Jealous Devil All Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal - 20LB

Used last night for the first time when making some pizzas, long burning and kept my oven at a steady temperature. You can tell its great quality because there's almost no smell meaning they dont use crazy chemicals that would harm you. Huge bag, should last me a while, therefore it's a great value for the money!

Sooooooo, here’s the thing. I damaged my Akorn Kamado grill using these because I am a moron. Or lazy. Or bit of both. I will let you decide. A bit of back story. In my 40 so years of life I have only ever bought grocery store lump charcoal. However, one day while wasting time on YouTube, I watched a comparison video on different brands of charcoal because I am just that kind of nerd. This brand scored really high so I bought some not fully knowing what I was buying. This is not just charcoal this is the stuff stars are made of if you are not careful. Because of its BTU density it took a little effort to get good and lit. But when it did.... Here is where I went wrong. I barely had my vents open on my grill but I was rocking some 450 degrees which made short work of my chicken. I had noticed earlier that there was something bits that needed to be burned off of my heat defuser and had planned to increase the heat after to heat clean my stainless steel grill. Due to my ignorance to the reactant mass in my grill I opened the taps and let the fire breathe. This bit me bumm. I went away for a couple of hours. When I returned the thermometer was off the scale. I had never seen it go past 600 before and this was now past 700. It was so hot I couldn’t touch the handle. I used the grate scraper to lift the lid from a distance. I have now seen the fires of Hades. The grate at the edges were a dull red and where the het defuser was it was a bright red. The edges of a typical fire are defined by colder air. In my Akorn there was no colder air. The fire from this charcoal was nothing like anything I had ever seen. It was like looking into a maelstrom of heat. I moved as if living. I am not exaggerating. It was ethereal. So, I closed the lid and the dampers and came back the next day. There was still a good bit of charcoal left over and my stainless steel grill is not rusty. I looked up the temp that iron turns a dull red. It is 900 degrees. I don’t know what bright red it but wow that was something. I will use this product as long as I can get it. As normal cooking only uses up the smallest amount of coal and smoking meat consumes a negligible amount.

I have tried at least 25 different kinds of charcoal in the past 20 years in my Big Green Egg. Jealous Devil is the best, bar none. This is truly Excellent lump charcoal. Large chunks but not too big. Almost no dust or small chips. Easy to light with electric or propane torch. Very little sparking on ignition. Burns anywhere from 180 to over 800 degrees in my BGE. Burns long too. 24 hours at 275, no problem. Great flavor, not too overwhelming. If you want more smokiness in the flavor, it is easy to add whatever combination you like without having that flavor overwhelmed by the JD. I cannot recommend this charcoal highly enough.

I am a newcomer for using my Kamado Joe the last six months. I have only tried 3 or 4 brands but I like this one the best. The flavor to me is almost neutral in the food so I add flavor by throwing in wood chunks throughout the charcoal. The temperature control is quite even but I can't say if that is due to charcoal or give credit to the Kamado Joe. Either way, I don't fuss much with temperature once the oven is up to temperature.My complaints:1) I think this product is very expensive. $28 for 20 lb bag at the BBQ store and a whopping $46 per bag shipped from Amazon. I bought from Amazon this last time because of staying at home during the virus situation. So much for free shipping, they just raise the price of the product to compensate. My 2 bags were punctured from the Amazon delivery even though they were protected in a shipping box.2) Yes, every lump charcoal bag is going to have dust, but my opinion is there is a lot of dust in the bag. I transfer the charcoal from the bag into a plastic storage bin and when I'm finished my hands and clothes are black. I have unsuccessful in keeping the charcoal dust contained.3) More on the bag - I find it difficult to pour the chunks from the bag into the storage container. The zip lock top keeps the opening too small and I have to pull the chunks out by hand to keep it flowing. Hence, why I get so dirty. Next time, I am just going to cut the top off completely to create a larger opening. If you keep the charcoal in the bag for storage, this may not be an issue for you.Aside from my complaining, I think this is a good product and my cooks are turning out great and the food is delicious.

Great product. Only thing I wish the pieces were a little more uniform as it takes some digging to get pieces that lay together neatly (I use a cylinder style, this is a non issue for bowl/egg style). Its not a big deal if your doing a long cookout but i usually just cook for 2 people so I end up wasting a bit of coal since I only need a short cook time . But again overall this coal is fantastic. Low ash and quick lighting with a light flavor profile make this suitable for any occasion

Burns well , good quality and the most important thing is that it consists of good size pieces. Not a lot of small pieces.

"If you never tried JD you are seriously missing out" I've been using Jealous Devil about a year now and have to say it is hands down the best on the market, I do a lot of competition grilling and this product is hotter, easier to control and certainly out lasts the rest. Don't be fooled by the reviews online where they show lighting a chimney of JD and another like B&B and how the other starts first...that's all in what size pieces you have as I do this with two chimney's every time i cook and always have one starting up before the other.Other brands may be easier to find for some people but this is well worth it and ships VERY quickly.A must have for home cooks or competition.