The growth in the range of pellet grills/smokers now available is pretty amazing, as I discuss in my A to Z list of pellet grill brands, with now over 30 options to choose from. Well, many of those brands also offer their own brand of pellets too. As there is such a huge range of BBQ wood pellets available, working out which flavour/wood species you should use and which BBQ pellets are offering the best deal can be confusing. No worry though. I’ve worked it out for you below with many, many hours of research on prices & availability 🙂
Disclaimer: Hey! By the way… any links on this page that lead to products on Amazon or other sites are affiliate links, and I earn a commission if you make a purchase.
Best Value BBQ Pellets Per Lb
If you are not sure what pellets you need, it may be best to start by reading my article on how to choose the best pellets for your pellet grill/smoker.
Below are links to my articles on the best value pellets for the various pellet flavors. I’ve spent many hours producing the articles below, researching availability and prices. Enjoy 🙂
| BLENDS Custom BBQ Pellet Blends | LIQUOR Reclaimed Bourbon Barrels etc |
| APPLE Pork, Poultry, Veggies, Seafood | CHERRY Pork, Poultry, Lamb, Seafood |
| HICKORY Pork, Poultry, Lamb, Beef, Veggies | MESQUITE Pork, Poultry, Beef, Seafood |
| MAPLE Pork, Poultry, Veggies | OAK Pork, Beef, Lamb, Seafood, Veggies |
| CHARCOAL Strong Smoke, Grilling | PECAN Pork, Beef, Poultry |
I’ve produced a separate article on how to choose the best wood pellets for smoking meat, where I discuss additional topics like increasing smoke flavor intensity.
A to Z List of BBQ Pellet Brands
Below is a list of all the current biggest players in the BBQ pellet game. I provide details on whether they are 100% single wood species or blended hardwood pellets, along with bag sizes, typical prices and where they are available. Enjoy 🙂
A-MAZE-N Smoking Pellets
A supplier of pellet smoking tubes/baskets for gas grills A-MAZE-N also offer their own range of smoking pellets in 2lb boxes and 5lb bags. Hence, A-MAZE-N does not currently offer 20lb bags for dedicated pellet grills/smokers.
A-MAZE-N pellets are stated to be made in the USA and they offer 100% single hardwood species products such as Oak, Mesquite, Maple and Cherry. They also provide mixtures such as Oak with Italian or Chilli Pepper spices.
- Pellet Flavours: 100% Oak, Mesquite, Maple, Cherry and Oak/Spice blends
- Bag Size: 2lb boxes or 5lb bags
- Typical Price: $8 per box to $15 per bag
- Availability: Amazon.com & HomeDepot.com
ASMOKE Wood Pellets
You may not be aware of ASMOKE as they are a relatively new brand of budget pellet grills/smokers. I believe their AS300 to be one of the best tabletop pellet grills available.
Well, ASMOKE is also offering their own brand of pellets. Currently, they are just providing 100% Appelwood pellets from FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) orchard trees.
Applewood makes good all-around hardwood grill/smoker pellets suitable for cooking a wide range of meat, fish and vegetables.
- Pellet Flavours: 100% Applewood
- Bag Size: 20lbs
- Typical Price: $26 to $40 per bag
- Availability: Amazon.com, Walmart.com & HomeDepot.com
Bear Mountain BBQ Pellets
Based in Colorado, Bear Mountain BBQ has been producing a range of hardwood pellets for grills/smokers since 1990.
Unlike some other brands, Bear Mountain BBQ confirm that the source of their hardwood raw materials is sustainably and locally sourced from within the United States.
Bear Mountain BBQ produce a wide range of hardwood blends and flavours. However, it should be noted only their Oak and Alder pellets are 100% single-species products.
Bear Mountain BBQ also produce a range of blended flavour options, such as their Bourbon blend for a mellow smoke flavour and their Gourmet blend for a smoky/sweet flavour.
They also have three other blends branded as Bold, Sweet and Savoury, containing different hardwood species blends.
