What makes good smoking Pellets is a combination of the pellet’s composition, quality, blend, and flavor of the wood. “Smoky” barbecue flavor is something we appreciate on ribs, brisket, chicken, and other foods.

After testing a few hundred pounds of pellets, in this article I share the best wood pellets for smoking that you can buy today for your pellet grill or smoker. We will show you ten great brands and flavor paring options to up your grilling game.

I also cover the various methods of manufacturing and “mixes” utilized by different brands, which has a lot to do with what makes a product better than others.

As you will see from the images below, we went through several pounds of pellets while testing. To write a good review, we had to. Smoking wood pellets come in many flavors, and some deliver strong results, but there are differences between competition-grade products and more “common” grilling pellets.

This article will go over, blends, flavor profiles, and meat pairings, and, of course, who is making a good pellet to smoke food. By the end of this article, you will know which companies are putting out good products and which flavors are suitable for smoking different meats and adding good smoke flavor. More importantly, you will understand what distinguishes each brand.

In this article, you will learn:

• What are the different flavor profiles, pecan, mesquite, and more.
• Pellet manufacturing methods and blends.
• Which brands and pellet manufacturers are making a “good product”.
• Which foods go well with which wood pellets flavor profile.
• Where to find these pellets.

The Best pellets for Smoking

1. Bear Mountain BBQ 100% All Natural – Best Overall

Bear Mountain Premium Hardwood Pellets contain 100% natural hardwood without any additives, binders, or fillers. Their most popular blends include oak and alder, made entirely from natural recycled hardwood sawdust locally sourced from mills around the United States.

This company has been in operation since the 1990s, and their dedication to producing 100% all-natural hardwood and sustainable fuel stems from the fact that they source their primary ingredient from local lumber mills: sawdust. This company even utilizes #4 LDPE plastic for its packaging bags and provides its customers with information on where to take their plastic bags for recycling.

Another thing you’ll notice is how sturdy the packing bag is. Other brands use thin plastic bags that easily tear and get holes from anything around them. BM packaging is made using a kind of plastic film that protects the wood pellets well.

Finally, the reason we picked this brand as our best overall wood pellet is the product’s quality. At my local hardware store, I purchased a bag of the Gourmet Blend. I expected a lot of little broken-down pellet bits, dust, and “loose” because these wood pellets are usually thrown on the store floor.

However, because these wood pellets are of high quality and have a low moisture content, when I opened the bag, I was greeted by an incredible scent, nicely pressed, hard, dry, and had very little wood dust.

Why our top choice for Best pellets for Smoking

We rank Bear Mountain as the best wood pellets because their blend offers a good balance for smoking foods. These pellets also worked great with my grill with zero issues or jams. Flavor was also great, and the food came out great. These are my “go-to” pellets for everything, and I enjoy this product a lot.

What we like:

• Amazing quality and reasonably priced.
• Flavor is prevalent and noticeable which is primarily why we chose these as the best wood pellets in this article.
• Nice packaging seems to protect the product well.
• We noticed very little dust in the pellets bag.
• Great for smoking, grilling and even baking, very well “balanced” flavors

What to Consider:

• Although these are high-quality, they are made using locally sourced (USA) mills timber sawdust; unlike Lumber Jack below, who uses real harvested trees. Still, BM wood pellets offer a fine balance between quality and price, thus taking our number one spot on this list.

2. Lumber Jack Pellets Competition Blend – Best pellets for smoked brisket

Lumber Jack wood pellets are made from actual, harvested trees and not sawdust or other manufactured products from a lumber mill. Let’s get that out of the way because it is important. This copmany has its own log plant and harvests real trees. This is a huge plus when looking for smoking, as you get lots of flavor and smoke. This is why I choose these Lumber Jack’s wood pellets for smoking meats.

I recommend this product for those wanting the best pellets for smoking low and slow or for smoking large cuts of brisket and pork shoulders using a pellet grill.

Another thing that this company does differently is adding and using the tree’s cambium layer, which is below the tree’s bark. The bark does add flavor, but it creates dirty smoke. To reduce dirty smoke and ash, Lumber Jack uses the cambium layer for a fine balance of flavor and low ash residue in their hardwood pellet flavors, oak and hickory. So when they say hardwood pellets, they mean it.

Lumber Jack only fully debarks the trees when creating blends or fruity mixes so that the fruit flavor is more prevalent over the base flavor, still giving 100 percent wood. Their hickory wood pellets smell amazing!

