Royal Oak SUPER SIZED – Charcoal Review

Royal Oak has been a reliable brand of charcoal for decades and this SUPER SIZE variety is as good as their reputation. This cooking briquette is available nationwide at a variety of retail stores.

This charcoal review will compare the Royal Oak SUPER SIZE briquettes and rank them according to several factors.

Packaging & Size Consistency

This Royal Oak SUPER SIZE comes in the standard paper bag. It’s thick and durable with a stitched binding at the top. I was able to tug and pull the threading to tear the bag on my 2nd or 3rd try. It’s easier to open than I expected. I normally use a pocket knife to slice open the top, leaving enough material to fold over and make a seal.

Opening the entire 14lb bag reveals the entire contents of SUPER SIZE briquettes. Both of my test bags were in wonderful condition with nearly 100% fully intact briquettes. Each bag had less than a handful of shards and broken pieces. There was very little dust. This charcoal would score very high in this category if I had a category for this ratio!

Ignition Test: Smells and Start-up Times

My standard method of lighting charcoal is an oily paper towel wrapped around a Tumbleweed brand charcoal starter with a Weber brand charcoal chimney. I like to DIY at home, but for consistency throughout my charcoal reviews I will be only using the Tumbleweeds brand charcoal starters. They’re consistent and available everywhere.

# of briquettes	method	time
40	tumbleweeds/chimney	14 minutes
12	tumbleweeds/chimney	11 minutes

Startup Smell

This is a huge factor for me. When I first moved to California my neighbors called the police because they smelled the plume of white Kingsford smoke and assumed I was burning trash. They were kind of right.

Royal Oak SUPER SIZE smells like a burning woodstove or typical charcoal grill. It smells like burning wood and paper. There is no foul smell as fillers and binding agents off-gas, because there aren’t any nasty fillers and binding agents. Royal Oak has a reputation for using pure ingredients.

High Heat Grilling Performance

I grill more often than I smoke, so higher heat performance is important to me. The Royal Oak Super Size has plenty of heat for grilling and the heat lasts long enough for most cooks.

It doesn’t burn exceptionally hot or exceptionally long, but all of my test cooks had plenty of fuel to last the entire cook and still snuff out the coals to reuse the remnants.

I’d consider Royal Oak SUPER SIZE heat output to be average, or slightly above average. I think it burns hotter and longer than Kingsford blue bag.

Low and Slow BBQ Performance

These briquettes have an shape that may be more difficult to stack in the snake method. For my test I used the Slow’N’Sear to smoke some ribs in my 26″ Weber.

I lit 12 briquettes and added them to a full Slow’N’Sear with a few chunks of pecan wood. I kept the bottom vents mostly closed and the top vents slightly closed and the kettle settled in at 275 without any intervention. Sweet blue smoke started after about 20 minutes and the kettle stayed between 275 and 300F for 12 hours. I never had to mess with the vents or the fuel.

The Royal Oak SUPER SIZE performed perfectly for low temp BBQ in the Weber kettle.

Flavor & Smoke Signature

I found ROSS’s flavor to be perfect for grilling. Steak, chicken, and fish grilled over the Royal Oak came out with a natural grilled flavor, perfectly charred. Everything I grilled using the Royal Oak Super Size came out great. I’m OK with this charcoal for grilling.

But for BBQ…

While using the Royal Oak for barbecue I found the flavor to be overpowering. I like gentle smokes like peach, apple, cherry, and pecan. The Royal Oak SUPER SIZE overpowers the fragile fruity smoke.

The Royal Oak has a stronger woody taste. These briquettes are made in the USA using a blend of locally sourced hardwoods.

This may be great for brisket or beef ribs, but I’d avoid it if you’re using fruitwood. The charcoal itself puts out a stronger smoke flavor than a proper thin blue fruitwood smoke.

Extinguish & Re-Usability

For quick cooks I like to shut down my vents and snuff out the charcoal, saving the fuel for my next cook. The Royal Oak SUPER SIZE snuffed out just fine when I actually remembered to close my vents.

Some charcoal briquettes burn to the center so quickly that they’re useless when snuffed out. These ROSS briquettes do not suffer from the K-Blue effect.

Ash & Cleanup

The ash and leftovers from the SUPER SIZE Royal Oak briquettes seems average.

The ash is heavy enough to not fly around when the lid is opened, and it falls off half-spent embers relatively easily. While using this charcoal in a low and slow BBQ setup, the ash didn’t become a problem on my 12 hour cook, but longer cooks may require intervention.

Is Royal Oak SUPER SIZE Worth It?

This is a good charcoal for casual grilling and barbecue. It’s better than Kingsford Blue for grilling, but I’d pick K-blue over this for smoking meat because the ROSS flavor is just too smoky.

Most backyard grillers will appreciate this charcoal for it’s consistency and reliability. It doesn’t stink when lighting, like Kingsford, and it’s available at a lot of different stores nationwide.

Connoisseurs and meat-smokers may find themselves looking for a charcoal with less flavor influence.

Where to Find SUPER SIZE Royal Oak

I bought my 14lb bag of ROSS at a local VONs grocery store in the greater Los Angeles region.
It’s also available at Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Lowe’s, Walmart, etc.

Bag Size	Store	Price
10lb	Lowe’s	~$8
14lb	Tractor Supply, Vons	$10-14
16lb	Walmart	$9 !!
18lb	Home Depot	$13

Walmart has the best deal on this charcoal and it’s available for free in-store pickup.
CLICK HERE to buy Royal Oak SUPER SIZE from Walmart

Prefer briquettes or lump charcoal? What’s your favorite?

Leave a comment below and let me know which charcoal brands I should try next.