- Pellet Flavours: Hickory, Apple, Mesquite, Cherry, Maple, Pecan, Alder, Oak and various blends
- Bag Size: 20lbs
- Typical Price: $17 to $25 per bag
- Availability: Amazon.com, HomeDepot.com & Walmart.com
BBQ’rs Delight Pellets
The first BBQ pellets I ever purchased were a selection of 1lb bags of BBQ’rs Delight pellets and their cast-iron smoker pot to use on my gas grill.
Now, with their 1lb flavour bags for use in smoker pots/tubes on gas grills, the flavours are 100% single wood species.
However, in their 20lb bags for pellet grills/smokers, their flavours are blended with Oak providing the base hardwood.
Along with the common flavours of Oak, Pecan, Apple, Cherry and Mesquite, BBQ’rs Delight offer some more niche blends.
These include Jack Daniels pellets made from the mellowing charcoal from Jack Daniel’s distillery. They also offer Orange, Peach, Sugar Mapel and Sassafras.
Their blend is a mixture of 80% Oak to 20% of the specific hardwood species flavour.
- Pellet Flavours: Hickory, Apple, Mesquite, Cherry, Maple, Pecan, Alder, Oak and various blends
- Bag Size: 1, 10 and 20lbs
- Typical Price: $9 to $30 per bag
- Availability: Amazon.com
B&B Grill Pellets
Its more than likely you are aware of the B&B brand if you have ever purchased charcoal, as they have been in business since 1961, and their charcoal is widely available.
Well, B&B has now decided to start offering pellets and in a wide range of flavours, including Apple, Cherry, Hickory, Mesquite, Pecan, Oak and their Championship blend.
B&B pellets do appear to be 100% single wood species pellets, but I’m waiting back on confirmation of this, so don’t hold me to that as yet.
It is a bit odd that B&B, who built their brand on charcoal, don’t as yet offer charcoal pellets. Also, the availability of B&B pellets is rather limited, but the price per lb is good.
- Pellet Flavours: Hickory, Apple, Mesquite, Cherry, Pecan & Oak
- Bag Size: 20 lbs
- Typical Price: $10 to $17 per bag
- Availability: Walmart.com & Academy.com
Broil King Pellets
A manufacturer of gas grills, which now also produces its range of Broil King pellet grills. One of the few brands to currently offer a pellet grill with a rotisserie.
Broil King also offers their own range of grilling pellets. Most of their pellets are blended. However, they do also offer 100% Hickory pellets.
The Broil King Apple Blend is a mixture of Applewood and Oak. The same is true for their Mesquite Blend.
Their two other offerings are Griller’s Select Blend which is a mixture of Oak, Maple and Cherry and Smoke Master’s Blend, which is a mixture of Maple, Hickory and Cherry.
- Pellet Flavours: Apple Blend, Mesquite Blend, 100% Hickory and Griller’s Select and Smoke Master’s Blend
- Bag Size: 20lbs
- Typical Price: $28
- Availability: Amazon.com
BBQGuys Hardwood Pellet Blends
You have probably noticed BBQGuys links around PelHeat.com. That’s because they are now one of if not the biggest dedicated BBQ retailers in the US.
It’s taken longer than I expected, but besides just selling other brands of pellets, they have created their own pellet range.
As BBQGuys states, the Competition Blend contains a ‘little bit of everything’, and they do state the Oak percentage, which is 60%.
That is true of all the BBQGuys Signature pellet blends. They have a 60% ratio of Oak pellets, apart from the ‘Oak Blend’, which isn’t really a blend. They are just 100% Oak.
- Pellet Flavours: Competition, Hickory, Oak, Apple, Mesquite & Cherry
- Bag Size: 20lbs
- Typical Price: $19 per bag
- Availability: BBQGuys.com
Camp Chef Premium Hardwood Pellets
Camp Chef are well known in the pellet grill world for their SmokePro and Woodwind products, therefore they naturally also sell their own line of pellets.
Their premium hardwood pellets are produced in the USA from a selection of hardwood species, including Mesquite, Alder, Hickory, Appel, Cherry and Oak.
Camp Chef pellets are a ‘proprietary blend‘. Therefore, all flavours will have a base of Oak or maybe Alder.
Camp Chef pellets are also available as a Competiton blend which will be a mixture of several hardwood species.
