New Kingsford Charcoal Briquettes

Kingsford Charcoal Woes

I've been having issues with Kingsford charcoal briquettes lately. I usually pick up a double pack of charcoal while I'm at Costco getting some meat to BBQ. On a recent trip, I came to find out that my local Costco only carries the Kingsford Match-Light Instant Light Charcoal. I'm not a big fan of the Instant Light because of all the chemicals that make your BBQ taste funny, so I had to press on. All I wanted was my regular Kingsford briquettes.

Plan two was Smart & Final. I already had to go there to pick up some BBQ supplies. I found a double bag of what seemed like the old favorite with one significant difference: it had ridges, or what Kingsford refers to as "Sure Fire Grooves." What the heck is a Sure Fire Groove? I wasn't exactly sure, but after further research I found out that these grooves are a standard feature across all Kingsford charcoal products.

These Sure Fire Grooves supposedly allow the charcoal to be lit faster (in fifteen minutes) and burn more evenly for a longer time. Now this is really messing with my mind because I never had a problem with the way the old charcoal worked. Why would you change a winning formula? It worked well all these years. Lighting it was never a problem in a chimney starter — BTW, why doesn't Kingsford make a charcoal chimney starter? Duration was never a problem with the old charcoal, and I have yet to find that the Sure Fire Grooves burn longer. It actually seems like they don't burn quite as long. That's just an opinion, but it seems that way. I wish I could get a hold of some of the old stuff to put it to the test, but it's no longer available.

One thing I have noticed is that this new briquette design becomes much more fragile as it heats up. Especially when charcoal is loaded on one side for indirect cooking. As you add more briquettes to maintain heat, the previous coals crumble and compact, making it very difficult for air to flow through them. This has lead to a lot of adjusting throughout the cooking process.

In my opinion, this new design is not as good as the old one. I'm not the only one who feels this way. Not long after the change, Kingsford reportedly received over 100,000 complaints. That's a lot of unhappy grillers.

I've since started mixing Kingsford with lump charcoal to get better airflow and more consistent heat. It's not ideal, but it works. If you've found a good workaround or switched brands entirely, I'd like to hear about it.