I never have used a Strube.
In my four plus years in the hobby it is clear to me that Snake River Farms is the standard bearer in comp wagyu. All of their briskets are very good and prior to them culling the highest grades for the Gold program on occasion you would get these insanely marbled briskets that are hard to describe, true meat porn. I have used a few Gold and a lot of black and the Gold were better but I am not sure the difference is enough to justify my cost, outside of national level contests.
This next part is going to make CBQ very happy. Full disclaimer: I have a very negative opinion of Huntspoint.com. Simply put, my opinion is that this is a predator taking advantage of the competition BBQ community. The following is why I feel this way...
Although the phone and marketing appear as if they are located in the Hunts Point meat market section of NY, at least up until this past fall, the company was/is actually run out of the basement of a home in Nottingham NH. Probably not illegal but definitely misleading.
As was said above the "Gold" grade being sold this past fall were simply Imperial Wagyu briskets sold for more than double the going rate. Communication with Imperial Wagyu themselves will confirm they do not sell anything called a "Gold" grade brisket. Imperial told me this past fall that they have no wholesale customers/distributors in NH. Further investigation revealed that the Huntspoint.com "Gold" grade is based on the "company" in NH eyeing them in a frozen condition and choosing what is "Gold". Don't take my word on this, ask the company themselves.
Truth be told I liked the quality of the actual meat however Imperial (not just from this meat gypsy) have developed a reputation for having gashes in the flats a lot more frequently than other producers.
Here is my experience with Huntspoint.com. I purchased one brisket that had an unacceptable gash and the company agreed to replace it. On my way to a contest in ME, the salesman met me at 11 pm on the side of the hi way in NH to take back my brisket and give me a replacement. I was impressed. The replacement had a small gash but I took 2nd place. Based on the service I ordered another and this was worse with a gash plus some sort of punch holes in the flat. This time the company refused to make good. After being burnt for my purchase I posted the pictures on FB for all to see and the company joined the comments on my FB page and said I was unreasonable. The pictures were posted for all to see and many comp cooks with more experience than I agreed with my assessment of the brisket. Two weeks later the company had my post removed by FB.
I was obviously pissed and called the Town of Nottingham NH seeking info on the "company". The town was not aware of any company named Huntspoint.com however when I mentioned the name of the salesman, the person I was talking with told me to "run the other way".
I was then referred to an office in the NH Health Dept and here is their response to my inquiry seeking information about a company known as Huntspoint.com
-----Original Message-----
From: NH-DHHS-WebMail <NH-DHHS-WebMail@dhhs.state.nh.us>
To: BasicPatrick <BasicPatrick@aol.com>
Sent: Tue, Oct 28, 2014 10:39 am
Subject: NH Dept of Health and Human Services response to inquiry
Dear Mr. Paquette,
Thank you for contacting us. At the present time we do not have record of
this place being licensed. I went to the website and have contacted the
company to initiate licensing and inspection. It usually takes 2-3 weeks to
get licensed so you can check in with us again if you want to know if they
are in compliance and licensed.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Royann Bossidy
Food Safety and Defense Specialist
Food Protection
603-271-3989
rbossidy@dhhs.state.nh.us
Realizing an unlicensed & un-inspected company had been selling briskets across the BBQ community for over a year I reported my experience, made a complaint and moved on with my life chalking the loss up to experience. I did receive an email some time later that a licensing process had been initiated. I really could care less as I have formed my opinion of this company and obviously it isn't good.
I am not posting other info I learned about this "company" as some of it is third hand and can not be defended in a court of law without pulling other people into something they did not sign up for. What I have posted can be easily confirmed.
