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March is finally here, which means one month closer towards grilling season. Winter is still in full force here in Michigan, and we keep getting hit with snow and ice storms. As you can see on our Instagram though, I’m cooking a brisket despite a snow storm as I write this.
Charcoal industry veteran Joey Machado is launching a new premium charcoal brand called Texas Original Charcoal. He’s focused on selling through independent dealers at a reasonable retail price, while preserving margins for the store. I interviewed him about his new brand and charcoal production in general.
Ooni had the big news this week. They released their long speculated Volt electric pizza oven. It can be use indoor or outdoors, and offers great performance. It will get to 850°F in about 20 minutes, and cook a pizza in 90 seconds.
They also released an update to their Karu 12 multi-fuel pizza oven. The updated version is called the Karu 12G, and it looks and performs like a small Karu 16. The Karu 16 is a great oven, so it’s a welcome redesign.
Oklahoma Joe’s has another cool grill design for this year. They launched an open half barrel grill called the Firecraft Series Barrel. It has a pole on each side with a grate attached, so you can adjust for temperature. It’s a great way to cook over an open fire.
Camp Chef came out with a new promotion for March that gives you everything you need to grill. If you buy an Apex grill package or a Woodwind Pro grill package, it comes with a bag of pellets and a box of meat from Certified Piedmontese. It’s a smart collaboration that they put together.
While Char-Broil launched the EDGE electric grill last year in the US, they just released a UK version called the SMART-E. The outlets in the UK have about double the voltage of the US, so they ended up with a more powerful and feature rich electric grill. It’s interesting to see what Char-Broil came up with with a higher voltage limitation.
Finally, LoCo Cookers has announced an exclusive DIY partnership with The Home Depot. The complete line of LoCo products will be available at The Home Depot. If you haven’t looked at LoCo Cookers, they have an innovative griddle where you can digitally set the surface temperature. They brought that technology to a charcoal grill last month as well.