Three years ago Texans erupted in shock when Buc-ee’s unveiled the Big Buckin’ Brisket Sandwich XXL, a $13 mega version of the chain’s popular brisket sandwiches. Now another iconic Texas brand is catching heat for how much it’s charging for a sandwich.
A Reddit post from ikedriver2000 shared a photo of a brisket sandwich from H-E-B’s True Texas BBQ with a $15.49 price tag and the caption “$15 for a brisket sandwich. Are they serious?” The post has since received more than 500 comments as of Friday, April 3, with responses ranging from criticizing the cost to sympathizing with H-E-B as the price of beef increases across the nation.
For context, True Texas BBQ sells sandwiches with either pulled pork, turkey, pork sausage link, chopped brisket and prime brisket. The “regular” option provides a quarter-pound of meat, but the “TX size” option serves the same sandwich but with a half-pound of meat. Prime brisket stands as the most expensive option, selling for $15.49 in the TX size, the same as depicted in the Reddit photo.
The top comment belonged to Tomdg910, who didn’t wait to draw the Buc-ee’s comparison. “dayum they charging more than Bucees,” the Redditor wrote, receiving over 800 upvotes.
ButchAF hopped on the banter replying “And only 50¢ less than terry blacks.” A few others mocked the H-E-B sandwich for being wrapped in plastic, possibly transmitting microplastics into every bite, but not everyone leaned into the hate.
Fit-Positive2153 stayed in the Terry Black’s camp, saying it doesn’t taste like “ass,” implying a negative for True Texas BBQ. Meanwhile another Redditor called out Terry Black’s for being “always dry and mid, The fatty part is juicy of course but the brisket there is absolutely mid.”
Meanwhile the vast majority of comments defended the H-E-B barbecue joint for selling prices to match the beef inflation across the U.S. According to the Federal Reserve, the price of ground beef stands at $6.74 per pound. That price only goes up when discussing full prices of brisket.
“Seems reasonable to me. They sell brisket at 27.99 a pound. These sandwiches have half a pound of brisket on them so $14 worth of meat. Add an extra $1 for the bread and whatever else is on them,” hemppy420 replied. “Yall comparing bucees to this…bucees brisket is terrible. True texas bbq from heb is far, far better than bucees brisket.”
“Probably has around 1/2lb of brisket. Last time I checked I believe it was around $31-$32lb for just brisket. Seems pretty fair,” Icy-Information-7539 replied.
“Looks about right when brisk gets 30 bucks a pound and you have a half pound sandwich in your hand,” Hatter_106 added.
Meanwhile ecogrrl made a solid point, “Brisket doesn’t grow on trees…if it did it would replace the Pecan as the state tree in a hot minute.”
MySA has reached out to H-E-B for comment on the brisket sandwich criticisms.