This brand of lump charcoal was first brought to our attention by one of our readers. If you are a frequent reader
of our reviews, you know what comes next. We bought some. We obtained it from the local Publix with no difficulty.
Fire and Flavor comes to us from Mexico. For the geographically-challenged, we include a map showing the location of
Mexico, just south of the USA. The charcoal itself is a blend of mesquite and oak. It comes in
a nice heavy-duty triple-ply paper bag, so busted bags should be minimized.
As with all our reviews, the first thing we do is dump the bag out on the ground for sorting and inspection. We found
no scrap, but we did find several pieces of wood that had not been totally carbonized. Also, we found two very small
pieces of cotton string and 1 very small rock. Upon sorting the bag into large, medium, small pieces as well as chips
and dust, we found the following distribution:
| Large |
2.3 pounds |
11.1% |
| Medium |
8.2 pounds |
40.4% |
| Small |
8.1 pounds |
39.7% |
| Chips/Dust |
1.8 pounds |
8.8% |
|
|
|
| Total |
20.4 pounds |
|
|
As you can see, there were a few large pieces but no logs requiring that you bust them up yourself
with a hammer. The 8.8% by weight of chips and dust is Low (
)
compared to all other brands.
Next, we check how hard it is to light the charcoal by seeing how many sheets of newprint it takes
to get a fire established in a standard Weber chimney starter. It was pretty easy to light as
this charcoal took 3 sheets which is
Low (
) compared to all other brands. The smell of the
smoke as it lights is pretty strong, so if you have family members who don't like smoke, this
is not the lump for you. And during lighting in the chimney starter, there was moderate
sparking, but no popping.
In our maximum temperature test, we see how hot we can manage to burn the charcoal in a medium
Big Green Egg cooker. The results were not all that impressive as the charcoal only got up
to 808°F, which is Average (
) compared to other
brands. The fire was relatively slow to spread and there was a small amount of sparking and
no popping as it did.
Regarding the smoke, we'll add the following observation. We do our maximum temperature test
in a medium Big Green Egg which is sitting on a patio at ground level. While the charcoal was
burning full tilt, we went up on the deck to water the tomatoes which are about 8-10 feet directly above the
medium Big Green Egg. As we stood there, the smell of the charcoal burning was still very strong,
even when burning at high temperature. Make no mistake, the smoke/fumes from this charcoal is
indeed quite intense.
Our next test is the burn time test. The results here were again not very impressive as the
burn time was Low () compared to all other brands. This
should come as no surprise since the charcoal was rather dense, and dense charcoal generally
burns for a shorter time than light charcoal. (This also explains the smokiness of the
charcoal. It hasn't been "cooked" to a very high temperature, leaving lots of the components
of wood, other than carbon, in the charcoal.) There were a lot of sparks and pops when we lit the charcoal with a MAP/Pro
torch, so "dress appropriately" if using a torch to light this charcoal.
And finally, the amount of ash produced by this charcoal was High ()
compared to all the other brands we have tested.
Before we wrap up this review, we'd like to point out a rather bizarre statement
on the bag in the Safety Tips section:
"Do not store in temperatures exceeding 113°F (45°C)"
We have never seen this on a bag of charcoal before, nor have we ever read anything like this
before in all our years of reviewing lump charcoal. There is, of course, the bogus "don't let your
charcoal get wet lest it spontaneously combust" nonsense, but never have we seen anything about a maximum
temperature for storing lump charcoal. We have contacted Fire and Flavor for an answer to this
mystery and we will update this review when we hear back from them.
So, to sum up the performance of this lump charcoal, while it does well on size distribution
and ease of lighting, it is really found wanting in maximum temperature, burn time and ash
production. We give this charcoal our Average rating.
