Do different pellets REALLY impart different flavors to your food ?

The answer is ABSOLUTELY YES! The answer is also NO, Not really.

As with many things in BBQ, there are several factors that contribute to your experience.

Some of these things are: - Number of woods involved - Concentration or ratio of woods - The experience, nature, and interest of the person doing the tasting We'll address things from the least discernible to the most.

Blurry Blends Somebody who buys "whatever's on sale" down at their local discount, warehouse, or club store will probably say there's no difference. Why? Because the majority of the products available in these stores are what I call "blurry Blends." They're typically a mix of as many as FOUR different woods. Usually, the same woods (oak, cherry, hickory, or maple) often even in the same approximate ratio from one brand to the next. With so much in the mix, it stands to reason that it would be challenging to notice significant flavor differences from one product to another.

This picture shows some of the common retail blends and the wood species they share.

I am not in any way implying that there is anything wrong with these products. They're popular products from well-known brands. They are widely available and affordable and deliver a great cooked product (one of them, in particular, was one of the overall favorites in the video you'll be linked to later in this article). There just aren't significant, fundamental differences between them. And if you do your homework, you may even discover that some of them are ghost-produced by the same parent company.

BTU Blends Next, we have what I'll refer to as the "BTU Blends." These are usually the fruit wood products (apple, cherry, or pecan primarily). Since most cooking pellets are intended for use in full-size pellet smokers that get their cooking heat from the pellets, there are concerns not only for color and flavor but also for woods that deliver the most efficient (lowest priced) and least problematic (auger jams, ash, "clinkers," etc...) heat. These woods tend to be oak, alder, and sometimes maple. The pellets will be a blend, often of as much as 70% of one of those base BTU woods, with only a small remaining percentage of the fruit wood indicated on the package. Again, these are all fine products from respected brands. But historically, companies have been (and several still are) a little vague about how they present the information. They use terms like "100% hardwood" or "100% natural." Both of these are true, but they mask the reality that the product is as little as 30-40% the fruitwood you think you're getting. Most companies now, at least, use the word "blend" after the fruitwood mention. But it's often fairly inconspicuous.

This picture shows two of the common "BTU Blends" and how that information is presented (or not).

There is one major brand I won't mention by name (but it rhymes with Wear Fountain) that, as of 10/22/24 still makes a practice of not mentioning "blend" on the package AT ALL but burying the information on the general FAQ page of their website,

SIDE-NOTE: The base wood used in a particular product is typically not disclosed. And depends on where that product was made and which wood is most available in that region.

Single-Species and Full-Tree Now, we come to the products with the most flavor differentiation. The true "100%" or "single-species" products. Usually from smaller, more "artisanal" brands. Most notably Knotty Wood, Cookinpellets, Shuping, and BBqer's Delight. Look for products where the "100%" is directly adjacent to the name of the wood, with no distracting qualifiers like "hardwood" or "natural" or, of course, "blend."

This picture shows a few of the 100% single-species products.

These products aren't necessarily "better" than others. But if you want to experience the true qualities of that particular wood, this is where you'll find it.

Taking this category one step further, we also have the "full tree" products. Knotty Wood and Cookinpellets lead this category. The difference here, as the name would suggest, is that they use smaller limbs, bark, and all. There is a widely-held misconception that bark delivers a bitter flavor. Many people (myself included) find that the bark is where you find the abundance of a wood's signature flavor. When I cook on my larger wood smokers, I use barked splits during the crucial early part of a cook

As if all of this wasn't complicated enough, some people well-entrenched in wood science suggest that WHERE wood was grown has as much of an impact on flavor as the species itself. As an example, they suggest that a pecan tree grown in Texas will taste as different from a pecan tree grown in Georgia as it will an oak tree grown nearby in Texas. This is getting a little farther down the rabbit hole than I've personally ventured. So, we'll leave it for a future conversation... That's all I have to say about that. Despite all of this, much of what a person can detect, and more importantly, what they LIKE, will vary wildly. Based on their interest, experience, and biological/physiological nature, some people are more attuned than others to notice these differences. And some people just don't care and are happy with what they're used to. And that's all perfectly OK.

For those of you still reading, clicking the picture below will take you to a SUPERB video from Jeremy Yoder's "Mad Scientist BBQ" YouTube channel. In it, he and Eric Rowley (arguably one of the most experienced pellet users on the planet) from TheBBQHQ discuss the difference between pellets in more real-time detail (complete with blind taste tests). It's LONG, at just under an hour, but it's a great place to learn about the qualities of different pellets and their appeal to different expectations and tastes.

*SPOILER ALERT: The people who work with traditional wood smokers tend to prefer the single species products, while those who primarily use full-size pellet smokers lean toward the blends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQyHQRqQk3A