What we like:

• Best hardwood pellet for beef brisket.
• Premium product using real trees, and the cambium layer for optimal flavor which means great for smoking and meat.
• Their oak pellets work great with beef (and smell amazing).
• The best pellets for smoking briskets, large meats and any food where “heavy” smoke flavor is needed.
• Consistent quality through their entire wood pellets line of flavors.
• You can get 100 percent all-natural hardwoods like oak and hickory, not fillers, just 100 percent real wood.
• This is what I call “real” wood smoking pellets.
• These worked great with my pellet smokers and did not experience any auger jams.

What to consider:

• You will pay more for this level of pellet quality.
• Zero artificial flavors or additives in this wood pellets.

3. Cookin pellets 40 Perfect Mix Bag or Cherry – Good hardwood pellets

The Cookin Pellets makes good blends, and those who like a fruity taste in food, such as cherry, or a smokey mesquite taste will enjoy these blends. They are good quality, and we like that they sell samples or smaller bags, allowing you to test and try them before you commit to a large purchase.

What we like:

• Good quality pellets, pure, no mix.
• Available in mesquite, apple, cherry, hickory and “Perfect Blend”
• Good for serious barbecue food, no fillers, you get the wood pellet flavor it says on the bag.
• This company offers small samples so you can try and find the flavors you like.

What to Consider:

• These pellets are hard to find in local stores.
• Not as many options as other wood pellet brands.
• I like to use oak and is not offered by this company.

4. Traeger Grills Signature Pellets

Traeger makes amazing pellet grills and great accessories for their grills, including cooking wood pellets.

Traeger grills wood pellets are known to produce less ash than other brands. They are manufactured from 100% hardwood and do not contain any additives or binders. Less ash means there will be less mess to be cleaned and less time spent using a shop vac to clean the firepot.

Traeger Grills wood pellets are available in different flavors and work well with many smoker brands. I purchased a bag of Traeger’s Wood Pellets for my tests. The Traeger “Signature” blend works great with a variety of meats. During my testing using my Z Grills 700D4E smoker pellet grill, I noticed these pellets had a pleasant aroma, and I smoked chicken and pork with excellent results and flavor. These are also great grilling wood pellets.

One good thing about Traeger is that they offer a large variety of wood pellet flavors.

What we like:

• I can find these pellets just about everywhere.
• Ok quality, good wood pellets for grilling food every day.
• These pellets are available in many flavors, easy to pair with many dishes.
• Great for cooking meats without overpowering their tastes.
• Traeger offers many options: mesquite, hickory and even whiskey barrel blends.

What to Consider:

• Unlike Bear Mountain and Lumber Jack, Traeger uses flavoring oils in some of their blends.
• I did not notice the same amount of “smoke” flavor I did when I used Bear and Lumber Jack wood pellets.
• This Traeger 20 lbs bag is a little pricey compared to Bear Mountain and Lumber Jack wood pellets.

5. Camp Chef Smoker Grill Competition Blend – Good Quality and Budget

Camp Chef’s Wood Pellets Competition Blend goes well with most meats and is a popular mix. This hickory, maple, and cherry mix is made from a selection of premium virgin hardwoods and made in the USA.

Here is what I like about this product. Camp Chef uses real hardwood and not byproducts sawdust to make their pellets. This pellets deliver a lot of flavor and I noticed very little ash after a long smoking session.

Their Competition Blend is well balanced and yields good amount of smoke.

What we like:

• You get well balanced flavor from these pellets.
• These pellets are made from hardwoods not recycled sawdust.
• Affordable.

What to Consider

• We couldn’t find anything negative to say about this product. Their price is great and so is their product. However we good taste more “smoke”flavor when we used our top top choices.

6. Pit Boss pellets

Pit Boss is another big name producing good pellets. Their pellets are available in popular flavors and blends, including oak.

These pellets work on Pit Boss grills and smokers as well as other grill brands. The wood used to make these pellets is sourced from all around the USA and does not contain chemicals or binders. We like their Competition Blend pellets; it goes well with everything, and these pellets are reasonably priced.

What we like:

• Ok quality and flavor.
• Good price making them good grilling pellets for frequent use.
• Available in local stores.
• Many options available including mesquite, hickory, pecan, and others.

What to consider:

• The competition blend gives out a strong hickory flavor but no well balanced for smoking.

7. Asmoke Apple Pellets

All Asmoke wood for their pellets is sourced directly from real fruit orchard trees. The apple trees are harvested, brought to their plant, and processed within a few days to preserve their flavor and freshness. Asmoke apple wood pellets are packaged in tear-resistant bags. Asmoke knows a thing or two about pellets. They make one of the finest portable pellet grills on the market today.

A few days after our trees are harvested, they are chipped and turned into fuel. One of Asmoke’s highest priorities is the protection of the environment. All trees that are cultivated are replanted right away, so that future generations may enjoy them. These apple grilling woof pellets pack a lot of flavor and work great with ribs and pork shoulders. Apple gives pork a nice, sweet taste.

