Quote:
Originally Posted by
dtmt 
I think I made this point before in another thread, but wagyu is just a breed of cow. What's really important is how the cattle are raised which determines the quality/taste/fat content/etc. In Japan, the cows are extremely pampered and given the highest quality feed and such, which is why Japanese beef tastes so good.
However, I noticed that beef from this BK burger is actually from Australia, so I think it's a huge ripoff because it's not "real" Japanese beef. It's akin to paying top dollar for some European-branded shoes because you expect old-world craftsmanship only to find out that they were glued together in China.
You can get exceptionally good Australian-produced wagyu, but it costs quite a lot.
AACo, the Australian Agricultural Company, markets at least three different levels of wagyu, produced from livestock originally imported from Japan.
The top level is very nice indeed and to my tastebuds it compares very favourably with the meat that I've eaten in Japan - and in fact much of it is exported to Japan for consumption.
The lower two levels contain progressively less fat and are accordingly less juicy and less tasty.
I've had it and there is little marbling and not a great deal of flavour.
I would think that the BK burger would use the lowest level of AACo wagyu.
Don't forget that there are different levels of wagyu in Japan, too - not all Japanese cows are hand-massaged and given buckets of beer and sake to drink.