Nope. Never said that. And there's a difference between "100% hardwood charcoal briquettes" and "100% natural briquettes." There's no such thing as a naturally occurring briquette in nature. Only hardwood lump is 100% hardwood charcoal.
Trader Joes, for example, says 100% All Natural Hardwood Briquettes made from 100% hardwood. What that means is they aren't mixing in non-hardwoods. To make a manmade briquette, you need a binder. Trader Joes uses cornstarch as a binder, and most likely water. It is 98% hardwood char and 2% cornstarch. Locally I can buy it for $5.99 for a 7 lb bag. Too rich for my preferences.
Stubbs uses 95% hardwood char and 5% vegetable binder, and most likely water. I haven't looked at the price recently so can't compare, but I remember it was outside what I was willing to pay considering I go through about 500 lbs a year.
RO Ridge is 75-80% hardwood char, less than 15% limestone, less than 10% hardwood sawdust, and water. No other chemical additives. At 26 cents / lb on sale, lasting 140% longer than KBB, that's what I started using this past Memorial Day after using KBB for decades. I did a test comparison between KBB and Ridge. Look in the charcoal section if you haven't seen it.
I am still using up the last of my KBB, but I only use it in my Kettle, and only for grilling. The current formula is pretty useless for a smoke longer than 10-12 hours.
Edit: my wife and I are sharing a car because my truck is in the shop for some major work. There's a Cash & Carry close to downtown Sacramento, not too far from where she works, about a 40 minute drive. I just might have to stop in and pick up a bag of Chef Select to do a side by side comparison to Ridge.
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