While this may look like one of our regular reviews, actually it is not. We were asked to review this charcoal by a reader, so we contacted the distributor who was kind enough to send us a sample for a review. However, as the distributor warned us, this is not really meant to compete with lump charcoal. Here is what the distributor told us about the product:
"This charcoal was not meant to be used for low and slow cooking, nor was it
designed to compete with the likes of Royal Oak lump. This is supposed to
be a better, cleaner, more convenient and more efficient alternative to
regular and matchlight briquets."
As we became acquainted with the product, we discovered that this was a true statement. However, since we had the samples, we still thought it would be fun and informative to play around with this charcoal. Since we now have a lot of information about it, we thought we would go ahead and write up a page about it.
Each box contains 8 bricks in two four-brick shrink-wrapped packets. The bricks are made from coconut charcoal and an organic binder. Each brick weighs about 7.25 ounces, as compared to the Kamado extruded coconut charcoal which weighs about 2.0 ounces per piece. The bricks are not as dense as the Kamado charcoal and a bit more crumbly, but that is certainly as a result of the desire to make this product easy to light. (More on that later.) Out of 20 bricks that we unwrapped for our review, 2 were broken in half and one broke in half with what we would call ordinary handling.
You will notice in one or more of the photos below that there is a red mark across each brick. This is to help you light the bricks. The bricks should be lit from above, so the red mark goes on top. (This is mentioned in the lighting instructions on the box.)
While the box says you get 3.52 pounds of bricks, you actually get a little more, 3.66 pounds by our measure. Each box contained about 0.18 ounces (thats about 2 tenths of an ounce!) of little bits.
Now, about lighting this product. Although is does say "Quik Lite" on the box, it doesn't really say what that means. When we first lit the charcoal in our chimney starter lighting test, we were surprised to find that the outer layer of the brick, once ignited, burned off in rapidly spreading rings of fire, giving off quite a bit of smoke. We have a photo of it down below. It took 4 sheets of paper to light, which is a little above average for lump charcoal. However, we contacted the distributor about the odd burning and smoke and found out that the bricks are covered with an ignition aid. Unlike other "quick light" charcoals, King's Grill is not soaked in lighter fluid. The top of the brick as well as all those nooks and crannies that run through the brick are coated with this ignition aid. While we don't know what it actually is, here is some information about it from the distributor:
"Yes, there is a very thin layer (about 1% or less) of what the inventor
calls an "oxidant" that acts as an ignition aid. You can be assured however
that the product is non-toxic. In fact, lab tests indicate that it is
classified by the EPA as "non-toxic" and "non-corrosive", and although this
is a quick-light product, it is also classified by the EPA as
"non-flammable" (?!) because of its high flash point. We believe that these
characteristics further separates our product from its competitors. We also
took the extra step (and expense) of shrink-wrapping the product with
biodegradable food-grade plastic. Being non-toxic, non-corrosive,
non-flammable and hygienically shrink-wrapped means that you can
conveniently keep the product in your pantry or in any storage area in your
home cleanly and safely. Furthermore, environmental concerns are not an
issue since the product is organic in nature."
When we first went to light this product, it was obvious that our standard lighting test was not really applicable to this charcoal since it is really meant to be used flat on a grid, and then lit on the top with a match or lighter. And once it is lit, man alive, this stuff ignites in seconds! We were stunned how quickly this charcoal is glowing red, ready to heat your food. We think it is worth the price of your first box just to see this charcoal ignite! See the photo down below. We did a side by side burn test with Kingsford, and the Kingsford was ready to cook in about 20 minutes from the time we put the briquettes in the chimney starter. The Kings Grill bricks were ready in 2 minutes!
While the ignition aid is burning, there is a relatively strong chemical smell and lot of smoke, but his rapidly dissipates and you are left with a moderately strong smell of burning coconut charcoal. Users of Kamado extruded coconut charcoal will know what this smell is like, not unpleasant, but different than wood smoke.
We were able to get a maximum temperature out of this charcoal of 700 degrees in our small ceramic cooker. This is about 60 degrees higher than the results we got with Kingsford briquettes, and somewhat less than we can get with a good lump charcoal. After we did our burntime test, we began to realize that this product really doesn't compete (and isn't intended to compete) with lump charcoal. The burn time was very low and the ash production was very high when compared with lump charcoal. However, we can compare this to Kingsford briquettes. The burntime was about 20% less than than Kingsford. The weight of the ash produced was about 12% less than Kingsford and the volume of the ash produced was about 4% less than Kingsford. While we have never started a fire with Kingsford instant light charcoal, we can't imagine that charcoal soaked in lighter fluid is going to light much faster than their regular charcoal with lighter fluid squirted on. And as we all know Kingsford takes what seems like an eternity to light. The King's Grill bricks are ready to go in about 2 minutes. It's truly amazing.
We were pretty sure at this point that this product really is meant to be used for hot grilling and not low and slow barbecuing, but who said we couldn't try, eh? We loaded our large ceramic cooker up with 20 bricks and did an overnight low and slow cook of a beef shoulder clod. After the shoulder clod was done, we popped some beef ribs into the cooker for several hours. All in all, we cooked for 15 hours and 10 minutes and had maybe about another hour of heat to go. The ash tends to hold together and not break up and clog the grate, so the high ash production and long cooking time was not too much of a problem. The main problem with using this charcoal to barbecue (versus grill) is that you can't get all of the ignition aid to burn off before you put your food in. We waited quite some time, put the meat in and then got several more little bursts of smoke and fire as a new pocket of the ignition aid went off. The meat tasted great, but we know that most cooks don't want chemicals burning like that with food in the cooker.
As regards availability, for now King's Grill bricks are available at (and this can be confusing) at Grill King's at www.grillkings.com on the web. The distributor has indicated though that they are working on getting this product into a couple of national chains as well as several local stores in major cities.
So to summarize, this product is really intended to compete with Kingsford's Match Light charcoal. Our comparisons indicate that King's Grill beats Kingsford on ash production and ease of lighting. It lags behind Kingsford on burn time, but it blows Kingsford away on time to get the fire ready to cook. And of course, there is no lighter fluid in the King's Grill bricks, unlike the Kingsford Match Light.
