Best smelling firewood, top 8 wood with great scent for fire

With winters right on the doorstep, prominent families with cozy houses are planning to light up their fire pits with the help of the best smelling firewood. Firewood comes in a variety of flavors and has the potential to produce varying fragrances. Where some firewood produces delightful, classy, fruity, and smoky scents, others can give rise to nasty smells ruining your idea of a pleasant winter evening.

High-quality firewood with a beautiful scent can give your fireplace an elegant and attractive look. The warmth and coziness produced by great-smelling firewood can quickly create an ambient atmosphere within your home. But to find the best smelling firewood, the type, and quality of wood are of great importance.

The article below will help you choose the best quality and type of firewood, ensuring you get an amazingly scented home and a beautifully burning fireplace.

Best Smelling Firewood

After the quality comes the most crucial question, “Which is the best smelling firewood.”

Whether you want firewood for your fireplace or want to have a cookout on a camping trip, considering the smell and flavor of the firewood is utterly essential. The aroma produced by the firewood will determine the atmosphere of your home and will lend its flavor to give a smoky, sizzling flavor to your barbeque.

With millions of trees and hundreds of firewood species, picking one with the right flavor and aroma is like finding a needle in a haystack. We have listed down the best smelling firewood to simplify things for you. The list contains the most appealing firewood that has the potential to produce a wonderfully sensual smell.

Hickory

A Classic Smoky Smell

The United States is home to dozens of species of Hickory. You can describe the smell of Hickory as smoky, savory, and subtle. The scent of Hickory burning in a campfire may smell like a tender freshly baked ham and has a certain smokiness when tasted. Because of its smoky flavor, the wood is also a fine choice for barbeques. The flavors and aromas emerging from the wood get infused into the food, giving you a platter that is full of flavor and sizzling mouthwatering taste.

Besides having a rich and wonderful aroma, Hickory is the best fuelwood for the fireplace in your home. It has excellent density, can burn longer, and has a brilliant heat output. Hickory can produce 28.6 million BTUs of heat, which will keep your house pleasantly warm and comfortable during the harsh winters.

Oak

A Versatile Firewood

Oak is often a better alternative to Hickory. Most people do not like the overly sweet smell produced by Hickory firewood, so they turn to Oak, which is equally aromatic. Oak is a hardwood, is less sweet than Hickory, produces a mild earthy smoke, and gives off a pleasant aroma. But just like Hickory, it is easy to light, burns longer, and has an excellent heat output. It will produce 24.4 million BTUs/cord of wood. You will feel warm and fuzzy with oaks burning in your freshly designed fire pit.

Oak is preferred for its versatility. It is a healthy choice for starting a camp side fire and cooking smoky meats. Fusing Oak with other firewood gives you a significant odor and a savory flavor. For instance, use Oak as the base and then place some pieces of cherry firewood to create a unique cherry-oak flavor enriching the atmosphere inside your home.

Cherry

Enriched With A Fruity Pleasant Smell

Cherry firewood is quite a popular choice of fruity firewood in the United States. Enriched with flavors and the pleasantly unique aroma makes cherry firewood a festive smell.

Compared to apple firewood, cherry has a rich tangy aroma. The mind-blowing and soothing atmosphere created by the Cherry firewood keeps you mesmerized even after the logs have been converted into ashes. The pleasant warm aroma makes it a favorite firewood for starting a bonfire.

Cherry firewood has tiny beautiful grains and a rich red color blend. The aesthetically appealing look of cherry firewood makes it a preferred choice for woodworking. You can also smoke the food over the Cherry firewood. Using pure cherry wood may exceed your budget, so it’s best to create a combination of two firewood. You will be surprised how a few blocks of cherry firewood can boost the aroma of other firewood.

Apple

Light & Sweet Smell Ideal For Smoking

With Cherry being an expensive fruity fragrance, campers and homeowners shift to Apple firewood to enjoy mild fruity flavors.

