Hickory Natural Hardwood Pellets for BBQ, Grilling & Smoking - 100% Hickory

This review is for the CookinPellets Hickory Smoking Pellets. I'll get to them shortly but I want to give some context and advice that I think will be helpful. I'm fairly new to smoking food, having started in the summer of 2015, and my initial experiences with imparting any kind of smoke flavor in the foods I smoked were disappointing. I thought "is this what I get after investing all this time, effort and money?". After researching on various smoking forums I found 2 things to be prevalent in regards to smoke flavor; 1) generally speaking pellet grills BY THEMSELVES don't give you a lot of smoke flavor in your food, and 2) the difference in pellets from one manufacturer to another is significant in the results you get.To help with #1 I highly recommend you supplement your smoke with a smoke tube. Research it, get it and use it. It does make a difference. I burn 100% apple or cherry in my tube while the 100% CookinPellets hickory goes in the hopper.Regarding #2 - A bag if pellets that says "hickory" on them, but does not tell you that it is 100% hickory, is almost assuredly a mix of hickory and a filler wood OR flavor oils and filler wood (like alder). You have no idea if you're getting 30%, 20% or whatever % hickory. This is true with any type of wood pellet. The filler woods generally don't give you any flavor. I went through this when I first started by buying what the local store had to sell: brands like Traeger which do not list their ratios. This is why my food was a dissapointment... There are comments that Traeger uses flavor oils in their pellets but I don't know if that's true because they don't tell you what's in them. Why won't a manufacturer tell you this information? It's because they are hiding something. I went through several brands and they were severely dissapointing. I have 4 half used bags of those various brands/woods types going into the trash (cleaned up my garage yesterday) because it would be a waste of food and time to use them. While it can be difficult to do I no longer buy pellets unless the manufacturer clearly states the mix of woods in the product. No description, no sale.So that brings me to my review of the CookinPellets Hickory Smoking Pellets. I was hooked the first time I used these. You could smell the difference when the food was cooking and the taste of the food was amazing. I currently go through approximately 1 bag a month of these and will continue to do so as long as they keep up the price and product quality. They burn well and I've never had a heat or ash issue out of the norm. I only wish they offered 100% cherry and apple.In closing a little advice from a relative newbie smoker:1) Use a pellet that tells you whats in it. I like the CookinPellets Hickory Smoking Pellets and highly recommend them, but there are a few others out there. Stay away from brands that don't specify. While there's nothing wrong with a mix of wood species (hickory w/cherry for example) they should tell you what your getting.2) Reasearch and read the smoking forums. You'll learn a lot.3) Use a tube smoker and experiment with other wood types than what is in your hopper.

Seems to burn hotter (ie, use less pellets to stay at a certain temperature) than the "perfect mix" pellets. Also seems like more smoke is produced than the perfect mix. A few more experiments will need to be done, but I think they produced good flavor.Also I am amused that Amazon offers a "Protection Plan" for something that is meant to be burned and consumed.

I am a big fan of the Hickory flavor and smoke getting into the meat that I cook. And I wasn't necessarily dissatisfied with the Traeger brand pellets but just wanted to check around and see what else is out there. After reading a lot about these pellets and the actual wood content versus flavor oils of some pellets I decided to give them a try. No complaints with the pellets at all. Good flavor good smoke and everything you come to expect. Burn time was good. But I really don't feel like they smoked anymore or gave me more flavor than the other Traeger pellets I've used or the Bear Mountain pellets. Good product but I will probably stick with Bear Mountain pellets since I can get them locally and for quite a bit cheaper.

Had to wait quite awhile to get the pellets, but it was worth the wait. I would have given it 5 stars if it wasn't for the several week wait. Good price for the amount of product.

I've almost went through my first 40lb bag of these pellets so I figured it was time to write a review. I bought a bag of Hickory and a bag of the blend and I use these pellets in a Traeger smoker - I am very happy with them. I wasn't sure about using another pellet in my Traeger but, I was outside of my warranty anyway so I figured it was worth it after reading how much of the wood you are buying is actually in (or not in I guess) Traeger pellets. Moving forward, I will be buying bags of these as long as they continue to make them.I've cooked shoulder, ribs, chicken, turkey, brisket and prime rib all with fantastic results. You get a lot more flavor than the Traeger pellets, period. They do make a little more ash, they don't hit the temp the Traeger pellets do but there are ways to combat both of those problems and neither of those is a reason to go back to the Traeger pellets. Got more ash, clean more often. Need a higher temp, try mixing 1/3 of these pellets with 2/3 Traeger pellets to hit those higher temps.I have no hesitation recommending these pellets to anyone using a pellet smoker and I think most people will be very happy with the cost and the flavor they produce over Traeger brand pellets.

I purchased the 100% Hickory pellets. They worked well in the Traeger grill but I did notice that there is a lot more ash than there has been with any other brand. I also noticed that the grill uses more of these to keep it's heat than most other brands. As such the lower price is no longer of any value. I will stick with the Lumber Jack brand.

I have gone through over 100lbs of Traeger pellets and while they do get the job done I will say that these are far better, like someone else mentioned you can tell the difference just in the smell of the pellets alone. I had Traeger hickory pellets in my hopper and topped it off with these, there was a pronounced difference in the smell after the Traeger pellets were all gone and these started to burn. On my next cook, with these the food was some of the best that I have done yet. The honestly can not tell much of a difference in the ash left in the bottom of my Traeger and I would almost say that there is less than using the Traeger pellets. I use the AMNTS and the two products together help me to make wonderful food. Only downside is now my neighbors are always wondering when we will be inviting them over for dinner again. I am a Amazon Prime member so all I pay for is the product itself so I end up getting them cheaper here than if I got them from CookinPellets.com I would highly recommend them!!