Their latest offerings of Cherry Charwood and Hickory Charwood are a mixture of hardwood and charcoal.
While not a 100% charcoal offering, they will offer a stronger smokey flavour over standard hardwood pellets with likely a slight bump up in temperature output too.
- Pellet Flavours: Hickory, Apple, Mesquite, Cherry, Maple, Pecan, Alder, Oak and various blends
- Bag Size: 20lbs
- Typical Price: $14 to $18 per bag
- Availability: CampChef.com, Amazon.com & HomeDepot.com
CookinPellets
Since 2006, CookinPellets has been producing 100% single hardwood species pellets from American raw materials.
As they like to state on their packaging, ‘No Fillers! No Oak or Alder‘. As such, you should expect to pay a premium for these pellets over hardwood blended pellets.
Alongside their 100% Hickory or Black Cherry pellets, they offer two blends, Perfect Mix and Longhorn Blend.
Perfect Mix contains Hickory, Cherry, Hard Maple & Apple pellets, whereas the Longhorn Blend is Mesquite, Cherry and Hard Maple.
Note, neither of the CookinPellets blends contains any Oak or Alder. Their AppleMash pellets are rather unique, produced from a mix of apple fruit mash mixed with Hard Maple.
Though they recommend the AppleMash pellets are only used for smoking (180 to 350 degrees) and not high-temperature grilling.
- Pellet Flavours: 100% Hickory, 100% Black Cherry, AppleMash, Perfect Mix and Longhorn Blend
- Bag Size: 40lbs
- Typical Price: $35 to $38 per bag
- Availability: Amazon.com & HomeDepot.com
Crown Royal Whiskey Pellets
Crown Royal is a Canadian-based whiskey company. Their whiskey was originally produced as a gift in 1939 for the King and Queen of England.
These pellets are not made from just whiskey barrels. They blended pellets made from 50% Oak whiskey barrels and 50% sugar maple.
- Pellet Flavours: Blended whiskey barrel pellets with Maple pellets
- Bag Size: 20lbs
- Typical Price: $20 per bag
- Availability: Lowes.com
Cuisinart BBQ Smoking Pellets
Already a well-known provider of kitchen appliances, Cuisinart are also now a player in the pellet grill game with their Woodcreek and TwinOaks pellets grills.
They also offer their own range of BBQ pellets focusing on flavours made from recycled liquor barrels.
The Cuisinart pellet flavours currently include Mapel Bourbon, California Red Wine, Cherry Rum and a mixture of all three called Master Blend.
The Cuisinart literature states, ‘These pellets are made from reclaimed liquor barrels and natural wood’.
Therefore, the pellets are a mixture of reclaimed Oak liquor barrels with additional hardwood (likely Oak) added.
Cuisinart does not currently provide details on the reclaimed liquor barrel to virgin oak blend mixture percentages.
- Pellet Flavours: Mapel Bourbon, California Red Wine, Cherry Rum and Master Blend
- Bag Size: 20lbs
- Typical Price: $15 to $25 per bag
- Availability: Amazon.com & Walmart.com
Expert Grill Pellets
When it comes to budget pellet grills/smokers, the Expert Grill range offers pretty good value for money.
The same is true when it comes to their pellets. Walmart typically sell a 30lb bag of Expert Grill pellets for under 10$!
The Sweet Blend is a mixture of Apple and Cherry, while the Bold Blend is a mixture of Hickory and Pecan.
However, it is not stated what the mix percentages are, and there is likely a high percentage of Oak pellets in there too.
- Pellet Flavours: Sweet Blend & Bold Blend
- Bag Size: 30lbs
- Typical Price: $10 per bag
- Availability: Walmart.com
Fire & Flavor Hardwood Pellets
To be honest I know very little about the Fire & Flavor brand, and browsing their website I’ve not been able to find out any background on the company and its origins.
There pellets are stated to be made in the USA (not sure where). Its not clear if their pellets are blended or single wood species pellets either.
