We have recently reviewed B&B Oak Lump Charcoal and B&B Hickory Lump Charcoal, so it's time to finish the hat trick
and review B&B Mesquite Lump Charcoal.
B&B Charcoal used to be a family-owned business located in Weimar, Texas. However, it was recently acquired by
Duraflame. For those of you who aren't familiar with
Weimar, we provide a map at right. They produce a number of types of charcoal, each made featuring a particular species
of wood so you get predictable smoke flavor and performance. This particular charcoal is made from mequite. Well, sort
of. B&B recently explained to us:
"B&B expects a min[imum] of 30% to 40% of the Primary Species on the bag (Hickory/Oak/Mesquite) is mixed in with a
blend of random hardwoods. It’s a 35%/65% blend in each bag. The other 65% is primarily Ebony, Mesquite, and Oak."
Ebony? Really? In Texas? Well, yes. There is a tree called Texas Ebony (Pithecellobium flexicaule) that grows in a region
from Laredo to Corpus Christi and south into Mexico. The map at right depicts its range. Who would have thought? In any
event, what's important is that you know that each bag of B&B charcoal contains a mixture of hardwoods and not just the
primary species listed on the bag.
As usual, the first thing we do is to dump the bag of charcoal out on the ground so that we can sort it into
different sizes and examine the contents in detail. We found two small rocks in our bag. As
far as the size distribution goes, it was only fair, with only about a third of the bag being medium to large sized pieces.
The 9.2% by weight of dust and chips was Low (
) compared to other brands. We found no scrap lumber or anything else
odd, other than the two small rocks. The following table shows you the distribution of sizes:
| Large |
1.7 pounds |
8.4% |
| Medium |
5.4 pounds |
25.8% |
| Small |
11.8 pounds |
56.6% |
| Chips/Dust |
1.9 pounds |
9.2% |
|
|
|
| Total |
20.8 pounds |
|
|
As you can also see, the total weight of the bag was well over the advertised weight of 20 pounds.
Next comes our lighting test in which we see how many sheets of newspaper it takes to get a good fire going
in a Weber chimney starter. In this case, B&B Mesquite charcoal took 4 sheets which is
Low () compared to other brands.
There was only mild sparking and no popping while the charcoal was starting and the smoke was a moderately mesquite hardwood
smoke.
In our maximum temperature test, B&B Mesquite burned at 968°F which is High (
)
compared to other brands. There was very little
sparking or popping either while the fire was spreading and building, or while it was roaring away. The fire was
somewhat slow to spread, but eventually, it got up there.
Next up is our burn time test.
B&B Mesquite charcoal burned only an Average (
) length of time
compared to other brands. Lighting with a MAP/Pro torch was relatively uneventful
with only a small amount of sparking and popping. However, always exercise caution when using a torch of any
type to light lump charcoal.
And finally in our ash production test, this B&B Mesquite Charcoal produced
a relatively Low () amount of ash compared to other brands.
To sum up, sharp-eyed readers will observe that B&B Mesquite Charcoal's performance was remarkably similar
to B&B Charcoal's Hickory Charcoal. You might be surprised by this considering how different hickory
and mesquite are, but the answer probably lies in the fact that only about 35% of the bag is actually
the primary species, either hickory or mesquite. The remaining 65% is the same blend of hardwoods in
both types of charcoal. That said, B&B Mesquite Charcoal did fairly well in our testing. Although
the size distribution was surprisingly tilted towards the small end (how many of you have gotten a
bag of mesquite charcoal that contains "logs"?) the amount of chips and dust was pretty low. It burned hot, but
for only an average amount of time, and produced a low amount of ash. We feel this charcoal deserves
our Above Average rating.
