Review - Sam's Club "Best of the West" 100% Mesquite Lump Charcoal

{Midnight ☼ Smoke};1224714 said:
Just wondered, I have been using the RO Red for a couple years and I have gotten good and bad bags. Lately mostly bad with a lot of powder and broken up lump. Gorilla handlers at Wally World :mad:. I have gotten Lazzari and had enormous hunks that I broke up with a Welding Hammer (thanks Thrideye). I like Chris's logic though, on the price paid for the amount you end up with.
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[I like Chris's logic though, on the price paid for the amount you end up with.]
great logic - great money management! yes - great value indeed! and great report, ill add! :clap2::clap2:

i also need to mention what swayed my size preferrence. when using a chimmney fire starter, consistant size is almost necessary. also, i mainly do low and slow. as im sure you know,mesquite is not choice for l-n-s

noww, ive got a stumps grav-feed and love it !! again, big chunks not practical for my animal cooker portfolio :p
 
I think your point about it being made in Mexico has merit. I've been wrangling with that for a while about a few brands of lump. I used to rely on RO as the dependable source of lump anywhere, but sometimes the bags aren't from the US for that brand either unfortunately.:sad: Honestly, the only reason I tried this was just in case Sam's carries this regularly, it will be easily available to me at a great price. However, if I know Sam's Club at all, one day this stuff will simply no longer be in stock, then I'm back to RO basically.
 
Ive been buying this at Sams for close to two years now, I dont see it going anywhere soon. This is not the ideal lump for grilling because of the size, but is PERFECT for low and slow smoking. Big pieces last forever. Love mesquite lump for low and slow, it is nothing like mesquite logs in a stick burner, which I dont like.
 
This is what I've been using the last couple years, and I can't remember issues with popping or sparking. The large pieces work great in the WSM 22.
 
bigabyte said:
A couple weeks back I posted about my first time lighting up a chimney full of this stuff. Since that first lighting, I have only had very great results with this stuff. It is officially my new favorite charcoal.

This stuff comes in a 40 pound bag for $12 and change at my local Sam's. The pieces inside it are freaking huge, and I am really liking that option of having charcoal logs for putting on the smoker, awful convenient.

I only had issues with the coals sparking, and putting out lots smoke on my very first chimney laod. I can only guess there must have been a piece or two in there that was not fully charred. Since then however, after about 10 more chimneys, I have not had that problem at all.

I ran my WSM on this charcoal for 24 hours on this stuff from yesterday through this morning I had to refuel twice (I got 8 hours per load), and refueling was easy because the pieces are so big it was like tossing a few sticks in there basically. I had ZERO problems with sparking/popping or the charcoal producing smoke at all during this whole time.

This was my initial posting about this stuff.
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=80187&highlight=sam's
The first post would be a little misleading because that particular chimney-full sparked and smoked a lot, but that was the ONLY time that has happened to me.
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I don't know if you have a restaurant depot over there it is $9.89cents for a 40lb bag of 100%natural mesquite charcoal big chunks in bag as well
 
Lowes had some 9lb bags of Best of the West Mesquite lump and I wasn't too pleased with what was in the bags. Way too much dust! The small bags were pretty useless and it took almost 3 bags to fill my BGE!

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I'd probably buy the 40lb bags for $12 if I saw them, but Cash & Carry stocks the 40lb bags of Lazarri Mesquite lump for $13. It's hit or miss with the large bags, some have freakin' logs and meteorites that that need to be broken down, which is a PITA and a huge mess-I probably get @25-30lbs of usable lump after sweeping up the dust and duff!

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Firing off the Lazarri or BOTW Mesquite lump is like lighting sparklers! I wear safety glasses when I'm torching it in my Egg or kettle, cinders have burnt my decking and wood tables!
 
Went to my local Sam's yesterday, they were selling Frontier Hardwood lump for $14.27. Haven't tried this yet but picked up a bag. Is this stuff any good?
 
I'll have to check my sam's out to see if they carry it. Thanks for the info.

Jeff
 
My main concern is: "Mesquite Lump"

I don't care for the flavor of mesquite, so I can't imagine liking the results of lump from 100% mesquite..
 
I don't like cooking with mesquite wood either. The flavor from the mesquite lump is so much milder. I would equate the difference in flavor to the difference between cooking with Oak wood and B&B Oak lump.

I'm not trying to sell this stuff. I just thought I would share my experience with everyone since it took me over a year to finally bring myself to try this stuff, only to find out I really like it. I should have started buying it long ago in my opinion. Just thought I should mention that since I have made a couple posts defending this stuff. I'm not saying it's the UDS of charcoal (snicker), just saying it's my new lump of choice. It's not for everyone of course, that is why there are various kinds of fuels because not everyone buys the same stuff.
 
texman02 said:
Went to my local Sam's yesterday, they were selling Frontier Hardwood lump for $14.27. Haven't tried this yet but picked up a bag. Is this stuff any good?
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that is what my local sams had.
I went ahead and picked up a bag to give it the ole college try.
I just noticed you are a dallas person too, maybe it is a regional thing or somesuch.
 
ytsejam said:
that is what my local sams had.
I went ahead and picked up a bag to give it the ole college try.
I just noticed you are a dallas person too, maybe it is a regional thing or somesuch.
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Yeah that is what I am thinking. Hoping this rain get cleared out of here tonight gonna fire up the drumpit tomorrow and try the stuff out.
 
I bought a bag of frontier. I mixed it with some stubbs in the drum and it worked fine. The stubbs was on top, so it lit as usual with the weed burner. The second time I used it, I used it by itself in the egg. I will never do that again. It cracked and popped and exploded like crazy. I didn't think I would ever get it lit. I will use it up by mixing with briqs in the uds, but not by itself. I will not buy another bag.
 
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