- Pellet Flavours: Apple, Cherry, Mesquite, Hickory & Signature blend
- Bag Size: 20lbs
- Typical Price: $18 per bag
- Availability: HomeDepot.com
Giantex Pellets
When I was browsing Amazon, I can across these Giantex branded pellets. Looking into the brand, they appear to be a reseller of a wide variety of furniture and accessories.
The pellets they are selling are stated to be ‘100% Applewood’, and they are also selling tabletop pellet smokers identical to that as sold by ASMOKE above, who also sell Applewood pellets.
- Pellet Flavours: Applewood
- Bag Size: 20 lbs
- Typical Price: $10 per bag
- Availability: Amazon.com
Green Mountain Grills (GMG) Pellets
For the most part, GMG pellet grills/smokers are only available through smaller local retailers. However, GMG pellets are available from most of the big box stores.
None of the GMG pellet range offers a 100% single wood species. They are all blended hardwood pellets. For instance, the GMG Apple blend is a mixture of Applewood, Hickory and Oak.
However, the GMG Fruitwood blend does not contain any Oak, its purely a blend of Cherry, Beech and Pecan.
The other two blends are Gold which is a mixture of Oak, Hickory and Maple, along with their Texas blend which is a mixture of Black Oak, Hickory and a small amount of Texas Mesquite.
While GMG pellets may seem expensive per bag for blended pellets, note the larger than average bag size of 28lbs.
- Pellet Flavours: Apple Blend, Fruitwood Blend, Gold and Texas Blends
- Bag Size: 28lbs
- Typical Price: $30 to $40 per bag
- Availability: Amazon.com & HomeDepot.com
Grilla Grills Wood Pellets
Based in Texas, Grilla Grills have a selection of mid-range pellet grills ranging from their portable Chimp up to their rather unique Grilla. They also offer a stainless steel outdoor kitchen.
To go along with their pellet grills, Grilla Grills offer a range of hardwood blended pellet flavours, including Hickory, Apple, Mesquite, Cherry, Pecan and their Competition blend.
- Pellet Flavours: Hickory, Apple, Mesquite, Cherry, Pecan & Competition blend
- Bag Size: 20lbs
- Typical Price: $20 per bag
- Availability: GrillaGrills.com
Kingsford Grill Pellets
A long-time producer of charcoal BBQ fuel since 1920, Kingsford is now offering their own range of BBQ wood pellets.
Kingsford is offering a range of 100% single-wood species pellets and hardwood blended pellets.
Their 100% single wood species pellets include Hickory, Cherrywood and Maple.
The Kingsford blends include Classic, which is a mixture of Hickory, Oak and Cherrywood and Signature, which is a mixture of Oak, Cherry and Mesquite.
Due to the scale of Kingsford, the price per lb of their pellets is currently one of the lowest on the market.
- Pellet Flavours: 100% Hickory, 100% Cherrywood, 100% Maple, along with Classic/Signature Blends
- Bag Size: 20lbs
- Typical Price: $15 to $20 per bag
- Availability: HomeDepot.com, Walmart.com & Lowes.com
Kona Premium Wood Pellets
The Kona brand has been around since 2014, and you may be aware of their BBQ utensils, but they are best known for their grill mats.
Kona is providing pellets in small bags for smoking on gas grills. They provide 1lb bags of a range of different wood species in variety packs or larger 8lb bags of pellets.
- Pellet Flavours: Cherry, Apple, Mesquite, Hickory etc
- Bag Size: 1lb & 8lb bags
- Typical Price: $29 to $36 (8 lb bags)
- Availability: Amazon.com
Knotty Wood Barbeque Pellets
A relative newcomer to the market as they were founded in 2019, Knotty Wood is offering two unique pellet flavours in Almond and Plum that I’ve not previously seen from any other brand.
Their pellets are 100% single wood species in each bag. You actually see the plum wood pellets being used in my article on smoking a brisket on a pellet grill/smoker.
Based in California, the founders behind Knotty Wood have Almond orchards right on their doorstep.
By developing their own pellet plant, they worked on developing the first Almond pellets to hit the market. Both Almond and Plum pellets will produce a sweet smoke profile.
