Every 5 years, competitors from across Japan compete on various categories to determine who wins the Wagyu olympics. Most prefectures (out of 47 total) enter the competition and 3 winners emerge.
The meat is judged by various criteria, most of which focus on the animal itself - lineage, looks, diet, fertility. Weird, huh? The other set of criteria focus on the meat itself - how marbled it is, fat quality.
As far as I know taste is not a criteria as that is highly subjective to each individual.
In other words, the price and the desirability of the wagyu comes in a large part from selection and production criteria in which Kobe beef is naturally more scarce due to stricter raising requirements that naturally limit the number of cattle available.
The price is not reflective of taste.
Anyway, the label that has won more Wagyu Olympics than any other? Miyazaki beef.
Similar to Kobe beef, Miyazaki beef has strict selection and breeding requirements, but consistently comes out on top in terms of meet quality.
However, due to slightly less stringent requirements to qualify for the label (lower marble quality can qualify), the meat is a bit more numerous in production. Both carry decent price tags depending on the marble quality which can range quite a bit.
And that was my useless fact of the day that you could google / wikipedia / chatgpt for yourself 😂 To me, all wagyu tastes amazing!
