Royal Oak lump charcoal defines the word ubiquitous when it comes to lump charcoal. It can indeed
be found almost everywhere. Not only does Royal Oak make its own brands, it also makes
charcoal for Big Green Egg and dozens of supermarket brands. It's made from oak, hickory, maple and other American
harddwoods and when it burns the smoke is pretty much what most people associate with BBQ—that good old
American hardwood smoke. It's always been one
of our favorites and in fact got a Highly Recommended rating when we last reviewed it. But it's been 15 years
since we last took a look at Royal Oak, so it is high time for a new review.
The first thing we do is dump the bag out on the ground for inspection and sorting. We did find a 4½-inch
piece of metal strapping in the bag. Everyone has their own opinion on finding non-charcoal items in bags of
lump (and how!) but personally, this metal strap is no cause for worry. Companies making charcoal from American
hardwoods are usually using lumber mill slabs as their raw material. These slabs come to them on logging
trucks in huge bundles
secured by metal strapping, so it isn't surprising to see a bit of strapping end up in the final charcoal. It
certainly won't hurt anything, so why worry? (We should also mention that although we didn't get any, it is
common to get a rock or two in bags of Royal Oak. Again, they do no harm and you still get a full measure
of charcoal.)
The thing to worry about apparently is the distribution of sizes you get nowadays. It does appear that Royal Oak is bagging
up charcoal that leans heavily towards the small sizes. Here is what we got in our bag:
| Large |
1.4 pounds |
4.7% |
| Medium |
8.9 pounds |
29.4% |
| Small |
17.9 pounds |
58.7% |
| Chips/Dust |
2.2 pounds |
7.2% |
|
|
|
| Total |
30.4 pounds |
|
|
While the small stuff burns just fine, we prefer a bag with a nice distribution of large, medium and
small pieces. Although there were a lot of small pieces in our bag, the 7.2% chips and dust by weight
ranks Low (
) compared to all other brands we have tested.
(We should note that in the course of doing this review, we also opened a 20–pound bag of Royal
Oak and the size distribution was very similar.)
The next part of the testing is the ease of lighting test in which we determine how many sheets of
newsprint it takes to get a fire established in a standard Weber chimney starter. Royal Oak is extremely
easy to light, taking only
2.5 sheets which is Very Low (
) compared to all other
brands we have tested. While the charcoal was getting going, there was virtually no sparking or popping.
And the smell of the smoke was exactly what we expected, that of burning American hardwoods.
After we test the ease of lighting, we dump the charcoal into a medium Big Green Egg and watch to
see how hot it burns. Again while the fire was coming up to temperature, there was almost no
sparking and popping. The fire spread quite rapidly and ultimately, we measured a screaming
1169°F for the maximum temperature. This is in the top 10 of all charcoals we have tested and
obviously is Very High () compared to all other
brands we have tested.
Next comes the burn time test. Royal Oak's burn time was Very High ()
compared to all other brands we have tested. It is in a virtual tie for 6th place on the list of charcoals
we have tested. When lighting with a MAP/Pro torch, there was a moderate amount of sparking and one pop,
which is to be expected when using a torch. Always take appropriate precautions when using a torch of any
kind to light lump charcoal.
And finally, we measure the volume of ash produced. In the case of Royal Oak, the amount of ash
was Low () compared to all other
brands we have tested.
So what rating to give. Normally, this would be an easy call. 23 stars is "Highly Recommended" in anyone's
book. But the size distribution is bad enough to be troubling. In 2007, 70% of the bag was comprised of
large and medium pieces. Now 60% of the bag is small pieces. While we are not big fans of monster logs,
we do think a highly recommended charcoal should have a better distribution than what we are seeing lately
from Royal Oak. And lest you try to explain this away as a "bad bag" or caused by "rough handling", we don't
buy it. Why is the majority of Royal Oak bags now being mishandled, but the majority of Jealous Devil and
other brands not being mishandled? No, we attribute this to Royal Oak bagging up all this small stuff. They need
to do a better job.
So, despite the low amount of chips and dust, the extreme ease of lighting, the rip roaring maximum temperature,
the extremely long burn time and low amount of ash produced, we can only give Royal Oak our Recommended
rating with an asterisk. You need to decide how the poor size distribution affects your opinion of this charcoal.
