100% mesquite rabbit hole

[zblongladder]

So I went on something of a rabbit hole this morning researching the availability of 100% mesquite pellets online, and I wanted to post about it in case anyone's looking in the future and doesn't need to spend multiple hours on this like I did.

There are multiple brands offering pure mesquite pellets (Smokin Brothers, Shuping, Northwoods Smoke), but they're all smaller, regional brands offered either through the brand website or a smaller retailer. They tend to come on around $20-25/20lb bag, but the shipping is almost always the killer: these small sites almost never have special deals for free shipping or whatever, so you're paying about $15-35/20lb bag no matter what, and adding more bags doesn't seem to help that ratio much. Even the one brand offered through Amazon with free shipping doesn't fare better: Cutting Edge Firewood is $29/15lb anyway. Then again, if you're looking for 100% mesquite, you're probably looking to blend it with other, probably cheaper pellets, so the ~$2/lb cost gets spread over a lot of cooks.

Anyway, that's what I've spent my morning doing. My conclusion: I'm sticking to what I've been using for the moment (Royal Oak charcoal + mesquite, which is really charcoal pellets mixed with mesquite/oak blend pellets), even if it's a little expensive for what it is.

[jtw]

Funny you should mention this today, as I did nearly the same thing this morning but looking for 100% maple pellets. I know they used to be available but I can't find anyone that makes them anymore.

I've also come to the same conclusions: stick to the blends I like from the reputable brands.

[zblongladder]

jtw That's odd...I could swear that I'd seen 100% maple pellets just the other day, but checking back it looks like everyone's discontinued them. You'd really think that, like, Cookinpellets would have them, since all their blends are based on maple, but nope, just blends.

I did end up finding a place that had Smokin Brothers with free shipping over $50, Bar-b-que.com. Whether they'll actually ship 60lb of pellets halfway across the country for free remains to be seen, but I might've found a source for mesquite after all.

[Oak Smoke]

100% mesquite is going to give you a very strong smoke taste. I was raised on a ranch-farm in the middle of a mesquite forest. We cooked on it a lot. Most of our cooks were over beds of coals after the wood had burned, I’m not a pellet cooker but I do keep some chunks on hand now just to give a steak a kiss of mesquite smoke before I sear it. Good luck in your search.

[jtw]

not to speak on behalf of zblongladder but my guess is that he's not going to cook with 100% mesquite, rather looking to make custom blends and be able to control the amount that is mesquite...

[zblongladder]

Like jtw was speculating, my goal here is to blend pellets to dial in the smoke I want...I know just cooking over pure mesquite is asking for your food to be too smoky. Like, the Royal Oak blend I'm using looks to be about 50/50 charcoal pellets and mesquite/oak pellets, but I don't know or have any control over the mesquite to oak ratio. I also got some B&B Post Oak pellets so I can control how much oak to mesquite I'm actually using.

[tstalafuse]

Interestingly, this just showed up on my Facebook feed. I don’t see mesquite, but a couple do offer maple.

https://amazingribs.com/ratings-reviews/tools/barbecue-wood-suppliers/

[tstalafuse]

So, Smoking Brothers offers 100% mesquite pellets.

https://smokinbrothers.com/shop/?categories=pellets

[bbqLuv]

I have tried a of number different pellets and prefer Traeger Premium Blend from Cosco.
Here is a taste test comparing different pellet brands.
Pellets Matter: 6 Pellets Compared Head-to-Head | Mad Scientist BBQ

Hope this helps.

BTW, when I bought my Traeger, I was advised to keep the pellets dry. I was told that the most problems was caused by improper storage of pellets.

[jayjordan]

Use a smoking tube containing mesquite chips mixed with pellets.