Pok Pok Thaan Charcoal

Very good quality. I bought it for work, the charcoal last longer than other ordinary charcoal.

it says thai style Binchotan, whatever it means has nothing to do with Binchotan, it is a briquette, very compressed charcoal that takes a while to lit and it glows very hot for ages.

Buena calidad, quema lenta combustión con poco humo

Awesome stuff!! This charcoal is similar to binchotan. It burns HOT and lasts a long time. I live in a condo building and not supposed to have a grill on the balcony but with this charcoal being odorless*, smokeless**, and producing little ash***, I've been grilling like a madman! Again, because of the condo situation I have to be a bit rogue with how I light it as it takes a bit to get going. What I do is put the logs in the oven on the top rack on a foil covered broiler plate with the broiler on high for an hour. While the charcoal heats, I prep my grill items - marinade meats, prep veg, get salad put together. After the hour is up, I remove the plate with the coals and make a b-line for the balcony. I use tongs and place in my konro (yakitori grill****) then I take a pastry torch and hit em hard until they turn a little red. Once theyre going, theyre going! The heat spreads nicely and grilling can start within 10-15 minutes. Best thing about Thaan Charcoal is it is reusable!!! The first time I used, I dunked the coals in water when I was finished but that was kinda messy so from then on I just closed the vents on the grill and covered the top with a sheet pan and it snuffed out the coals nicely. Next time I want to grill I can take the old coals and put them in the broiler with some new ones. The older ones are usually smaller and many times will come out of the broiler nice and red already. This makes it a lot easier to get the coals going using my method as I can make a nice little teepee. I bought 2 boxes (12-14 logs/box...I forget exact amount) and I've grilled about a dozen times and only a few logs into the 2nd box because of the reusable factor. If you dont have the restrictions I have, starting the logs in a chimney starter will get em going quick and hot! Highly recommend this stuff. It imparts zero charcoal/fuel flavor on the food but allows for a nice bbq experience. * The coals are odorless but if you grill items that are high in fat content (burgers, steaks, etc) there will be an odor when the fat drips onto the coals. ** The coals are smokeless but if you grill items that are high in fat content (burgers, steaks, etc) there will be smoke when the fat drips onto the coals. I cooked burgers on my little grill one night and smoked out the whole balcony and then some. Lesson learned. They came out great though :) *** The coals produce ash, obviously because they are coals. However, they do not really produce the red ash sparks that could be problematic. **** In case you're interested in the yakitori grill that I use, link is here: Fire Sense Large Yakatori Charcoal Grill

I bought this looking for a longer lasting alternative to regular Kingsford charcoal briquettes. Barbecues at our house are usually an all-day affair with over 40 guests so I really wanted to reduce the time used to switch out or add charcoal to the grill. I've used this charcoal a few times so far and am loving it. It produces less ash than the regular Kingsford charcoals and lasts much longer. I use 4-8 pieces of this at a time and they last over 4 hours giving me a hot steady heat throughout. That means less work and time spent on charcoal upkeep and more time to chat with friends and getting food out! Also, I read somewhere that if you're done grilling but this charcoal isn't finished burning, you can run this charcoal under water to put it out and save it to use next time. I haven't tried this yet though, since I usually grill to the end. I see some of the reviews mentioning the difficulty in lighting them. Binchotan-type charcoal like this is usually denser than regular charcoal and thus, harder to light. You need to apply heat a bit more consistently to get them to light. This is the way I do it: I light some regular Kingsford briquettes with a chimney starter (http://www.amazon.com/Weber-7416-Rapidfire-Chimney-Starter/dp/B000WEOQV8) and when they're ready, I pour them into the grill and spread them out. Then I lay the Thaan charcoal pieces out evenly on top of the lit charcoal (sometimes stacking them which seems to be more efficient) and leave them there to light. Alternately, you can use a charcoal basket lighter (something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Camp-Chef-Charcoal-Lighter-CLB-9/dp/B000M9NJ1G/) to light it on your gas stove. Last tip: it's cheaper to buy this here from Amazon (with Prime) than direct from Pok Pok.... not to mention the faster shipping time.

Muy calientes y duran muchísimo (mas de 8 horas hasta que se apagaron completamente). Cuesta bastante encenderlos.

For the most part, this is a good product at a fair price. It makes a reasonable alternative to traditional Japanese binchotan, at a much lower cost and much more convenient form factor. I like the generally square shape of the charcoal - makes it easy to fit in whatever you're using to cook with, and once you get an arrangement that works, it's easy to repeat over and over again. For example, I know that four pieces in my pizza over get me a pizza stone that hits 900 degrees every time...I don't need to experiment with odd-shaped pieces or anything like that. The hollow centers seem to help it burn consistently, too. I did have a difficult time getting the coals lit. Using a Weber starting chimney, it took about 45 minutes to get the coals up to temperature (for context, typical charcoal briquettes take 10-15 minutes to get going using the same technique). This seems to be a characteristic of this type of product and of binchotan itself. I have a high-temperature non-contact digital thermometer - it suggests that one burning, the surface of the coals reach about 1000 to 1200 degrees (F), and that's plenty hot enough for most uses. The coals themselves produced very little smoke or smell when burning. I stumbled across a YouTube video showing someone using these coals to grill indoors, but I would discourage that. There doesn't seem to be a lot of smoke from the coals themselves, but most any food you cook on them will tend to be just as smoky as when you cook outdoors. I tried grilling a single burger on a small hibachi indoors that I placed under my commercial range hood with the exhaust fan running at full speed - within about a minute, my smoke alarms were going and my kitchen was filled with smoke...I had to grab the hot hibachi and retreat outside. I did have good success firing my pizza oven with this charcoal. They burned for about three hours and my pizza stone made it to about 900 degrees with just four pieces of coal in the back of the oven. That's good performance, and pizza came out great. Overall, I'd say this is a nice product at a fair price, as long as you're not planning on using it indoors.