Choosing a coconut briquette shape: what the nine moulds change

When a buyer asks a briquette supplier for “your best briquette”, the supplier cannot answer, because the right briquette depends on what it will be used for. Briquette shape is the first decision, and it is also the one that most often gets settled by habit. This note walks through the nine moulds Kora lists and gives a method for picking one, without pretending to know figures that Kora has not published.

The nine moulds

Kora’s main site names these shapes:

• cube, in 25 mm and 26 mm;
• stick;
• hexagonal;
• hexagonal with a hole;
• octagonal;
• finger;
• pillow;
• ball;
• dome.

Kora also discusses custom moulds made from a buyer’s drawing, for long-term contracts, and private label packing. Both are a conversation, not a catalogue item, so treat them as a second step.

Why shape is not just looks

A mould decides how much material sits in a unit, how it is pressed and how the air reaches it when it burns. A hole, a wider body or a different press can change the density of the unit and the ash that is left. That is not a theory. Kora’s July 2026 laboratory report, on grade B samples, shows a cube at a density of 1.07 g/cm³ and a hexagonal rod at 0.73 g/cm³, and a very different ash result for each. The same grade name, two shapes, two sets of figures.

For you this means one rule: a figure belongs to a shape. Whenever you read a number for a briquette, ask which shape it was measured on.

How the market tends to group shapes

Competitor listings and importer vocabulary usually associate small cubes and fingers with water-pipe (shisha) charcoal, and hexagons, pillows and sticks with grilling. That is a habit of the trade, not a statement by Kora, and your own customers may do things differently. Use it as a starting guess, then confirm with your customers’ needs.

A method for choosing a briquette shape

Step 1. Write the use in one sentence. For example: “heat for a commercial grill that runs long evenings”, or “a retail pack for home users”. The sentence decides which properties you need to care about.

Step 2. Turn the sentence into properties. Ask yourself whether you care most about low ash, steady burn, ease of lighting, strength during transport or the look of the pack. You will probably rank two or three.

Step 3. Shortlist two or three shapes. More than three makes the comparison muddy. Include one shape you already know as a reference.

Step 4. Ask for shape-specific figures. Ask Kora for the report or the data that covers each shortlisted shape. Where none exists, say so in your notes, and plan a sample test.

Step 5. Test samples side by side. Burn the shapes in the same equipment, with the same lighting method, and record what you see. Send a sample to a laboratory for ash and calorific value if those matter to your decision.

Step 6. Look at packing and freight. Kora publishes an inner pack of 1 kg, a master carton of 10 kg and about 18 MT in a 20-foot container for briquettes. Different shapes pack differently, so confirm the real load for your shape and pack.

Pitfalls to avoid

• Choosing the briquette shape from a photograph.
• Comparing two suppliers on different shapes as if they were the same product.
• Assuming that a figure measured on cubes applies to every other mould.
• Forgetting to ask whether the burn-time figure was taken on a single unit and under which conditions.

What Kora can tell you today, and what it cannot

Kora can tell you the shapes it lists, the published grade A figures, the grade B laboratory report and the packing. It does not yet publish figures for each of the nine shapes. If you tell us the use and the quantity, we can say which shapes are realistic to quote and which tests exist.

Tell us the use, we will help narrow the briquette shape

Send the use, the volume you expect and your destination port from the contact page. You can also read the published grade A table on the grade A briquette page before you write. The first reply comes within two business days.