Charcoal from "A.R.E."

Argentina AR and Export maybe

Don't believe they have a great selection of quality hardwoods there do they?

is there anyone who seriously thinks "A.R.E." means that Royal Oak is now sourcing their lump from the U.A.E. ?

They have some trees around the oasises (sp?) don't they :laugh:

can see it now: "i found a coconut in my Royal Oak"

doesn't someone market extruded coconut charcoal? i seem to recall there being something like that.

yeah

I was the someone who emailed Whiz.

Turns out, it's not actually Royal Oak brand. It's just "Royal" brand. Some googlenastics turned up a importer in Edison, NJ named "Royal Foods". What tricked me was the bag - I had thought it was actually Royal Oak brand.

Still haven't figured out what A.R.E. is but I think I'll give Royal a call tomorrow and find out.

I opened the bag and just a basic rummaging around resulted in what appears to be a nice dispersement of sizes.

Here are some pics:

this is pirate charcoal. "Where's it made?" "Arrrrrrr"


This was the first thing that had me scratching my head. "Isn't Royal Oak based in Area 51 or something? Definitely not New Jersey."


No idea what this says.


I should have realized by the weber kettle on back that something was wrong...


No Chemucals! Whew! Now I wonder if there are any chemicals in it...


It wasn't until I compared the front with the pictures on Whiz's site that I realized my mind played a trick on me - the red bag, the word Royal...my mind had filled in the blanks based on me knowing of Royal Oak and next thing you know, I'm 12 bucks a bag poorer.


A little nervous to use it. Famous last words, huh? "How bad could it be?"

It's amazing, and almost scary how much that resembles a bag of "Royal Oak" right on the verge of deceptive marketing if you ask me...hope it burns OK for ya..

The website shown, webcorp.com, requires registration to see anything beyond a basic first page. Information on the domain name is "protected" by "contactprivacy.com" which doesn't give out info on who owns the domain name but will send an email to the firm on your behalf.

All of which must make one wonder . . .

Sounds like we do not need to support this very secretive company by buying their product.

dugdbug wrote:

Even more frightening; I think I saw a Birkenstock with a blue socked foot in the corner of one of those pictures!!! :ohmy:

lol I love my Birkenstocks! Sooooooo comfortable.

So, lump from Egypt, eh? Some more searching turned up this:

http://www.alibaba.com/product-free/103966625/GAZWARINA_CHARCOAL.html

Searching for Gazwarina turned up a type of tree native to Australia but common in Egypt, the Casuarina, also called the "swamp she-oak" in Australia:

http://www.winrock.org/fnrm/factnet/factpub/FACTSH/C_glauca.html

"Wood: The most universal use of casuarina is for fuel. The wood has a high calorific value (about 5,000 Kcal/kg) and tends to burn slowly with little smoke or ash. Branches, branchlets, and other litter also burn well. Casuarina wood makes excellent charcoal. Wood is reddish-brown, tough, and fissile with a density ranging from 662 (El-Lakany 1983) to 980 (Midgley et al. 1983) kg/m3."

Sounds interesting. I'll have to make some lamb, falafels, and samak meshwi. :laugh:

Also found this:

"Its calorific value in charcoal form is 7180 kcal/kg, among the highest for a firewood species."

I wonder how high I can get the egg with a full load of this stuff. :evil:

Fidel, you nailed in A.R.E, is the Arab Republic of Egypt.