This is a tasteless opinion, not an unpopular one.

The instant coffee you posted a picture of us 100% awful tasting and I say that from experience as a non coffee snob.

Not unpopular, factually incorrect.

There are thousands of varieties of all of those things and entire professions dedicated to studying the differences between them for a reason.

Subjective tastes don't mean quality is also subjective. You can just say that you like shit wine and shit coffee, you don't have to justify it.

Coffee? Don't care

Wine? Don't drink

Chocolate? The style/recipe or do you mean the cacao it originates from? Pretty much all dark chocolate tastes the same to me (inferior to milk/sweet chocolate) 🤷

Cheese? CHEESE‽ WTF is wrong with you? Parmesan tastes nothing like mozzarella and ricotta is like an entirely different world!

Your opinion is clearly tasteless! It also lacks nuance and texture.

I mean, there are extremes of snobbishness that extend into placebo territory. It definitely happens in the world of coffee, with expensive packs people buy for the sticker.

But this is an over generalization. There is a point of “you get what you pay for.”

There is also the ethics of the sourcing to consider.

This extends to all sorts of food and drink. And other hobbies too, like electronics.

Looking at what you actually wrote instead of anything else, you're mostly dead on.

Almost all things food related are subjective, and that extends to all the items you listed.

That being said, some aspects of flavor and scent are going to be damn near universally perceived as better. As an example, while it's fine to enjoy plain old Hershey's chocolate bars, trying to claim that they can match a decently crafted chocolate that puts effort into their process is going to be silly because they aren't really the same thing when it comes right down to it. They just share basic ingredients.

And, it is entirely possible to refine one's palate. It doesn't mean what you seem to think it means, and it absolutely doesn't mean what snobs think it means. Refining your palate is the process of training your senses to pick up even minor differences. That's it. Nothing else. Your opinion of those differences is still subjective, but you can absolutely develop the ability to not just detect, but describe the differences between two coffees, or two cheeses.

When it comes right down to it though, some things are going to be so universally preferred that it's accurate to call them "better". A mass produced cheddar from Wal-Mart is just not going to have the same complexity as a locally produced, well crafted cheese. And complexity in cheddar is what makes a good cheese good rather than just edible. It isn't that you have to like it because other people like it, but you also can't invalidate that when enough people prefer something, using the word "better" is acceptable and accurate because of the word itself.

I'm with you. I fucking despise food snobbery. But part of your post here is its own form of snobbery. Yes, it is. You're saying that your subjective impression of foods is superior to others by virtue of not relying on their set of subjective values. That's food snobbery.

I'll also add that sometimes the "better" thing isn't necessarily the more enjoyable thing, particularly with ingredients. Using a deeply aged, complex cheddar in mac n cheese is very likely to suck, as an example. For something like chocolate, making a dip for apple slices and using some really precisely selected, single origin chocolate is going to make the experience of chocolate sauce dipped apple slices way less enjoyable.

However, if you're making a fruit and cheese plate, breaking out the right cheeses to pair with each fruit is likely to make the overall experience better because each given bite can be a unique thing, as the compounds in a cheddar that go so well with apples or (sometimes) pears make it a poor choice to go with berries, where something like a brie is going to do more in the mouth. Better would still be subjective to some degree, but exploring the senses in a well organized way can be said to be better than just randomly cramming things into your mouth and seeing what you enjoy the most.

I'll also say that brewing a cheap, poorly roasted coffee well can make it better than throwing it in a percolator.

Food is like jazz. You get as much out of it as you're willing to put into it.

I'm glad I can taste things and tell the difference now. Maybe quit smoking, worked for me.

you definitely can taste the difference between cheap coffee and good coffee, and how they are brewed.

Unless you buy your food in extreme bulk, I think you mean "palate".

Upvoted for unpopular opinion. I do think for some things there's more to consider than just taste. Very cheap foods (or alcohols) might be a taste spectrum or no better or worse with the "good stuff", but the older I get the more I find that I also care if my body can handle it the same way. Rumble guts and headaches or nausea are not super fun.

Instant coffee, for example, seems to give me instant heart burn. Or at least the kind my grandma drinks does. I sometimes get it from plain old drip, but not unless I really drink a lot.

Lmao, OP you might want to get your taste buds checked, or spend more time paying attention to what you're experiencing.

Yes taste is subjective, and the placebo effect is real, that doesn't meant that it's completely subjective or that there isn't broad overlapping of bell curves.

