Command Coconut charcoal

Anyone know of a decent source for the Command Coconut briquettes (the square stuffthat comes in 5kg/10kg boxes) as I've run out. I'm currently using the supagrill briquettes but while they're half the price I seem to need twice as much!

I'm not sure if the Command charcoal is still available. I was a big fan but the guy who imported it struggled to get rid of it all and last time I spoke to him, he had no plans to bring any more in.

I've given up on briquettes and cook entirely on restaurant grade charcoal from Booker.

Actually I have fund some of the 5kg boxes at www.thebbq.co.uk so I'll be using that as soon as I can get some!

£11 per box - ouch!! I guess that's the delivery costs bumping it up though.

I can get 12Kg of restaurant grade lump for £9 from Booker or Makro. A basket set up carefully for MM will run my Excel for around 7 hours in decent weather conditions. We ran three cookers for a whole competition the other weekend on 2 bags so from a cost perspective it's definitely worth giving it a go.

Hmmm....sounds like it may be worth a go. Does the restaurant grade suff last longer than the normal lump? What about temperatures - I've got used to the higher temps you get with the coconut stuff!

Hmmm, This could just be me being cynical, but I guess, by writing 'Restaurant Grade' on the side of a bag of charcoal, it just mean the manufacturer charge a bit more money for it. Like 'Professional' or 'DeLuxe', that's what happens in most industries, (certainly thats typical in my trade). I would imagine any restaurant using charcoal probably buy it wholesale from catering supplier.
However I too am after the square block coconut stuff, I'm getting very low & i guess I will end up buying into the DeLuxe Charcoal if I can't get my fix of coconut stuff.......Oh the shame

Last time I checked Booker and Makro were wholesale catering suppliers

Restaurant grade lump comes in at £9 for 12Kg, the best value I've ever found, like I said I ran 3 Excels in competition for a whole weekend on 2 bags i.e. £18 for 30 hours total cook time (10 hours per cooker), don't think you can fault that.

Anyways, what you'll find is that you get bigger lumps, I regularly have to break lumps up with my axe because they're too big. You get a little slag at the bottom of the bags but it's not too much and is usually still fine for grilling with. You do have to be selective with the bags though as some of them seem to get tossed around a bit in transit. I've occasionally had a bad bag, but Booker will always exchange it.

As for temps, I cook most things up at 275F or higher these days and I have no issues hitting those temps. I do run with a clay saucer rather than water though. I do a tightly packed Minion Method with smaller pieces around the sides, larger in the middle. I usually light about 4-6 fist sized lumps in the chimney to get the Q going. Either that or i hit the basket with the weed burner

Cool, cheers for that Steve. Do Makro in Reading do the restaurant grade stuff? I have a card for there through work. If not, which Bookers do you use? I think work has an account at Basingstoke.

Makro in Reading stock the restaurant grade charcoal, look for the big blue bags. I use Booker in Reading, I know Aldershot also carry it year-round so I suspect Basingstoke will too.

Just remember to have a good feel of the bags to make sure you get a good one, and be prepared to possibly have to split the odd piece. At the Rother Valley competition last year we got a tree trunk in a bag which was hilarious, bashed it up into about 15 nice big lumps.

I'll have a look at Makro reading next time I go then. Cheers Steve!

If you've tried it, & it works, it sounds like it's passed the test, then I'm a lot less dubious, plus, I've got to get something to use ...... I'm running out fast!

I don't know if all Booker branches carry it all year round but Aldershot do. Sometimes the quality dips a bit during winter but I think that this is because it gets stored and moved around by the wholesaler and the bags get a bit kicked around. At Makro in Reading it's definately seasonal and is usually all gone by August. Last year I managed to get the m to sell me a few ripped bags cheaply and that got me through until Christmas.

I've been pretty happy with the supagrill cocoshell briquettes from my perspective... they normally seem to last pretty well.

Whilst i'd like to try the restaurant grade stuff, i'm also well up for trying to get charcoal sourced locally or from waste products, hence the cocoshell briquettes. I understand Tesco is now do briquettes made from cotton tree waste material now. Would be interesting to try...

Anyone else use ethical charcoal here? If so, what do you get?

Don't get me wrong, the Supagrill stuff is OK and in the absence of anyhing else I'll use them,it's justthat they're not as good as the Command stuff I'm used to!

Hi can any one tell me if the charcoal on Ebay is the same as the charcoal from bookers
item number on ebay 140420573453

Bookers in Slough definitely stock the restaurant grade charcol.

I also found some decent locally sourced lumpwood at the farm shop I get my meat from (park farm organics, south of Reading near eversley). Chatting to the butcher there, the guy that delivers the charcol is the guy that makes it. I'll ask for his details next time
I'm there and see if I can get some bigger bags.

As an aside, the butcher at park farm is a real nice chap. He's what I would call a 'proper' butcher and is always willing to assist with my requests for wierd cuts of meat! Can't recommend them enough!

I think you need some sort of card to buy from these places, is there an easy way to get one, if your not in the catering trade?

Yeh, unfortunately bookers is trade only. That said, you just need to get a mate that has their own vat registered company to take in a letterheaded bit of paper and open an account. You can then borrow their card!

You don't need to be vat registered or even own your own company to get a Booker card, I should know

I told them I had a competition BBQ team (which is true) and that we cater for some charity events as well as doing competitions (also true) I also said I was using a different Booker branch on a mate's card (semi-true) and they said "we'll happily take your money".

So I have one with my team name on it now. Best thing to do is go in and talk to the manager, they're pretty good about giving you a card, they just don't want every Tom Dick and Harry going in there for their weeekly shop.

I stopped off at a Sainsburys to get petrol in Swansea on the way to the Gower on the weekend and they were selling coconut charcoal on the forcourt £5.50 ,I dont know if this was a one off ,I am going to check out a Sainsburys garage in Cardiff to see if I can get somemore as it was good stuff.I have bought normal charcoal at a Sainsburys super market but have never seen coconut stuff in there.