i’m going to get flamed for this, but it’s science so i don’t care. the most important factor that influences the smoke flavor is where the wood comes from, not the species. the terroir, if you will, determines the relative moisture, lignin, etc., in the wood.
bonus: “smoke ring” doesn’t come from smoke.
If you want charcoal debates on a daily basis, head on over to the Big Green Egg forum. Briquettes aren’t even in the discussions. Fairly consistent (but definitely not 100%) views are:
Wicked Good Weekend Warrior - very good - had some quality control issues about 18 months ago, but those seem to be resolved.
Rockwood - excellent
Kamado Joe (red bag) - excellent
Fogo - excellent (but usually expensive)
Royal Oak lump - decent, will do in a pinch - Big Green Egg charcoal is Royal Oak with BGE brand on it, so never buy that stuff when it’s half that cost elsewhere.
Cowboy - awful
B&B - slightly better than Cowboy
I like the first 3 a lot and will grab them in bulk if the price is right. Anything below $1.00/lb. for the good stuff is a nice price.
If you like the Weekend Warrior, try either of the two hardwood blends they do. Great stuff. Wicked Good will also do palate deliveries if you can get a couple of friends to pile on.
Re: Lack of briquette discussion on BGE Forums, doesn’t surprise me. Same group that thinks a Vision Kamado isn’t good enough for them 
Gotta remind myself to calendar Kamado’s roadshow at my nearby costco at the end of the month. 40lbs for $30 opposed to 20lbs for $26 at the local ACE
Nice, how do you find the schedule?
Alhambra 07/29 - 08/07
I use briquettes in the Weber for burgers. I use lump for most everything else and exclusively in the BGE. There’s a place for both.
I won’t use briguettes any more, too much unknown hydrocarbons embedded in there. For me it’s either lump for slow BBQ, sometimes grilling if I want to take the time to do it right. Otherwise propane on the grill.
Yep! Worst Costco to go to in my area though. Nothing like a small parking lot and a ton of Chinese drivers. I’ve been told it’s one of the busiest costcos in California.
Thankfully there are no wine snobs on wine boards though, right? 
But, seriously, a couple of points. The main BGE board is owned by Big Green Egg, so they do discourage/censor much in the way of positive competitor talk. But, I’ve read a decent number of posters on there saying very positive things about Kamado Joe and talking about their purchases of them as 2nd and 3rd kamado cookers. If I was buying today, I’d go with one of them from the Costco road shows. The warranty and accessories used to be the parts that differentiated BGE, but KJ has made that no longer true and they’re a couple hundred dollars cheaper.
Hickory demands that you allow it flame up, and then smolder down to a thin belle smoke.
Tuffy stone gave me the best advice re bbq I have ever had. He said to think of smoke as I would salt. It’s a spice, and either too much, or too little can ruin a cook.
I’ll trade oak for pecan. We had a huge double trunk oak fall from Hurricane Sandy and we took down another because it was leaning over the house. Maple and oak are free here after a storm if you have a chain saw.
By the way - - - anyone know a good gasket replacement for the BGE? Their own version doesn’t seem to last.
Another classic discussion on the BGE forum. Rutland is the permanent, very high temp replacement. Only put it on one side, usually the bottom, because of its thickness. Don’t stretch it when putting it on, actually slightly bunch it up. Use the copper, high temp adhesive. I forgot the brand. I did this several years ago and zero problems since.
I use this:
http://www.high-que.com/Big-Green-Egg-Gasket-Upgrades_c_7.html
It holds up better than the stock gasket, but it will still burn off eventually if you’re doing pizza temps. The great thing about it is, the adhesive burns off too, so subsequent gasket replacements are done in literally a couple minutes. Getting the stock gasket off clean the first time was a PITA.
Pecan? Jay lives in New York!
Even wood from two cherry trees that grew within eyesight of each other can look and smell somewhat different, but cherry trees grown thousands of miles apart will still be more like one another than a cherry and an oak grown a few feet apart.
no, that’s the point - a cherry tree and an oak grown next to each other will be more alike than 2 cherry trees a thousand miles apart.
Too funny, Charlie!
I understand that that’s your point, but it’s wrong and I’ve had 35 years working with countless board feet of hardwoods to back me up. There might be some similarities between different woods grown near each other, perhaps at the molecular level, but none that are perceptible to our human senses. Both when the woods are fresh sawn and when they’re burned, cherry smells like cherry, and oak, oak, and I’d be more than willing to do a blind test on that.
Back on topic, my brother once sent me a chunk of olive wood from the south of France; I turned him a bowl and used the off-cuts and shavings as “flavorings” on the grill a few times. They added a nice aroma.
first of all, just within oak you’ve got thousands and miles and 17 common oak species in North America - so when you say “oak” what are you talking about? do all oak species produce the exact same smoke results?
second, the stuff in the wood that creates the wood smoke flavor is dependent on the mineral content in the wood mass and that is indeed dictated mostly by site rather than any other factor. it’s all on the molecular level!
your experience notwithstanding.