The 7 Best charcoals For smoking food (2023 reviews)

We consider a charcoal for smoking food to be a worthy investment in the long run. We are here to help you choose the right one for your purposes from all the best available products in market today.

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Our Top Picks:

Best overall: Buy: Kamado Joe Charcoal For smoking food READ REVIEW

Best For Green Egg: Buy: FOGO Charcoal For smoking food READ REVIEW

Best For Kamado: Buy: Thaan Charcoal For smoking food READ REVIEW

Best For Argentine style grilling: Buy: harder Charcoal For smoking food READ REVIEW

Best For Kamado grills: Buy: Betterwood products Charcoal For smoking food READ REVIEW

Best For Smokeless cooking: Buy: Komodo Kamado Charcoal For smoking food READ REVIEW

Best For smoker: Buy: FOGO Lump Charcoal READ REVIEW

Best overall: Kamado Joe Charcoal For smoking food

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The kamado joe charcoal for smoking food is long-lasting, rigid and fits well with your daily purpose like a dream. This is great lump charcoal. It smells like lighter fluid, too. There’s not metal, plywood, barbed wire, leaves etc in it. The charcoal lights extremely well and extraordinarily quick. The size of the chunks are large, this helps it burn longer and keeps it from clogging up your grill.

This typically does not contain much dust or small pieces whatsoever. The regular lump is much smaller and smashes at the bottom of the bag making more fine crumbs. This is the way to go for a long, steady burn.

• Good long lastinch charcoal with plenty of big chunks for low and slow
• Best coals for smoking or grilling
• New and hot release

Best For Green Egg: FOGO Charcoal For smoking food

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The fogo charcoal for smoking food is capable of outshining several other charcoal featured in this list in overall features for the price point. This charcoal makes it way easy. It includes 70% medium-sized pieces that are 2-3 inches in size and 30% small pieces 1 13- 2 inches in size. It is great for the big green egg. This charcoal is made to last longer and burn evenly to perfectly sear the meat and lock in the flavors.

The size of pieces you get varies greatly but the quality is pretty consistent. It is made to light with a couple natural fire starters. It is easy to control with both upward and downward temp adjustments.

• Long burn, no rocks, great taste
• Easy to light and burns long
• Consistent size that works great for smaller grills

Best For Kamado: Thaan Charcoal For smoking food

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Next on the list, we've got yet another charcoal that manages to win our hearts. It's the thaan charcoal charcoal for smoking food and it's widely considered as charcoal that has the most suitable features. It’s not that hot, tough, long lasting, flavorful benchotan. Kingsford and other briquettes use floor sweepings and use a petroleum-based binder that tastes like crap. It is made of fruit trees (possibly shells etc) and imparts this ever so slightly noticeable hint of sweetness. It imparts zero charcoal/fuel flavor on the food but allows for a nice bbq experience.

This is very hot burning long lasting (maybe 4 hrs) coal. It is suitable for flat or small grills where the coals get close to the food. It is easy to use, and lasts a long time.

• Awesome charcoals that burn super hot for hours
• Burns super hot, making it fantastic for searing and other high temp uses
• More residue than natural chunk but far less than briquettes
• Very mild wood that allows the meat you are grilling to speak for itself

Best For Argentine style grilling: harder Charcoal For smoking food

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Compared with other charcoal in this category, the harder charcoal charcoal for smoking food has a convenient design. There are so many large pieces that once the small pieces burn, they are just beginning and they are good for a couple of more fires. If you are doing any medium time, or even low and slow grilling, this is the stuff. It works very well for steaks as well as ribs and the flavor is a good all around wood flavor without any acrid taste. This is the best yielding bag of large pieces of charcoal.

The charcoal is larger, dense and burns very very clean and consistently hot. It burns hot and lasts long. The charcoal is decent size and hard. This harder charcoal really holds the temp long, and it burns clean with very little ash. It doesn't pop and crackle sparks all over the place like some brands do.

• Good for chicken and slower cooking
• Great flavor, incredible heat, and it works great on long slow smokes as well
• Great temp control and long lasting
• Amazing charcoal, long lasting and great balanced taste

Best For Kamado grills: Betterwood products Charcoal For smoking food

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The betterwood products charcoal for smoking food should be able to handle its purpose and duties with ease. This 17.6-pound bag of lump charcoal is perfect for all things smoking and grilling. It is designed for kamado grills like bge minimax, kamado joe jr, weber kettle, weber, smoky mountain, and more. It is easy to light, starting in only half the time of briquettes.

This blend allows for high heat in a shorter amount of time compared to the super premium blend. The bag consists of both medium to small-sized pieces.

• Add bold, open-fire zest with all-natural hardwood lump charcoal
• Reaches optimal cooking temperature in approximately 15 minutes
• Great for enhancing the flavor of beef, chicken, fish, or pork
• Kiln-fired and packaged in its natural lump shape with no additives or chemicals

Best For Smokeless cooking: Komodo Kamado Charcoal For smoking food

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If your charcoal has a very light smoke flavor, you will be able to taste your apple smoke, it has a very strong flavor profile like let's say mesquite you may never taste your apple smoke. It has the lowest percentage of ash of all charcoals ever tested on the naked whiz charcoal review site, the best on the web. It comes in as many flavors as there are species of trees.

This prevents the clogging and reduced airflow that wood charcoal and briquets can cause. The charcoal is so dense you can also put more volume in weight into your grill/smoker extending your burn time significantly. While it is hard to light, you can easily start this in a chimney starter and several sheets of newspaper.

• Very good, burns hot, although harder to light, saves on trees
• Burns hot and stays usable for a long time
• Pure, no fillers, no additives, no chemicals

Best For smoker: FOGO Lump Charcoal

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Your backyard grilling and smoking adventures are sure to be enveloped in a delicious, oaky hardwood smoked flavor. The Brazilian eucalyptus blend charcoal lights quickly and is ready to grill within 15 minutes. It is a natural product made from dense hardwood trimmings from selected trees with no other added ingredients. Fogo also lasts longer, meaning you'll be able to enjoy more grilling with less charcoal.

The Package includes a 17.6-pound bag of Brazilian eucalyptus blend charcoal and 17.6-bound bag of all-natural lump charcoal.

• Lights fast, burns incredibly hot, and imparts that delicious steakhouse flavor at home
• Delivers what they promise