I am a snob in five departments.
But first, let me tell you what a snob is in my opinion.
I generally say that a snob is someone perceived to like only premium stuff and turns his nose up at more normal things. I know that whenever you say you don't like x, people think that you are haughty. This is not what a snob is.
A snob is someone who liked something and slowly got more and more interested in the certain subject, eventually starting to appreciate nuances and subtleties that enhance his/her enjoyment of that certain something. Quality is not a given, is a matter of perception and a matter of education. Looking at it this way, being snob is continuous education, usually self-education. But I am sure even this definition is a bit snobbish.
Let me give you an example: Craft Beer.
I used to drink normal beer: lager mostly. Think Heineken, Stella...The kind of beers people drink around here. Then I discovered IPAs. First time I drank IPA was in Newcastle at the BrewDog brewery. I hated it.
A year later I drank a different IPA and then a different one and eventually I started to enjoy it and look for certain taste in every bottle. I can hardly drink a lager now. I just don't see the point.
I am a" beer snob" to many of my friends.
When I talk with other people that enjoy beer, I can see that I am a noob-snob. I don't enjoy certain beers that people rave about it, I don't see the value in paying 10e for a beer that is famed and I certainly don't think I ever will. I could call those people snobs but I think a lot really have the taste more evolved than I do and for them, a simpler beer is just not as enjoyable. I will maybe never get to that level as education costs.
Here's the problem with being a snob: It's expensive!.
I always say:"be careful what you start to enjoy, is very hard to go back...".
I am a snob in 5 directions: Beers. Coffee. Bread. Perfumes and Cheese.
Luckily for me, while these are expensive they are not super-expensive. I can pay 3$ for a good sourdough bread and enjoy it for 3 4 days.
I can buy 10 beers for 50$ and have enough for a month. Sure, I could have 30 beers for that price but I wouldn't drink it and wouldn't enjoy it anyway.
While perfumes are very expensive, is hard to get back to low-quality perfumes after you wore Creed for a day. Try it. go try on Aventus and come back to tel me you can get CK from the store. You can buy very small quantities of good perfumes on the net so that can be less expensive than it appears at first. Sure, 10ml of Aventus is about 100ml of lower grade stuff but so what? It lasts 3 times as much and feels 100 times better. For me.
Some would not agree. Those are stuck at the designer-level of perfumes. Good for them. See how I sound like a snob here?
The weirdest thing is that the most expensive snobity is coffee. Why? Frequency.
Single origin coffee is expensive, very rarely can be bought at home because you need a real barista to prepare it JUST right and you need it daily! It's 3$ a cup at my local good coffeeshop and I have 5 or more every week. It's really hard on the pocket.
But I can't drink Starbucks coffee anymore ( which is really not that cheap anyway) and I crave the good real taste of a great coffee.
I remember first time I drank good coffee. I spit it out, too sour, too black and definitely too expensive. Now I'm here.
Let me tell you the last thing I love but don't want to get very snobbish about it: Ramen.
I am a big fan of Ramen and I'm only getting into it. We don't have amazing ramen here, we have only good ramen. It's young. I ate ramen everywhere and it's not cheap. At 10$ or so for a bowl, you can't have it al that often. I enjoyed it a lot but the different from my local ramen place here is not that bg to my taste now. I pay 5$ for a nice bowl here near my house and I enjoy it a lot. I eat there 3 times a week. I know that this is not GOOD ramen, it's merely OK. But at my level, this is pretty good.
I am not yet ready to invest more. If I ever visit Japan I know this place is over for me.
Remember: You can never go back. <-- ( OF COURSE! if you do not have money or stuff happens you will go back, I meant mostly that in the current context, it's difficult and you will need to pay more for the enjoyment ).
What are you a snob at?