A Quick History of Charcoal
Kiawe Charcoal is the original charcoal dating way back before the days of the BBQ, before there were any manufacturing plants or additives to make products for us. It was as natural as it gets.  Taking wood, usually limbs, branches, etc. and heating this wood in a closed area in the absence of oxygen is how you make lump charcoal.  Specifically what is produced is carbonized wood … Lump Charcoal! And then came along big business and a chance to mass-produce a product for “us”.

As early as 1912, Henry Ford was coveting timber reserves in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for automobile manufacturing. Ford’s sawmill was used to build wooden auto parts.

In 1924, a chemical plant was built to convert the tons of waste wood generated by the Ford sawmill into charcoal briquettes. For many years, Ford Charcoal Briquettes could be purchased only at Ford automobile showrooms around the country.

And of coarse, briquettes are still made today using wood char (heat source), mineral char (heat source), mineral carbon (heat source), limestone (uniform visual ashing), starch (binder), borax (press release), sodium nitrate (ignition aid) and sawdust (ignition aid).

You probably know what Borax is but what is mineral char?  Well it’s a soft, brownish-black coal also called brown coal. This produces that empyreumatic smell. What is an empyreumatic smell?  It’s the peculiar smell and taste arising from products of decomposition of animal or vegetable substances.

Kiawe (Pronounced: KEE-AY-VAY) …
the Ono (Good) stuff.
Kiawe is actually a transplant, it arose from a seed brought from the king's garden in Paris (where it also happened to be a transplant from the Sonora Desert) and planted at a church in Honolulu in 1828. It became a great tree shading Our Lady of Peace Cathedral between Bishop Street and what is now Fort Street Mall.

Father Alexis Bachelot, first Catholic missionary to Hawaii, brought the seed from the king’s garden in Paris.  The entire plain of Honolulu, once bare, became covered with Kiawe trees. Tree cover resulted as the hardy Sonora Desert species spread.

The Hawaiian people quickly realized that Kiawe was also the source the greatest cooking fuel ever, Kiawe Charcoal.  Today, Kiawe and Ono Charcoal are the traditional Hawaiian Luau charcoal used at backyard BBQ’s as well as by gourmet chefs around the world.