Coshell COSAZ9 9-Pound Bag Coconut Shell Charcoal Briquettes

This charcoal is awesome! I am writing this because of the low rating this product has been getting and I see that alot of folks are having a hard time getting this coal burning.This is not anything like the traditional charcoal I grew up using and I researched the heck out of it when I bought a smoker 2 years ago. The easiest way to light this coal is to use a heat gun; I use a Wagoner. For a long cook on a beef brisket I get at least 90 minutes per pound of charcoal. The heat gun adds no odor or chemicals so the briqs barely smoke and have a wonderfully sweet smell that adds to whatever wood I choose to smoke with.I make a deep pile of and light the coals until they fire brightly. For a short hot cook in a griiing situation I would light at least 6 sections of the pile of briqs to get the heat up quickly. For a long cook on the smoker I light 3 sections of the pile and the smoker takes about 5-10 minutes (weather factors) to hit 275°F.Its a labor of love and I hope this helps some people.

I had such great hopes for all the great things I heard about it.... I tried and tried and tried... same thing... just doesn't get hot and/or burns out quick... maybe I got a bad bag? I have a webber kettle with the 1lb propane tank to light it. I let it burn, let is ash and I think the most i've seen is 300 degrees... I couldn't sear my hand with that... "longer and hotter" sorry... just didn't happen... very disappointed because I had heard such great things...

Not my favorite coconut shell briquettes. They'll do, but I strongly recommend the aFire 1501 KOKO Charcoal instead. As much as possible, I use coconut shell briquettes for my low-and-slow applications just because I like that they come from a far more renewable resource than hardwood, and they tend to burn relatively slowly. They don't add the classic charcoal flavor—which many look for. In fact, they really don't add much flavor at all. Personally, I like that fact since it allows me to have complete control of my smoke. These briquettes use the traditional shape we all grew up with, and for a standard grilling application that's fine. For smokers, however, they don't stack especially well, and they're not well-suited to the fuse method. Since I use a side box smoker, I find that fact a bit problematic. If you're improvising a smoker using a kettle grill then you're going to run into significant issues.My biggest complaint about these briquettes is that they crumble to dust in the bag very easily. I've bought three bags now, and the bottom third of each one was entirely filled with charcoal dust. Besides being messy, this is extremely wasteful. I'm all for renewable sources, but they need to work as expected. Otherwise, it's a bit much to expect people to switch to them, much less pay a premium to do so. If natural hardwood briquettes can be bound together effectively then surely these can, as well.

worst product ever. ordered 4 bags thinking it would be an environmentally safe and renewable product. mostly powder which smoked and didn't burn. i have used other coconut charcoal logs which burned hot and clean. these briquets are garbage. smoked so much i thought neighbors would call fire department.had to give it one star to get posted but wish i could give it a negative review.will return unopened bags asap.

I kind of have mixed feeling about this product. I had been using natural wood charcoal, and I think most of the claims about this - less ash, burning hotter, burning longer - is as compared to the processed briquettes and not as compared to natural wood charcoal. Compared to natural wood, it might burn a little longer, but it takes longer to light. There is a lot less smoke, which makes it easier to work the grill, but also gives a lot less flavor.I have mixed feelings about the neutral flavor. On one hand, I guess the control is nice; on the other, the smoky taste is what charcoal barbecue is all about, so if you use this more expensive charcoal, you will also want to buy natural hardwood to toss on top. I prefer wood chunks and do not bother soaking them. If you go with wood chips, they probably burn too fast to be worthwhile if you don't soak them first. Either way, you are still using some natural wood; maybe less than if you were using wood charcoal, but that cuts down on the environmental effects.So...as a lump charcoal person, here is my pros and cons list:Pros- good for the environment- more control over flavor- less smokeCons- takes longer to light- less flavorSo...as you can tell, I am on the fence with this. It cooks fine once you learn to give it enough time, but compared to hardwood lump charcoal, I am not sure.

It's a great product, but I had a lot of powder from the destroyed briquettes. I just want the packaging to be more conscious of the product being very fragile. For it to be a great product I want what I pay for. I ordered 2 bags and maybe the all the complete briquettes equated to one bag.

I have been waiting for almost two weeks to try this charcoal and i finally got an opportunity yesterday. Lets get down to the meat and taters on this. Tough light and takes quite some time to get up to temp. I spent the better part of two hours, and a lot of charcoal, trying to get to 250 degrees. Once it gets there its easy to hold the temp, even when adding some wood chunks. Does it burn hotter and longer than the average charcoal? I am not exactly sold on that. If however you do not care for the taste of regular charcoal, this may be the charcoal for you. I could not taste any sort of creosote or other flavor in my food from this charcoal. The briquettes are quite a bit more messy to handle than regular charcoal, for me that is no big deal.I like to use lump charcoal and experience the same things....slow to start burning and messy to handle.I am all about trying new things and i was quite anxious to give this a go! My inital cook with this was rather quick, only a few hours. So i want to try a long smoke with it to see how it handles. For now i would not spend the money on this charcoal vs lump or other charcoal. For me the cost does not support any special benefits. But we shall see how the other test turns out!