Flavor is King
Good charcoal means more control over flavor. If you are grilling heritage breed yakitori or an A5 wagyu, you want to taste the food, not the charcoal. Use binchotan or Thai-Style charcoal for a smoke and chemical-free
If you are cooking 3-2-1 ribs or a smoked brisket pastrami and you want smoky flavor, you want to start with a pure lump charcoal with a smooth smoke flavor. Using single species lump charcoal will allow you to get a predictable smoke flavor that you can enhance with wood from other species. Add your favorite wood, such as apple, hickory, or pecan to kick up the smokiness.
Good charcoal provides intense radiant heat, which gives you that incredible crust and char. This is where the unmistakable grilled flavor comes from. If you are cooking a reverse sear tomahawk steak, you want a high quality charcoal without impurities, otherwise you’ll get flame and flare ups. Flame will burn out all the flavor.
Consistency Brings Success
Achieving mastery means eliminating as many variables as possible. You want your charcoal to burn at a consistent temperature and time. This allows you to develop flavor with more control and fewer surprises.
Pieces should be of a regular, large size so that you can smooth out the fluctuations in temperature. Thaan Thai-Style Charcoal is the pinnacle of consistency, as each piece of charcoal is consistent in size and density. It will burn for 4-6 hours at a high, even heat every time.
Cleanliness Supports Focus
You want to be able to focus on your delicious creativity, not cleaning up a big mess. Lower quality charcoal bags are filled with small bits and dust in order to make weight. This means you aren’t really getting what you paid for, and you have to deal with a big mess to boot. From the beginning, Thaan has created products for restaurant kitchens. Restaurant success is driven largely by organization, cleanliness, and consistency. A cleaner live fire fuel makes live fire cooking more achievable and approachable.
Thai-Style Charcoal is efficiently packed with zero waste. The boxed charcoal can be stored easily without damaging the charcoal inside. It is the cleanest, most efficient way to store charcoal.
Thaan Large Lump charcoal is screened between 2”-6”, which means that almost 40% of the charcoal we receive doesn’t make it into the bag. This gives you consistent charcoal size and clean bags. We are always thinking about efficiency for our customers and manufactures, so we’ve developed a new product using the charcoal that doesn’t make it into our lump bags. More to come soon on that exciting project!