.
So, that said, we'll assume this lump comes to us from Argentina. For those of you who are
geographically challenged, we have conveniently provided a maps of China and South America
showing their location.
So, this lump charcoal appears to be made from a blend of three different South American woods. According to
the Kamado Joe web page and the response from Masterbuilt, the three species are Guayacan,
Guayaibi, and White Quebracho. (By the way, both Kamado Joe and Masterbuilt say their charcoal
includes a species of wood called "Mistal." We can find no evidence of any such tree or shrub and
can only assume that they are just wrong.) White Quebracho or
more correctly, Quebracho Blanco is widely used as charcoal, since it does not produce sparks
or large amounts of ash, and it burns strong and slowly. It is a very hard wood as evidenced by its
name "Quebracho" which translates to "axe breaker."
We had a little trouble running down the other two species. There are five species of Guayacan. We
suspect they are using Guaiacum officinale, common Lignum-vitae, as it is the only one of the five which
grows in South America. Guayacan is used to make mallets used by woodcarvers to hammer their chisels.
And as far as Guayaibi, we suspect they are using Cordia americana, commonly called
Guayaibi Blanco. Guayaibi is sometimes used to make baseball bats. So, all three types of wood are known to be hard as rocks.
And just for fun, here are some photographs of these three woods for you to enjoy:
 Quebracho Blanco Tree |
|
 Quebracho Blanco Log Cross Section |
| . | . |
 Guaiacum officinale Tree |
|
 Guaiacum officinale Log Cross Section |
| . | . |
 Guayaibi Blanco Tree |
|
 Cross section of Guayaibi |
But enough with the geography and botany and charcoal mysteries Let's see how this charcoal performs
in our customary tests. Our first procedure is to dump the charcoal out on the ground, look for funny
stuff and then sort the charcoal into small, medium and large pieces, as well as chips and dust.
Well, we did find a little bit of funny stuff including what appears to be a small root ball, a rock and
some string. (You can see a photo down below.) When we sorted the charcoal, this is what we found:
| Large |
1.0 pounds |
5.9% |
| Medium |
6.1 pounds |
37.6% |
| Small |
7.2 pounds |
44.5% |
| Chips/Dust |
1.9 pounds |
12.0% |
|
|
|
| Total |
16.2 pounds |
|
|
The distribution isn't all that bad, but it certainly could be better with more large and medium pieces.
The 12% chips and dust by weight is Average compared to all other brands. (We have read that some people
think this charcoal was designed for use in Masterbuilt's gravity feed cookers, hence the large amount of
small pieces. It does say on the bag that it is the ideal charcoal for Masterbuilt Gravity Series Grill + Smoker.)
In our lighting test, it took 5 sheets of newspaper in a Weber chimney to get a fire established, which is
High compared to all other brands. There was
no sparking and popping while the charcoal was being started. The smell from the burning charcoal is a
moderately strong but pleasant woodsy sort of smoke.
In our maximum temperature test, Masterbuilt charcoal really didn't burn all that hot. It could only get
up to 800°F which is Average compared to all other brands. It's hot enough to get the job done for
most cooking, but this charcoal struggles to get really high temperatures. While the fire was building
for the test, the fire did spread moderately fast. While the charcoal was burning
during the test, there was a small amount of sparking, but no popping.
Next, in our burn time test, this lump burned relatively long. The burn time was High compared to all other
brands. When using a MAP/Pro torch to start the charcoal for the burn time test, there was a lot of sparking
and a fair amount of popping. As always, exercise care when using a torch of any kind to start lump charcoal.
Finally, the ash production was Average compared to other brands of lump charcoal that we have tested.
So, we have a pretty average charcoal in Masterbuilt lump charcoal. Average amount of chips and dust, average
maximum temperature and average ash production. While the burn time was better than average, the ease of lighting
was below average. All in all, it's pretty average charcoal and that's the rating we give it. While it may be the
ideal charcoal for use in Masterbuilt Gravity Series Grills/Smokers, it isn't that great for the rest of us.
