Kingsford is a very popular brand of charcoal briquettes used to fuel competitive and home bbqs across the nation. It burns consistent and can be reasonably priced if you watch for sales. Within the Kingsford brand of charcoals there are several varieties of briquetes There are; “Match Light, Original, Professional, Lump and flavored (mesquite, applewood and hickory). There is a new sheriff in town by the name of Long-Burning brand charcoal briquetes. This particular charcoal claims to burn 25 percent longer than the Original brand. We have purchased said bag and will be cooking and performing an uncontrolled burn experiment. Let’s take a look.
We picked up a bag at the local box chain store for ten dollars and change for a 11.1 pound bag. Once we got home we removed 12 charcoals from the bag. We will be comparing the Long-Burning to the blue bag Original bag of charcoal briquettes. We weighed separately both the blue bag and long burning briquets. Surprisingly they both weighted exactly the same at 8 ounces/12 briquetes. Both charcoals looked identical. We piled the 12 charcoals over a fire lighting pouch and ignited. They both ignited at the same rate. The both seemed to put out the same amount of heat. After one and one half hour the briquetes had exhausted to a small pile of small embers. There was no discernible difference between these two piles. As an unscientific observation we would conclude these two charcoals were the same. We cooked a pork shoulder with the Long Burning charcoal. The charcoals behaved and performed with Kingsford consistency.
I'm not surprised as companies like to do things like that - notice that they are just LONG burning and not LONGER burning, which is what most of us would likely conclude from the name. Did they cost the same as original?
ReplyDeleteBig Dude, The cost is an interesting question. I would say it cost more. It is sort of like buying a phone plan. The weights of the bags are all different. Sometimes they come in double packs. One bag of Original might weigh 18.5 pds while ours weighed 11.1 pds. There is no standard packaging practice and the weights change constantly. The prices also change seasonally and store by store. I always buy in bulk when they go on sale.
ReplyDeleteMr Brown, all I have to say is it's a good thing Kingsford didn't call it Bacon long burn charcoal you would have purchased a pallet. GWH
ReplyDeleteI did the math using Wal-Mart web pricing, not on sale, no shipping. I think it should be pretty representative of "out of season," non-bulk package pricing.
ReplyDeleteKingsford Original, 15.4 lb bag for $12.59 = $0.051/oz
Long Burning, 11.1 lb bag for $9.76 = $0.055/oz
Professional, 11.1 lb bag for $14.08 = $0.079/oz
greatwhite hunter, You got that right.
ReplyDeleteAaron, Thankyou sir. I actually liked the Professional brand charcoal for high heat grilling. Buying the Kingsford Original at sale prices makes the Long Burning and Professional very costly even if they did burn 25 percent longer.
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ReplyDeletegreatwhite hunter, Deja vu
ReplyDeleteI was confused how the product position was supposed to be between the blue bag and professional (fka competition). Is it 25% longer burning than original or 25% longer than the "longest burning" professional.
ReplyDeleteChris, The Kingsford website is not specific about the 25 percent longer burning statement. I do like the Professional (no-mo competition) briquettes for high heat grilling. In our little experiment the Original and Long Burning seem to be the same. As a consumer it is confusing. Since I do such a volume of cooking with charcoal briquettes my briquette choice is usually economic.
ReplyDeleteChris, After further review of the Kingsford website, here is there claim:
ReplyDelete"Maintain the heat with Kingsford® Long-Burning Charcoal Briquets Burns 25% Longer*
*Compared to other charcoal brands"