i know this is an old post but ,being new here i just read it and wanted to put my 2 cents in
1st we need to clarify something, BBQing and grilling are two different animals,
BBQing is low and slow , grilling is hot and fast
the next thing i should tell you is that i used to own a BBQ joint
the subject often came up which was better charcoal or gas ......well at the time i just happened to own both, along with the smoker that i used for all my BBQing , so i decided to set up a blind taste test ....i cooked 10 chicken wings and 10 pork chops on charcoal and 10 of each of the propane grill then asked customers and freinds to try them and tell me which one was cooked on what ( i will say that i was very careful not to get a lighter fluid taste on the food cooked on the charcoal ) .the results were so completely mixed that it was clear as day that it made no difference when people had no idea what the food was cooked on , but if they knew something was cooked on the gas grill they would always say that they liked charcoal better ......it never failed ....lol
so don't even try to argue with me on this ......i have proved it !!!!