- Pellet Flavours: 100% Almond & 100% Plum
- Bag Size: 20lbs
- Typical Price: $18 to $20 per bag
- Availability: HomeDepot.com, Lowes.com & Amazon.com
Louisiana Grills Premium Blend Pellets
A subsidiary brand of Danson LLC which also own Pit Boss, Lousiana Grills pellet grills/smokers are a mid-range option, and they also have their own line of BBQ pellets.
All current Louisiana Grills pellet flavours are hardwood blends.
Louisiana Grills pellets are some of the most widely available, though they are oddly not sold at Walmart.
Their New England Applewood pellets are a 40% Applewood to 60% Maple blend, and its a similar mixture for their Pennsylvania Cherry pellets.
While their pellets may seem a high price for blended pellets, note they are large 40lb bags.
- Pellet Flavours: Applewood, Cherry, Hickory, Mesquite, Tennessee Whiskey, Competition Blend
- Bag Size: 40lbs
- Typical Price: $30 to $54 per bag
- Availability: Louisiana-Grills.com, Amazon.com, Lowes.com & BBQGuys.com
Lumber Jack BBQ Pellets
A producer of a wide range of BBQ pellets of both blends and 100% single wood species pellets.
While Lumber Jack debarks the Oak that goes into their blends, they leave the bark on their other wood species to provide a stronger smoke flavour profile.
What Lumber Jack does provide, which many other pellet blend brands don’t offer, is the breakdown of wood species in their blends.
For instance, their Apple Blend is 60% Red Oak to 40% Applewood, whereas their Fruitwood Blend is 80% Cherry to 20% Applewood.
As well as large 20 and 40-lb bags for dedicated pellet grills/smokers, Lumber Jack also offers smaller 1 and 10lb bags for smoking on a gas grill.
- Pellet Flavours: 100% Oak, 100% Cherry, 100% Hickory, Char Hickory, Apple, Fruitwood, Mesquite and Pecan Blends
- Bag Size: 1, 10, 20 and 40lbs
- Typical Price: $20 to $48 per bag
- Availability: Amazon.com
Maclean’s Outdoor Pellets
Established in 2012, Maclean’s Outdoor was started by Rob Maclean with his enthusiasm for all things BBQ, and they originally started by just selling wood chips from liquor barrels.
With their new range of smoking pellets, they currently focus on 5lb bags for pellet smoking on gas grills. However, it appears they are going to be offering larger 20 lb bags soon.
They offer an interesting range of liquor pellets (i.e wine barrel pellets), liquor blend pellets (i.e red wine/hickory) and non-liquor pellets (hickory).
As a result, the range of pellet flavours Maclean’s Outdoor offers is pretty extensive. It will be interesting to see how availability develops and how easy they are to get a hold of.
- Pellet Flavours: Liquor, Liquor blends and Non-Liquor pellets
- Bag Size: 5 to 20 lbs
- Typical Price: $8 to $12 for 5 lb bags
- Availability: HomeDepot.com
Memphis Grill Wood Pellets
A brand of luxury stainless steel pellet grills, Memphis Grills has been one of the leading brands when it comes to outdoor kitchen pellet grills for many years.
Their flavours include Apple, Cherry, Hickory, Pecan, Mesquite and Oak.
- Pellet Flavours: Apple, Cherry, Hickory, Pecan, Mesquite & Oak
- Bag Size: 20 lbs
- Typical Price: $20 to $48 per bag
- Availability: Amazon.com & BBQGuys.com
Mr. Bar-B-Q Hardwood Pellets
You may have come across the Mr. Bar-B-Q brand for grill accessories and charcoal. Well, they have now decided to sell their own branded pellets.
On the Mr. Bar-B-Q Hickory pellets, it states ‘made with real hickory wood’, which I certainly would hope to be the case, but it doesn’t say 100% hickory wood. So they could be blended pellets.
I’m waiting on feedback from the team at Mr. Bar-B-Q to find out. The select blend is stated to be a mixture of Hickory, Oak and Applewood.
- Pellet Flavours: Hickory, Mesquite and Select Blend
- Bag Size: 20 lbs
- Typical Price: $35 to $39 per bag
- Availability: Amazon.com
Myron Mixon Organic BBQ Pellets
You may be aware of Myron Mixon for winning various BBQ competitions dating back to 1996, and he has appeared on various TV shows etc.