What we like:

• Great noticeable apple flavor- sweet.
• I used it on barbecue ribs and the sweetness was noticeable.
• This apple blend goes well with pork.

what to consider:

• Works great on with pork recipes but too much sweetness for other meats.

8. BBQrs Delight ( mesquite wood pellets, Pecan, Jack Daniels wood pellets )

BBQrs’ Delight Pellets are another great selection and quality pellets for barbecuing. Their flavors include cherry, pecan, mesquite pellets, hickory pellets, apples, and Jack Daniel’s wood pellets (yes, as in the whiskey ). BBQ Delight offers a variety pack, making it easy to try different flavors, including mesquite wood pellets.

I use Jack Daniel’s wood chips, and the flavor is amazing. When the pellets burn, expect a strong smell and taste on food, hence the name “Delight!”. This product is also made here, in the USA. I have used Jack Daniel’s wood chips to smoke turkey, and man, what a treat.

What we like:

• I love their Jack Daniel’s flavored wood pellets. Food gets a nice tone of smokey, spicy oak taste and a nice color.
• BBqer offers grilling pellets for a variety of food, pork, beef, poultry and fish.

What to consider:

• Besides their Jack Daniel’s flavor, everything else was pretty “ok”.

9. Louisiana Grills Pennsylvania Cherry Grilling Pellets

Louisiana Grills is a 25-year veteran grill manufacturing game. There is a good choice of flavors available: oak-hickory, peaches, whiskey cans, cherry, and apple. All flavors are available in 20-lb and 40-lb bags.

We recommend the slightly sweet Cherry Blend or the Competition Mix as a good basic everyday option. This blend combines maple, hickory, and cherry, making them ideal for almost every type of food.

What we like:

• Good flavor
• The cherry mix worked great with lightly seasoned food.

What to Consider:

• Not as good of quality as our top options.
• I find the 20 plus dollar price a bit high for this product, especially when our top options cost less.

10. Rec Tec Ultimate Blend Barbecue Wood Pellets

Rec Tec Pellets are a good product. Their blends fit every type of smoking and grilling style. They burn much better than other brands, and the flavor in the food is strong but not overpowering. The testing results were great for different types of fish and meat, with a natural smoky taste being noticeable.

The oak and hickory mix was much better than I expected. The ash output is minimal, with good heat output compared to other brands. I simple terms, they are good but not as good as our top options.

What we like:

• Good flavor, I could see a nice color on the food.
• Good wood pellets for Rec Tec grills.

What we don’t like:

• I find the price to be high compared to other brands.

How Tested and process for selecting wood smoking pellets

When selecting wood pellets, we considered a variety of factors, including flavor, blend or mix, and manufacturing process. For the purposes of this article, we are going to refer to the three manufacturing methods as Method A, B, and C.

We are aware that certain flavors pair better with certain foods, so we have included options that pair well with poultry, pork, seafood, and vegetables.

However, quality, manufacturing, and the wood blend are the most important considerations when purchasing this kind of fuel. Not every pellet manufacturer produces their product using the same process or uses pure blends.

What are smoker pellets?

Smoking pellets are denser, and the best are made with real hardwoods to offer maximum smoke and flavor when used in a wood pellet smoker. Some manufacturers harvest real trees to produce high-quality hardwood pellets, which are best for smoking meat.

Flavor wood and pellets for grills are a by-product of wood manufacturing, processing mills, and forest management. Manufacturing plants (lumber mills) generate thousands of pounds of timber sawdust. The sawdust is recycled and turned into wood pellets.

Also, some companies use recycled trees that were thrown away when fighting forest fires. This is good for the environment and helps reduce the risk of forest fires.

How are good wood pellets made

The majority of smoking pellets are manufactured from recycled timber from lumber mills. The lumber is shredded into little bits or compressed sawdust that is later dried before being pressed into the thin pencil-shaped wood pellets that we are all familiar with. The compression allows lignin, a natural polymer in plant tissues, to soften.

Food-grade pellets or not the same as heating pellets. Heating pellets are made with softwoods, binders and other components not meant for cooking food. These components would add a chemical kind of taste to your food.

What should you consider when choosing wood pellets

In short, the type of wood, tree origin, blend composition, density, and most importantly, moisture content, all contribute to the quality of the brand. The best wood pellets are made using high-quality timber.

Flavor is subjective, and flavor has nothing to do with the quality of the end product. However, the quality of the product will impact how much flavor you get out of them. Remember that!

In addition to the mixes and manufacturing methods discussed previously, moisture content also affects the pellet’s quality. A pellet with low moisture content will burn hot and quickly because less energy is consumed burning moisture.

