I have relatively little charcoal experience. I started with lazarri (mesquite). Then switched to royal oak. Of course I got to try coco char and coffee char when I got my kk. I really liked the coffee char. Anyway, I thought royal oak was alright and it's a decent price. Then it just seemed I was getting more and more and larger and larger pieces of cement. Which made me kind of irritated since I am paying per pound and I feel like they were just trying to up the weight. I saw black diamond on clearance at target and I had a clear preference for that. Unfortunately I only bought two boxes and when I figured out I liked it I went back for more. They were out. When I saw charbroils brand it looked similar and it really is similar. Someone said on here they are the same, and that is probably the case. The few boxes I had of black diamond had more dust than the boxes of charbroil. But still way less than RO. Anyway, overall I find that it does not spark at all and leaves less ash. It takes me slightly longer to light, but when it gets going, it spreads faster and seemed to climb temperature faster. For low and slows it lasts much longer. I'm not sure why because that doesn't seem to make sense since it seems lighter than RO. Overall I like it. And around 10 bucks a box I would definitely prefer it to RO. Still not as good as coffee char, but I'm not a rich lady.