Myron does actually have his own range of pellet smokers under the BARQ brand. Therefore, its not surprising that there are now Myron Mixon branded pellets.
The range of pellets of currently limited to just Orchard blend, Sweet Smoke Cherry and Hickory pellets. Very little detail is provided as to whether these are blended or single-species pellets.
- Pellet Flavours: Orchard blend, Sweet Smoke Cherry and Hickory
- Bag Size: 20 lbs
- Typical Price: $16 to $30 per bag
- Availability: HomeDepot.com
Oklahoma Joe’s Premium Pellets
Oklahoma Joe’s produced their first pellet grills/smokers several years back now (Rider Gen 1), their current Rider Gen 2 models have some interesting features and good grilling performance.
It’s taken longer than expected, but Oklahoma Joe’s now sells their own branded pellets.
Currently, Oklahoma Joe’s just sells three flavours, a Hickory blend, an Apple blend and a Competition blend which is made up of Hickory, Cherry, Maple and Oak pellets.
- Pellet Flavours: Hickory, Apple & Competiton blends
- Bag Size: 20 lbs
- Typical Price: $20 per bag
- Availability: Amazon.com
Ol’ Hick/Jim Beam Cooking Pellets
Ol’ Hick is a brand of cooking pellets from Energex, which is a wood pellet manufacturer with an office located in Pennsylvania, but pellet manufacturing takes place in Canada.
Under the Ol’ Hick brand, you can also get 100% single species Apple and Hickory pellets, but these are currently not that widely available and quite hard to get hold of.
However, the Jim Beam bourbon barrel pellets manufactured by Ol’ Hick/Energex are growing in popular and are pretty well stocked up.
- Pellet Flavours: 100% Hickory, 100% Applewood & Jim Bean pellets
- Bag Size: 20 lbs
- Typical Price: $29 to $33 per bag
- Availability: Amazon.com
Pit Boss Hardwood Pellets
A subsidiary brand of Danson LLC which also own Louisiana Grills, the Pit Boss Pro Series and Platinum Series are very popular ranges of budget to mid-range pellet grills/smokers.
Pit Boss also sell its own range of pellets. All Pit Boss pellets are currently hardwood blended pellets.
One of the best-value blended hardwood pellets, as you can often find Walmart selling a 20lb bag for under $10.
Pit Boss does not currently state their wood species blend percentages. For the price, I would predict a 20% fruitwood to 80% Oak mix.
They will not produce the most intense smoke flavour, but they are a good budget option.
- Pellet Flavours: Apple, Hickory, Cherry, Mesquite, Fruitwood, Whiskey, Classic, Competiton, Charcoal
- Bag Size: 20, 30 and 40lbs
- Typical Price: $10 to $30 per bag
- Availability: PitBoss-Grills.com, Amazon.com, Walmart.com, Lowes.com
RECTEQ Pellets
RECTEQ (formally REC TEC) produce a range of premium pellet grills/smokers (see here).
RECTEQ also offer their own hardwood blend of pellets called Ultimate Blend, which is a mixture of Red Oak, White Oak and Hickory.
- Pellet Flavours: Ultimate, Apple, Cherry & Mesquite blends
- Bag Size: 40lbs
- Typical Price: $33 to $35 bag
- Availability: Amazon.com & HomeDepot.com
Royal Oak Charcoal Pellets
Founded in 1953, Royal Oak is the largest producer in the US of natural lump charcoal. Therefore, it makes sense that Royal Oak has been the first to produce 100% charcoal pellets.
These 100% charcoal pellets have special attributes that set them apart from standard hardwood BBQ pellets.
Not only will these 100% charcoal pellets produce more smoke flavour, but they will also produce more heat for grilling/searing, and they are also water-resistant!
The higher heat output of these 100% charcoal pellets may also be well suited to cooking pizza with pellets where you want the pizza stone to be getting up to very high temperatures for a nice crust.
100% charcoal pellets in any pellet grill will provide more functionality and eliminate the chance of an auger block due to swelling pellets. Check out my article on charcoal pellets to learn more.
