I'm in the Trooper and Bar-B-Lew camp..With7 years at the helm.

dk117, I have never used mesquite in a pellet grill, but I have had some food cooked with mesquite many years ago.  It was too smoky for me and almost bitter if I recall correctly.  It may have been it was creosote due to the cooker.  Thus, I have decided it wasn't worth the effort to try as I blamed the taste I didn't like on the wood.

I make jerky in my ol' upright smoker with a AMNPTS tube.  Smoke for 4 hours then finish on the dehydrator.  I usually use pure hickory pellets but last time I used a blend pellet of Oak/Hickory/Maple, my usual pellet in my pellet pooper.  I could definitely taste less smoke and the color was less dark. 

My 2 cents.

I make jerky in my ol' upright smoker with a AMNPTS tube.  Smoke for 4 hours then finish on the dehydrator.  I usually use pure hickory pellets but last time I used a blend pellet of Oak/Hickory/Maple, my usual pellet in my pellet pooper.  I could definitely taste less smoke and the color was less dark. 

My 2 cents.

I would expect that as the tube does not burn near as clean as the grill IMO.  I bet if you made the jerky on your pellet smoker with those two different woods that you couldn't tell a difference.

My personal observations after 2 years with a pellet smoker:

I can’t really tell you what the pellet flavor is in a blind taste test. But I can tell the difference in intensity.
I do not like mesquite.
I prefer hickory.
Most blends provide very little flavor. Pit Boss Comp Blend, Hickory Blend and Traeger Gourmet Blend = almost zero smoke flavor for me.
My neighbor brought me some pulled pork that he smoked with 100% cherry pellets and I couldn’t taste any smoke flavor.

A new twist. RecTec recently upgraded their controller and I purchased one for my RecTec 680 a couple months ago. The smoke output and flavor intensity on the meat has increased. Especially at temps from 180 to around 225.
This has changed the game for me. Lumberjack Comp Blend now imparts a really nice flavor where as before it was very, very light.
I don’t know what RecTec did but it made a difference.

Several years ago, on another forum, I posted that I could tell the difference in the scent of different woods burning, but not in the food taste.  Smoke tastes like smoke to me.  I noted that mesquite may be an exception but I've never tried it 'cause I don't like the smoke's smell.  I was somewhat pooh-poohed.  Now, I see this opinion more frequently supported.

Here's the somewhat old pelletfan thread that was mentioned earlier.

A caveat:  Wood taste may be more easily identified when food is heavily smoked, as in a stick burner or kamado.  The people on a kamado forum that I frequent are ready to lynch me because I hold this opinion.  They are very convincing in their arguments, but like here, there's no solid evidence based on blind testing.

My personal experience with trying different brands and different mixes is this:

Lumberjack 100% hickory smokes more and produces more smoke flavor (and ash) than others I’ve tried. Mhc blend is nice for all around cooking. 100% cherry imparts  nice color. I’ve tried a few hundred lbs of cp, bbq delight and some heating pellets and just prefer lumberjack in the above varieties. Lumberjack certainly produces more ash than any other varieties I have tried (irrelevant to me). I can order them by the 1000lbs and mix and match and it lasts me about 10-12 months at around 40 cents per lb. good enough for me

If I could get cp at a similar bulk pricing, I’d likely use them more also...just not cost effective for me though as no local dealer


Memphis Elite
Yoder YS640 - sold

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You may be able to get cookinpellets close to $0.50/# if you ordered 1000# delivered to your house.

I’m just going to pile on here to say that like others, I can tell no real difference in flavor in the finished product from different pellets, with the exception of mesquite.    Mesquite is the only pellet that I feel is very distinct, didn’t care for it and used the rest of the bag to make brush pile fire starters.    After 8 years of buying and trying different blends and varieties I’ve settled on LJ’s Maple/Hickory/Cherry blend as a great all purpose pellet.

I've tried two or three blends and can't discern a bit of flavor difference among them. Haven't tried any single-wood pellets yet, though.

I've not done a side by side, but I have tried just about every type that is available in my area. 

I find that some smoke smells a bit different, but I have not noticed a big flavor difference. The exception to that rule is mesquite that has a unique smell and flavor.  I usually have alder on hand for smoking fish, hickory for pork, oak as a general purpose, and mesquite for beef. The hopper usually contains a bit of each except for mesquite, which I remove any left over pellets. 

I keep the pellets in 5 gallon buckets to keep them dry and add an approximate amount that I think I will need for a cook.  Next cook gets any left overs plus the new load of pellets. 

I am about 13 years with pellets and can’t tell any difference in flavors.  I have 4 different pellet smokers and have tried maybe 10 different brand stuff of pellets and various mixes and mostly just use what I can find locally for cheap.  I have friends who swear they can taste the difference, I am just not one of those people.

As the OP, I have to admit that my suspicion is that pretty much, smoke is smoke, however there may be a difference from say Mesquite to Cherry,

I agree that at least to me smoke is more unless you are a wood such as Mesquite.  Which in my opinion is very strong and not one that I like.

It's been awhile and many cooks later on my pellet grill since my post on here about this topic.  I do pay attention to what the long-time members say on here, even if I disagree with them at the time.  I sometimes do catch up to what they say eventually from my own experiences and learn from it.

Here is a good example of that:  In the last month, I've smoked two ~18lb briskets at different times, both with 100% LJ mesquite, my favorite for beef.  Soon after, my wife wants me to cook a whole chicken for dinner.  My hopper is still filled with the mesquite and I don't want to swap pellets out to apple to cook the chicken so I gamble and go with the mesquite already in the 40lb hopper.  I didn't think the chicken would be very good, but to my surprise it was very good and I could not really discern what wood I used.  I did smoke the chicken on extreme smoke for an hour before increasing to 375° to crisp the skin. Smoke is smoke might just be my motto going forward.  I wanna say that I could certainly tell a bigger difference in the past when using different wood chunck flavors on my charcoal grill.  Not so much on this pellet grill it appears.  Experience far out ways opinions that's for sure.

This thread haunted me.  I've been Bear Mountain (alder wood which I think is important) mesquite for years (7?), nothing else.  I too value member inputs even if I don't always agree.  So for the past two months or so I've been using Bear Mountain hickory.  The smell of the pit is milder that is clear.  The end result on food is probably beyond my ability to taste the difference.  My brain says mesquite imparted more smoke flavor, but my taste buds cannot tell ... if that makes any sense. 

My plan moving forward isn't much of a plan, I'm going to make the compromise.  I'm going to blend my remaining hickory and mesquite and get some of the smell I want without it being as overpowering to guests and pellet fans who prefer hickory.

Not a bad little exercise, but nothing scientific about it.  Smoke is smoke seems as safe a motto as any.

DK

I have to agree with those that say that they can not taste the difference in flavor of the food per wood pellet variety . Having said that...here we go... I buy wood burning, hardwood mix, the ones used for home heating. Same size as food grade pellets, perhaps a tiny bit longer, but no issues with auger clogging up. At $4.00 per 40 # bag, I've been doing this for 3 years now and still can't tell any difference. P.S. I always call direct to the manufacture regarding use of these pellets to make sure there are NO glues added for adhesion.  check out TSC or Orcheleins. I simply got tired trying all the types of flavored pellets out there and quit at around 8 different types for me. ( think of new golf drivers and the guarantee for 'better' distance)