A lot of it is down to the quality of the beef I'd say, having a good palette to start off with and all that. I used to live on a cattle farm, didn't actually run it (although did help out from time to time) but lived next door to the guy that did. Well, at one point we had a cow go down off the list, so to speak, so she went to the slicers and we got a portion of the meat...and when I say a portion, I mean enough to fill up our freezer. We were eating beef for weeks after! But damn, if that wasn't the nicest beef I've had in a long time, it was just right.
So it makes you wonder what goes on between the farm and the supermarket/butchers.