- Pellet Flavours: 100% Oak Charcoal
- Bag Size: 20lbs
- Typical Price: $19
- Availability: HomeDepot.com, Walmart.com & Amazon.com
Smoke Daddy/Pellet Pro Pellets
Smoke Daddy are a small scale manufacturer of pellet grills/smokers, they now offer their own charcoal/oak pellets in 20 lbs bags.
As well as an enhanced smoke ring Smoke Daddy states their charcoal/oak blended pellets reduce the chance of a flameout situation which is a benefit I’d not previously though of.
- Pellet Flavours: Charcoal and Oak blended pellets
- Bag Size: 20 lbs
- Typical Price: $25
- Availability: Amazon.com
Traeger Hardwood Pellets
I’d encourage you to check out my Traeger pellets review article, where I discuss a blind taste test, a Traeger patent, and a lawsuit that was submitted against Traeger about their pellets.
As I discuss in my linked article on how Traeger wood pellets are made, Traeger does state in their promotional video that their fruitwood is mixed with Alder or Oak.
Therefore, Traeger pellets are blended hardwood pellets.
The Traeger range of blended hardwood pellets currently includes Apple, Cherry, Hickory, Mesquite, Pecan and their Signature blend, which is a mixture of Hickory, Cherry and Maple.
Traeger pellets are widely available but can be a pricey option since they are 20lb hardwood blended pellets.
- Pellet Flavours: Apple, Hickory, Cherry, Mesquite, Pecan and Signature blend
- Bag Size: 20lbs
- Typical Price: $18 to $20 per bag
- Availability: Traeger.com, Amazon.com, Walmart.com, HomeDepot.com & BBQGuys.com
Tropical Spark BBQ Wood Pellets
This brand appeared in 2019, and its pellets are produced in Costa Rica. They offer some of the most unique pellet flavours currently on the market.
You won’t currently find any other brand offering Guava flavoured pellets, for instance. Most flavours are offered in 1lb bags for pellet smoking on a gas grill.
However, they also offer 20lb bags of coffee-flavoured pellets which is an interesting idea. I’m not what meat/fish I’d cook with coffee pellets, but I wouldn’t mind trying them for baking a cake.
- Pellet Flavours: Orange, Guava, Coffee, Fruit etc
- Bag Size: 1lb and 20lbs
- Typical Price: $36 for six 1lb pellet bags
- Availability: Amazon.com
Weber SmokeFire Pellets
While being the biggest name in BBQ, Weber had a bit of a bumpy start with the introduction of their SmokeFire pellet grills.
However, as I discuss in my SmokeFire Gen 1 vs Gen 2 article, I think they now have an excellent pellet grill, its just the pellet smoking side of things they need to work on.
Well, Weber also sells their own range of hardwood blended pellets.
Weber does provide the mix details on their pellets. For instance, their Hickory pellets are 40% Hickory and 60% Oak, and their Apple pellets are 40% Apple and 60% Maple.
Weber pellets are not currently as widely available as other major brands, such as Traeger & Pit Boss, and they are priced between those brands.
- Pellet Flavours: Hickory, Mesquite, Apple, Cherry & Grill Master blend
- Bag Size: 20lbs
- Typical Price: $17 to $25 per bag
- Availability: HomeDepot.com, Lowes.com & BBQGuys.com
Wine Country BBQ Pellets
Tom from Wine Country BBQ previously read my articles about how to make pellets back in the day. He let me know about their new brand of oak-infused wine pellets made in Northern California.
In terms of the availability of these BBQ pellets in stores, if you check out their website through the link below, they are currently available from Seatle down to San Francisco.
- Pellet Flavours: Wine-infused oak pellets
- Bag Size: 3.5 lbs & 20lbs
- Typical Price: $25 to $35 per bag
- Availability: WineCountry-BBQ.com
Z Grills BBQ Pellets
A brand of budget pellet grills/smokers, Z Grills also offers their own range of BBQ pellets. Are Z Grills blended hardwood pellets? Well, their Oak pellets state ‘100% Oak’.
However, their other pellet flavours do not state that they are made from a 100% single-wood species.