Unlike Cherry, Apple firewood is mild and produces a sweet fruity smell making it an excellent option for cooking and smoking. Burning apple firewood has an irresistible and soft aroma reminiscent of its fruit. Another benefit of using apple firewood for camping, barbecuing, and cooking is that it burns longer. Since apple firewood belongs to the hardwood family, it is readily available in every department store.

Pine

Scent That Evokes The Holiday Spirit

Pine firewood is suitable for the outdoor environment. It creates a sweet, crisp aroma that instantly sparks the holiday spirit, and you start preparing for Christmas!

Using pine firewood in indoor fire pits is considered to be dangerous. When the tall firewood is burned, creosote gets piled up in the fireplace making your chimney murky. Besides, pine is a light softwood which means it tends to burn faster when compared to hardwood. So, if you are planning a more extended stay by the warm fireplace, use pine firewood as the base and pick a long-lasting hardwood. It will allow you to stay comfortable and warm during the long colder nights.

However, if you want to enjoy the wonderful fresh smell of pinewood, spring and summer days are the best time to light a fire. 

Cedar

Delivers The Best Aromatic Fragrance 

In the Midwest United States, Eastern Red Cedar is particularly famous for starting a campaign fire and for roasting food in an outside setup. Cedar has a classic sweet smell that is light, rich, and deliciously sweet.

Although Cedar firewood creates a fantastic smell when burned, it is a softwood that tends to burn faster and quicker. But it is porous, lightweight, and contains oils making it easier to light up. Cedar firewood has the natural ability to ward off insects; this further makes it perfect for outdoor recreational activities. 

Walnut

Deep Earthy Scent

Walnut is a precious species famous for producing great flavors and aromas when burned. It is renowned as firewood, but it is also a treasured piece of hardwood. It is used in woodworking, and you will find some great pieces of furniture made from solid walnut wood.

Walnut produces a deep earthy smell. It is subtly sweet and creates a beautiful scent that feels refreshing. However, it would help if you were careful while picking walnut firewood. It is stated that not all walnut firewood has the potential to create a sweet aroma, especially the black walnut (it produces a foul smell and should be avoided).

Walnut is the densest firewood, which will last longer and have an exceptionally excellent heat output. It produces about a 22.2million BTUs/cord. Using walnut, you will have a long-lasting warm fire ideal for cold, snowy days. The only drawback of using walnut firewood is a large amount of soot and ashes produced. Otherwise, walnut firewood is perfect for camping and preparing delicious smoky food.

Pecan

It Has An Amazing Nutty Scent

Pecan is similar to Hickory. They both have the same genes, but as they are grown in different regions, they differ significantly in smell and flavor.

The smell of Pecan is more pungent and nuttier than Hickory. But while buying a Pecan firewood, make sure to pick a well-dried piece of log; otherwise, it will produce an odorless smoky smell.

Like Hickory, Pecan burns longer and successfully produces excellent heat, making your evenings warm and comfortable.

The Quality Of Firewood Is Important

Recognizing high-quality firewood will help you pick firewood worthy of your fireplace. Seasonal woods often have a higher moisture content. Burning a damp log of wood will give excessive smoke and not produce sufficient warmth. You will also miss the fascinating aroma that you can enjoy with a fresh dry piece of firewood. The same goes for green firewood with visible signs of mold and fungus. These are the signs of decomposing, and burning these woods will produce an unbearable dingy foul smell.

Choosing the best quality firewood will smell better, burn longer, and be easy to light.

Final Words

With so many flavors and aromas produced by the different types of firewood, finding one that excites you is not a hard choice. But if you want to double the fun and various species of firewood to create a unique blend of aromas and fragrances. The trick is to build a strong base using coal and hardwood such as Oak and Hickory. Let the fire gain strength, and then add other exotic flavors of cherry, pine, or maybe an apple. It will create a warm, rich and fascinating aroma.