Some flavours genuinely have more complexity than others, and there's more for your brain to appreciate and process. It's why children love pure sugar candy and adults generally don't. Our brains have grown bored by just a simple flavour, kids haven't.

congratulations this is indeed right and wrong

Upvote for unpopular opinion, I think.

Taste is subjective, I agree. You could drink the most expensive, finest aged wine and one person will think it's shit and another will love it, because their tastes are different.

Though you do say "Most coffee" in your premise, which implies that some coffee is worse than others ;)

I disagree at most only a little bit with most of your takes, except for the cigars.

There I disagree on a completely different level:

In my very own unpopular opinion, I consider all cigars to be abysmal smoke sticks from the lower reaches of hell.

So no, they are not fine.

Take my upvote for that crazy take!

Acting like your personal preferences signifies intelligence is the sorriest excuse for a personality.

Looking at you pineapple pizza haters... 😒

I'm kind of picky about wine, don't like many of them, but some of the ones I like are cheap and others pricey, different wines taste very different from each other. This is a step up from liking none of them, before.

Coffee I tend to think the preparation matters more, but have certainly had bad coffee and good coffee.

Cheese you are just wrong on. There is quality, some cheese is made with xanthan gum and wishes and is not really cheese, or is so rubbery and flavorless it is bad. I do like so many different kinds, am not limited like with wine. But don't think it's reasonable to say that processed shreds or slices are "as good as" a real cultured milk cheese.

I do agree it's not a benefit to develop a palate to the point you loop back to being really picky like someone who just likes white bread and chicken tenders, and that it's better to enjoy more things.

I would say that one could make the claim that one brand of coffee is bad compared to another one but if someone tells me that they like the cheap store brand instant coffee then who am I to argue with their subjective experience.

I think there's been a study about wine as well that people who are used to the taste of cheap wine generally don't enjoy the expensive ones. Not because they're bad but because it's not what they're used to.

Having preferences is one of the few joys that we can have left in this world.

Where I live most coffee cost the same to have it made, about $5 a cup for McDonald’s to the hyper local sourced from speciality farm brew.

The one you like most is best. people trying to share their favorite with you is a way of sharing joy.

Some people can’t share in that. Just like some people are partially deaf, some people have muted taste. They can hear something, but not enough to enjoy it. Just because someone can’t tell one piece of music from the next doesn’t mean all music is the same.

That said I think you opinion is unpopular. Most people have favorites when it comes to food and drink.

Or, maybe, your feeling of smell and taste aren't good.

Freshly ground coffee is better than instant coffee. Freshly ground pepper is better than pregrounded. Don't know what "box wine" is, but there is a difference between badly made wine and alright wine.

I do agree mostly, but chocolate is a hard disagree, cheap alternatives give a noticably bland taste.

I would have agreed with you like 8 years ago about the coffee. For 20 years, I drank the GV brand in the photo but then it started ripping my guts apart for some reason so I switched to Nescafe Classico. Then a few years ago, I thought maybe it was my imagination and bought GV again and after a single day I had to switch back. It wasn't my imagination. I have no idea what's going on there, but there is a difference.

Also, expensive cigars are way, way better. The cheaper the cigarette or cigar, the less tobacco they have in them. Special Blend means special blend of 7 herbs and spices with maybe a sprinkling of tobacco, more than likely from the ground up roots and stalk.

Plus, leaves from different parts of the tobacco plant produces a better taste and smell. IIRC, the top leaves are the best and the lower leaves are used in cheap cigars and cigarettes. I bought a sampler nub of a like an $80 cigar once and my god it was amazing. The best tasting tobacco I ever smoked. I left the nub and ashes in the ashtray for a week it smelled so damn good. Made me want to buy some tobacco plants and roll my own cigars.

Robusto coffee is sour and tastes terrible. I'd rather not drink coffee. If you can't taste the difference blind, you have no taste.

Life is too short. Like what you like. Gradation is for the pretentious.

You do you, it's kind of sad your palette is so fucked.

Yeah, something wrong with your taste buds obviously, or are you just a troll?

How is instant coffee cheaper? 20€/k compared to 9€/k for whole beans at the lidl.

Well done on the unpopular decision because I disagree. I believe you haven't had good coffee, get some single origin coffee made correctly, if that doesn't change you then I guess you really don't have good taste buds for coffee

False. All coffee is bad