Anyone have any experience importing specialty hardword chips for BBQ not typically used in the US like pimento and guava?
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Roots, I've been going through a bit of the same problem, but it's in importing wood here to Taiwan. The helpful hint that I can tell you is this:
I contacted the U.S. trade and economic office here to find out about regulations on imported wood. This is after I had 80 lbs. of wood I ordered with my smoker destroyed at customs.
The trade office told me the new import regulations, duty info. which woods or areas are now restricted etc. etc.
So my advice is to check with the relevent gov't agency on importing of lumber products to US. They should be able to tell you the tariff if any, and if any heat/chemical treatment is necessary.
Hope this helps.
We've got a lot of guava here in Taiwan. Have you smoked with guava before? How is the flavor?
Take care, Steve.
I contacted the U.S. trade and economic office here to find out about regulations on imported wood. This is after I had 80 lbs. of wood I ordered with my smoker destroyed at customs.
The trade office told me the new import regulations, duty info. which woods or areas are now restricted etc. etc.
So my advice is to check with the relevent gov't agency on importing of lumber products to US. They should be able to tell you the tariff if any, and if any heat/chemical treatment is necessary.
Hope this helps.
We've got a lot of guava here in Taiwan. Have you smoked with guava before? How is the flavor?
Take care, Steve.
Thanks Steve. I have an email into US Customs. I've smoked with pimento but not guava yet. Pimento goes very well with Jerk BBQ - any meat.
It's a shame the U.S. and Taiwan can't work out a trade deal with the wood. You guys have the thing the other guy wants! Have either of you tried the guava sauce recipe in Steven Reichlen's (I think that's how it's spelled)book? It is very good on ribs and chicken.
Peggy
Peggy
Doesn't Jamaica have some kind of restriction on taking pimento [allspice]bushes out of the country?
The island cooks around here get many supplies from Miami and use hickory to do jerk.
Maybe give Mike at hawgeyes a call and see if he can help.
Hawgeyes
Tom-Fl
The island cooks around here get many supplies from Miami and use hickory to do jerk.
Maybe give Mike at hawgeyes a call and see if he can help.
Hawgeyes
Tom-Fl
I haven't gotten that far yet, but they now import a lot of exotic woods for hardwood floors. Having done hardwood floors many years I started my smoking using the sanding dust from the raw wood in my old refer. Smoking this way you learn that white oak and red oak have very different flavors. (Sort of like the difference between white wine and red wine.) Anyway hardwood flooring material is probably the cheapest source of milled wood available. If you can make friends with a wholesale wood distributor, or an installer you might be able to try some imported and domestic woods for a reasonable price, like wood for Q. You will pretty much be limited to tree wood, not bush wood, but soon I plan on giving some of them a try.
I've never tried them them, and don't know about the costs, but here is I site I just stumbled across that sells guava from Hawaii: Hawaiiguava.com