Accordingly, wood pellets with a higher moisture level will burn slower and lower, but produce more smoke due to their moisture and water content. Thus, a delicate balance of moisture is optimal unless you have a specific need.

Poorly compressed and low-quality wood pellets are easy to spot because you will see lots of dust in the bag and they break down easily. Grab a handful and squeeze gently.

When comparing wood pellets is important to know and understand the actual composition of the pellet. While a pellet can be pure hardwood it can also be a “mix” specially when creating flavors such as pecan, cherry and apple.

Therefore when looking for the best, understanding what your getting is helpful. For instance, let’s say you want to use cherry wood pellets for smoked ham, are you getting 100 percent pellet or are you getting a mix that contains an amount of cherry. Say, is the cherry flavor coming from flavoring oils? To undertand these variations better I explain the common pellet compositions below.

In addition, ash and moisture content are other factors that affect the quality of a wood pellet.

Method A: Top Quality – 100% Natural | Most Pure Blend

There are companies that use 100 percent hardwoods that are turned into a perfect size dust and compacted down to wood pellets using absolutely nothing but heat, pressure, wood, and no binders, fillers, or flavoring oils—just real wood. This is what we consider a 100 percent natural hardwood blend of wood smoking pellets.

Pure hardwoods like oak or hickory provide a clean and constant burn, plus lots of smoke and flavor. So, if you are wanting to smoke meat “low and slow,” wood pellets made of a pure blend of oak or hickory should be at the top of your list.

Hardwood pellets will deliver great and strong flavor. These are your oak and hickory smoking pellets, and they’re as close as it gets to smoking with real wood sticks using a pellet grill.

Pros

• Maximum smoke flavor
• Pure Wood, 100 percent natural
• Burns hotter

Cons

• More expensive wood pellets
• Harder to find in stores
• Some can produce dirtier smoke if the mix includes tree bark. ( but bark = flavor / smoke )
• More ash production

Method B: 100 percent natural Blend (not so pure); includes a hardwood base

Then there are brands that use an “oak base” and then add a mix of other woods like apple, cherry, or pecan flavor, for example, or create their own blend mix or create custom flavors like “Gourmet,” “Signature,” and others.

This brands are still making a 100 percent natural product just not as pure of a blend as the pellet “manufacturing model A” described above. They are using a base and then adding other woods for actual flavor.

In some cases this method is a common and necessary practice. For example, cherry would burns fast, and is not a dense as other hardwoods, so in order to create a better pellet that burns consistently and longer an oak “base” is used. Again, this is not always a problem as long as no additives or chemicals are used.

Pros

• Less expensive than pure hardwood
• More available.
• More custom flavors and blends
• Less ash production

Cons

• Less smoke, less smokey flavor.

Method C – Still Natural | Blend not real wood, more oils

Lastly, we have the third kind of wood pellet manufacturing method, which involves using binders and natural flavoring oils such as soybean oil and other flavor infusers. Although still natural, they have less of the real thing, hardwood flavoring. Sometimes the flavor you read on the pellets bag is far from real wood and more like “oil flavors.”

The binders and oils are natural but not the real deal, so in most cases, you get less smoke and flavor, but these types of blends tend to be cheaper wood pellets.

Pros

• These wood pellets are east to find in stores.
• Can be found cheap
• Since the blend is heavily controlled during manufacturing, most blends produce very little ash.
• Natural flavoring oils also act as a lubricant and help “weaker” auger systems.

Cons

• Least amount of flavor.

Popular wood pellet flavors to smoke food

There are many wood pellet flavors and many options to pair with just about any recipe. You will find everything from competition blend wood pellets. Some companies even try to blend wood pellets with exotic fruits and oils, but the most common flavors are apple, cherry, pecan, oak, hickory, mesquite, and maple.

Wood Pellet Flavors Pairing Chart – By Wood Type

Smoke flavor and food pairings are subjective, but here is a wood pellets flavor guide chart to help you get a good idea of what flavors work best with what meats.

Wood Pellets FAQs

Pellet Guide Summary

Our research to find the best led us to test over a hundred pounds of wood pellets. Yes, as you saw in the images above, we purchased multiple pellet bags and cooked with all of them. I actually own a pellet grill and was able to test as many wood pellets as I could.

Our testing led us to pick Bear Mountain the best pellets and our top choice in wood pellets, with a very close second choice being Lumber Jack pellets as our choice for smokers and smoking meats. The flavors wood pellets can add to food is amazing.

Wood pellets are a great way of cooking and getting a great wood-fired flavor. Experiment with different combinations of meats, and vegetables with several flavors. In our test to find the best, we found that Bear Mountain wood pellets are an amazing product that produces the best flavor, and yes, they are affordable.