Is adding Charcoal worth it?

[NDKoze]

I have heard of several people that add charcoal to their smokes primarily to try to add a smoke ring for those that want this.

But I have been wondering about a few other things, so thought I would create a poll to try to get a compilation of views/opinions. I enabled the poll to allow for up to two votes, one for each question. Hopefully this isn't confusing.

Feel free to expand with further information via thread responses.

Do you put your coals in whole or do you split them?

If you do this do you reduce the amount of wood chunks that you use?

 

[Thesneakyzebra]

The smoke ring is just for looks. It does not add flavor, you would have to add a decent amount of charcoal if you want to add a charcoal flavor. There really is no harm in trying it out, to me, adding at least 3 coal split would be minimum for a noticble taste difference and appearance difference. I would be interested in seeing peoples results. I tried doing 1 coal with my tri-tip and couldn't tell a difference, but that was with only one coal.

 

[DivotMaker]

I tried one big chunk of lump charcoal a few times early-on, searching for the elusive smoke ring (when I actually cared about it).  No luck.  I couldn't tell a difference in taste with one lump, so I quit.  In the name of science,  I'm going to have to try 3 chunks to see if I can tell a difference!  Mikey's definitely right about the smoke ring - all show.  Sure looks pretty, though. 8)

 

[benjammn]

I only feel that there would be a negligible amount of impact on the overall smoke. A slight hint of coal flavor but not enough to really make it that proud. I would have to try a bit of extra one of my smokes to see how it worked out.