Therefore, outside of the Z Grills Oak pellets, it would indeed appear their other pellet flavours are comprised of a hardwood blend.
If that is the case, at $24 to $30 for 20lb bags, Z Grills pellets work out as a pretty expensive option, which is rather odd for a budget pellet grill/smoker brand.
- Pellet Flavours: Oak, Hickory, Apple, Cherry, Fruitwood & Competition blend
- Bag Size: 20lbs
- Typical Price: $21 to $30 per bag
- Availability: ZGrills.com, Amazon.com & HomeDepot.com
Which Pellet Flavour Is Best For Which Food?
Now, below is just a general guide on pellet flavours for which food suggestions. Everyone has different tastes, and only with trial and error are you going to find out what is really going to work best for you.
However, the information below will give you a good starting point on pellet flavour/food combination ideas.
- Alder – Great for cooking poultry and salmon
- Apple – Works well with pork, seafood and lamb
- Cherry – A good allrounder
- Charcoal – Stronger smoky flavour/higher heat
- Hickory – Works well with pork and BBQ ribs
- Maple – Nice for cooking vegetables and cheese
- Mesquite – Particularly suited to red meats
- Oak – The ‘foundation’ of BBQ wood pellets
- Pecan – Best suited for cooking poultry
- Walnut – Especially nice for game and red meats
- Whiskey/Liquor Blends – Red meat and fish
- Fruitwood Blends – Allrounder for sweet smoke
My Tips For Getting The Best Deal On BBQ Pellets
So I thought I would provide some final tips/tricks to getting the best deal on BBQ pellets and how to understand what you are actually purchasing.
Blended vs 100% Single Species Pellets
You should have noticed above I discuss which brands are hardwood blended flavours and which are offering 100% single wood species pellets.
Now, there is nothing ‘wrong’ with hardwood blended flavours.
Its just for example, if you are looking for the strongest flavour possible from a particular wood species, you will get that from 100% single-species pellets.
However, blended pellets are generally the cheaper option if you’re on a budget.
Check the Bag Size vs Price
While many brands sell BBQ pellets in 20lb bags, some are sold as 28 lbs, some as 30 lbs and some even as large as 40 lbs.
Hence, when comparing prices, make sure you divide the price of the bag by its weight so you can compare the price per lb of pellets.
Also, buying several bags at a time when delivered can often get you a much better deal on the price per lb of pellets.
Protect Your Pellets
There is no point in searching for the best BBQ pellet deal, only to let your pellets get damaged and wasted. This means a couple of things.
First, handle bags with care to avoid creating dust within the bag, and I personally sieve my pellets before placing them in the hopper. You also need to protect your pellets from moisture.
That means not only properly resealing an opened bag of pellets if pellets remain in the bag but not leaving pellets in the hopper for an extended period of time, as eventually, humidity will get to those pellets.
BBQ Wood Pellets General FAQ
Yes, you don’t have to use Traeger pellets in a Traeger pellet grill, for example.
However, its always important to check whatever pellets you use have minimal dust/fines (I sieve my pellets) and that the pellets are hard and snap cleanly (this means they haven’t absorbed water).
If the bag was properly sealed and protected from moisture/humidity after been opened the pellets are probably fine.
To test though, break some pellets, a clean snap means the pellets still have a good density and have not taken on moisture/humidity. If the pellets still have a good surface shine with minimal cracking, that also indicates the pellets are still of good quality.
No, heating pellets for stoves/boilers are predominantly made from softwood residues which produce poor-quality smoke.
BBQ pellets produced for grilling and smoking are only made from specially selected hardwood residues. Hence, don’t be tempted to burn stove pellets in your grill/smoker, you’ll regret it.
Typically when smoking (say around 250 degrees) pellet usage will be around 1-2lbs per hour. When grilling pellet usage will typically go up to about 3lbs per hour maybe more.
Lots of factors impact pellet usage, weather conditions (colder weather you’ll use more), is the pellet grill/smoker insulated? How large is the cooking chamber? etc
Yes, pretty much all of the BBQ pellets you find at Walmart, HomeDepot and Lowes etc are produced in the USA. This includes major brands such as Traeger, Pit Boss etc.
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