CHS Wagyu
Online store · ships nationwide
Tier 2 · Provenance-Transparent What the tiers mean
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Authenticity flags
- The Japanese A5 steaks are identified by grade and marbling score alone. No prefecture, brand or farm is named for them anywhere on the site, which describes its Japanese sourcing only as "highly regarded regions." If you want to know which part of Japan your steak came from, ask before ordering.
- The Australian Wagyu is graded on the site as "BMS 6/7" and "BMS 8/9." BMS is the Japanese marbling scale; Australian Wagyu is scored on the AUS-MEAT marbling scale, and no producer or Australian brand is named for these cuts. Treat the numbers as the shop's own description rather than a published Australian grade.
Why it's listed
A Charleston-based online butcher founded by Darian Lopez, CHS Wagyu delivers free across Charleston seven days a week and ships nationwide overnight. The range spans Japanese A5 strip and ribeye at BMS 10/11, a broad Australian Wagyu selection covering everything from Denver steaks to whole tenderloins, and fullblood domestic Wagyu from Caroland Farms. It is the domestic line that is most clearly documented, sold by name as full-blood Wagyu from a single named farm. There is no shop to visit; everything arrives by delivery or courier.
One line is fully documented and two are not
This is a Charleston online butcher covering three origins, and the three are disclosed to quite different standards. Its domestic Wagyu is the strong one: sold explicitly as full-blood and traced to a single named South Carolina farm, which is breed status plus a named producer, the full set for American beef.
Its Japanese steaks give a grade and a marbling score and name no prefecture, brand or farm, describing the sourcing only as highly regarded regions. Its Australian range names no producer either. Both are real Wagyu and neither is fully identified, which is why this listing carries a badge for the American line and none for the other two.
That pattern is worth recognising because it is common and invisible from a home page. A seller can be scrupulous about one origin and vague about another, and the reputation earned by the first quietly covers the second.
BMS on Australian beef is the wrong scale
The Australian cuts here are labelled with BMS numbers. BMS is the Japanese Beef Marbling Standard, a twelve-point scale used in Japanese grading. Australian Wagyu is scored on the AUS-MEAT marbling scale, which runs to nine plus and is a different instrument with different bands.
The two are not interchangeable and neither converts into the other. Using a Japanese number on Australian beef is not necessarily an attempt to mislead, and it is genuinely common shorthand in the trade, but it means the number on the label is the shop's own description rather than a published Australian grade. Treat it as an indication of richness and not as a grade you could check with a certifying body.
Delivery, not a counter
There is no shop to visit. It delivers across Charleston by courier and ships further afield overnight, and its local delivery runs in insulated bags with ice packs rather than from a walk-in case.
For a shopper that changes the questions worth asking. There is no counter to ask what came in this week, so the product page is the whole disclosure, and on the two origins where that page is thin, the answer has to come from an email before you order rather than a conversation at the till.
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Common questions
- Which of its Wagyu is fully documented?
- The domestic line. It is sold as full-blood and traced to a single named South Carolina farm, which is breed status plus a named producer. The Japanese steaks name no prefecture or brand, and the Australian cuts name no producer, so neither of those carries a badge here.
- Is a BMS number on Australian Wagyu a real grade?
- Not an Australian one. BMS is the Japanese marbling standard; Australian Wagyu is scored on the AUS-MEAT scale, which is a different instrument. A BMS figure on Australian beef is the seller's own description rather than a published grade you could verify with a certifying body.