A good charcoal should have no flavor, and should allow the tobacco and only the tobacco to be tasted. Quick light charcoals often have a horrible charcoal flavor as opposed to natural charcoals which are regarded as being superior to quick lights, however natural charcoals cannot be lit with a lighter and require the user to light them on a stove top or over open flame.
Quicklight Charcoals
Holland Quicklight Charcoal:
Holland quick light's are all over the place, namely Smoker Friendly and similar stores they're cheap as hell and not they taste horrible, If you a decent palette. They taste like a barbeque charcoal in my opinion and burn entirely to hot for decent heat management.
Duration: These coals don't last very long 30 mins tops.
Taste: Not completely intolerable but not good.
Price: Dirt cheap! I've found them for literally $1 for a roll of 10.
Overall: 6/10 I wouldn't recommend these unless you are living under a bridge and have no money.
Deezer Quicklight Charcoal:
These are an abomination of nature as far as charcoals go. Some people seem to like them for whatever reason, I personally cant stand them, they don't stay lit and taste horrible.
Duration: I have no clue how long these last nor do I plan to find out.
Taste: Horrid absolutely horrid, like a burning piece of drywall!
Price: Also dirt cheap but not quite as cheap as Holland's.
Overall: 3/10 Horrible, don't buy them.
Three Kings Quicklight Charcoal:
Three kings are an industry standard as far as far as quick lights go. I personally use these charcoals on a regular basis and I would recommend them. They have very little flavor and very rarely break apart unlike most quick lights.
Duration: 45+ minutes, amazing for a quick light.
Taste: There really isn't much taste but you do catch a charcoal flavor every now and again.
Price: Fairly cheap, about $2 a roll.
Overall: 8/10 Damn good for quick lights!
Miraculum Quicklight Charcoal
I'm not sure on the cost of these coals, I got them because the vendor I ordered from sent me some counterfeit Three King's coals. The vendor was very willing to send me a box of these along with some free tobacco for my troubles.
Duration: 45+ they do about the same as Three Kings.
Taste: Almost Nothing
Price: Not entirely sure.
Overall: 8/10 Damn good, basically the equivalent of Three Kings.
Natural Charcoals
Social Smoke Natural Japanese Charcoal:
Duration: 45 minutes - 1 hour.
Taste: No taste what so ever.
Price: Extremely cheap $3.50 for a 128 piece box.
Overall: 9/10 Good coals, cheap and tasteless. The only issue is that they don't last too long, you cant go right for the price.
CocoNara Natural Charcoal:
CocoNaras are the industry standard in natural charcoals, many people swear by them. They have almost not taste and stay lit very well.
Duration: 1 hour +
Taste: Nothing
Price: A bit pricy but worth it.
Overall: 8/10 The only complaint I have is the sometimes have a hard time getting started, and tend to try to go out.
Exotica Finger Style Natural Charcoal:
Duration: 1 hour +
Taste: Non existent
Price: Fairly cheap actually, about 10 bucks for a box of
Overall: 9.5/10 These coals are actually quite nice, they stay lit through the whole session and light quite quickly, they do ash a bit more than I would like but nothing serious.
