Yesterday I spoke on the phone with my daughter who had just started a new job. She jokingly observed that she had a horrible cup of coffee at the new job, but had met up with a cow-orker who apparently knew where to reliably locate the best java. I called her a coffee snob. When she claimed not to be, I declined to mention her past work as a barrista, or the pricey Breville sitting in er kitchen!
But it made me wonder what - if anything - I’m a snob about…
Maybe I’m a music snob. I’m all for seeing amateurs perform, but I’ve seen enough really good music, that I’m not willing to say something was great if it wasn’t.
Pizza and too some degree beer.
I’m very critical of chain pizza and won’t acknowledge that the frozen pizza-like food is pizza. Among actually pizzerias, I’m pretty critical also. I don’t need anything fancy, but it should be made well and with good ingredients. Never a soggy, greasy mess.
For Beer, I guess I’m a snob. My only mass-brew is Yuengling, preferably on tap. I tend to drink dark beers and ales. I love Red & Browns ales and especially Porters and less ashy Stouts. Love Milk-Stouts. I hate high IBU beers in most cases. I can tolerate Bud if ice cold but would rather drink water than Coors, Corona or Miller as examples.
If it’s possible to be a bowling snob, you can call me one. I’m not a league bowler and only bowl a few times a year, but I don’t want any of that Cosmic Bowling crap where they turn off the overhead lights and turn on the colorful lights, disco ball, and loud music. Often, I can’t even see the arrows when I’m aiming my ball under these conditions. I’m also against those bumpers that prevent balls from going into the gutters when little kids are bowling. If the kid sucks at bowling, let them get a zero. There should be none of this garbage that’s meant to boost their self esteem.
I am a snob about some movies. For instance, I hate watching movies that depict certain missiles flying at mere dozens of miles per hour when in real life it’s like thousands of MPH.
Depends on your definition of snobbery. I’ll drink cheap coffee or tea, I just don’t like to. I’ll eat crap pizza if I’m hungry enough, but I will regard it as crap pizza and will likely silently disparage it the whole time. But I guess I won’t drink really cheap mass-market beer (I don’t drink beer regularly anymore anyway), so I suppose that might be the dividing line?
Champagne. The cheap stuff is so bad, it’s undrinkable. It’s not even good enough for mimosas. (I believe it’s why many people say they don’t care for champagne). The good stuff is divine. You get get all kinds of good red and white wine for a relatively reasonable price ($15 to $35, for example), but I’ve never found decent champagne in that range.
For me also music, although I really have no qualifications other than listening to popular music since I was four (as far as I can think back). I don’t play any instrument, only have a passable singing voice, can’t read music and know almost no musical theory, but I can tell a good pop song from a bad one, and having to listen to bad music (I’m looking at you, Schlager genre) makes me sick.
Tea. I won’t even bother trying to buy tea at most cafes or restaurants (in the US, at least), since they generally range from awful to merely barely passable. When I’m shopping for my own supply, there are only a few brands I’ll consider, and I don’t even look at the price when I buy them (though it does help that even for good tea, a serving only costs a quarter or so). But I won’t drink the like of Liptons or Tetley, at all, unless the rules of polite hospitality are on the line, and there are some brands that I wouldn’t even make that exception for.
I’m also kind of spoiled on steak, after living in Montana for over a decade. All of the beef there was amazing, and I’ve never found any here in the East that’s good enough to be worth sullying my memory of the good stuff for.
It’s challenging to be a snob and a frugaltarian as well. I get by with an occasional smidgeon of quality rather than only the best all the time, and by consciously evaluating if something is just prestige-in-name only.
This is pretty much me. Guinness is my go-to, and barring that, I prefer beers from small-to-midsize breweries (and dislike IPAs, which have become a fad of “just how bitter can we make it?”). I haven’t had a Bud, Coors, or Miller product in several years; if and when I do have one, it’s usually because I’m at someone’s house, and it’s what they have to offer.
Otherwise, I suppose I’m a snob about written communication. If I see someone on a message board or social media whose writing is difficult to follow (e.g., no punctuation, rampant spelling and grammar errors, ALL CAPS, etc.), I tend to tune them out, and assume that they don’t have anything useful or interesting to say. Similarly, I play an MMORPG, and participate in role-playing events in that game – conversing with other players at those events is always done via in-game text chat. If someone is at the event, and can’t write coherently, I don’t enjoy engaging with them in RP, and will probably tune them out, sooner rather than later.
This will sound bad (and maybe it is), but I’m probably an intellectual snob. I just prefer to be able to analyze and discuss things intelligently, and prefer to spend time with folk who are also able to.
Re: champagne - worked at a liquor store through much of college and law school. developed quite a discerning taste for champagne, and converted my future wife. (Sober some 20 years now.)
Sorta glad I stopped drinking before microbrews really took off. For a long time, I swilled volumes of cheap beer. My wife convinced me I earned enough that I did not have to drink Busch or Stroh’s. But I never really needed to go beyone Leinie/Goose/Sam Adams.
Similarly with gin. Before all the craft distillers, I thought Tanq was just fine. And Booth’s and Burnett’s were passable and much cheaper.
I think it’s a bit more of it in my case. If I meet someone and they tell me their favorite genre is Schlager or marching bands, I’m looking down on them.
Maybe if we can expand this thread - what are you an ANTI-snob about? Namely, what do other people go to great lengths about, that you could not care less about? For me, #1 would have to be food. Sure, I like tasty food. But I’d be happy to eat tasty, nutritious people kibble 3x/day, 7 days/week. Just don’t understand why people put so much effort and expense into what is basically just fuel.
While I’m a beer snob, I’m the opposite with wines. When we go wine tasting, I almost always prefer the cheapest wines in blind tastings. It is almost a skill it is so consistent. I’ve got no taste when it comes to wine. Give me a slightly sweet red, maybe over ice and I’m happy enough.
That said, I don’t like champaign enough to bother drinking it all. Doesn’t matter if it is cheap or pricey. Give me a good beer please instead.
Never heard of Schlager (and have been involved in playing/listening to music all my life. My kids were all in marching/concert bands. No, not my fave, but it has its place.
I have a hard time appreciating much of what I see as very popular current music as - for lack of a better word - good music. It impresses me more as a “spectacle” and attitude, than as having musical merit. But that is the classic complaint of old farts immemorial, and there is little disputing taste. When I see someone who is really popular, I strive to see where the talent is - other than self promotion and attitude.
I suppose I’m a music snob. I have very small-c-catholic tastes, everything from hook-filled pop to industrial noise (this weekend I was listening Einstürzende Neubauten while doing the dishes), but there are a few genres or styles I’ll look down on, sometimes with uncomfortable (to myself) elitism. Can’t stand Wal-Mart Country, lounge-y jazz, or prefab boy bands, and if I learn someone has a CD shelf full of Brooks & Dunn or the Backstreet Boys, I make assumptions about the rest of their tastes.
