I've been thinking about the concept of taste since a scotch tasting I attended last week, and I think I've come up with a good jumping off point for a decent discussion. There at the tasting, the room was understandably full of scotch enthusiasts and initially I felt like a spectator. People were using words like "peatiness" and comparing regions of Scotland to describe what they liked in a good scotch. It would have been easy for me to dismiss it all as pretentious postering, but I tried the scotches and could compare with limited experience and expertise which one I really liked to the others that I didn't like as much. If that wasn't enough to open my mind about scotch, each glass was introduced by the person that ran the distellery in Scotland and I learned a lot about how different regions affect the taste (scotch making relies heavily local water quality) and what peat is (as far as I can tell, the peat in the ground affects that water taste). The conclusion I came to is that some people really like a good scotch and understandably want to find the best one for their unique palette.

So, I got to thinking about how certain people are automatically turned off when somebody professes a preference between things that the we in the general population all experience (food, music, beer, novels, television, etc), but maybe don't care enough about to really learn or understand the subtle distinctions that can be made between two given things. I think that people also make the wrong assumption that when someone says that they prefer one thing over another for whatever reason, that means that that preference must be the right thing for everyone, when that's not really the case at all. Everyone has a different palette, but not everyone really uses their palette. For instance, everyone listens to music with their ears, but only people that really appreciate music listen to music with their brains and their hearts.

I guess what I'm saying is that it drives me crazy when somebody calls something pretentious but they have no desire to open their mind and try it out for themselves. Do you guys agree or have a different perspective about any of this?

w.machine-

Welcome to the post-hipster universe. Anyone that doesn't understand the subtle qualities of what WE like (we being, whoever is chatting about our favorite things) is a mainstream ignorami.. Anyone discussing vocally the qualities differentiating things we DON'T know anything about is pretentious because to be smarter than ME is overkill and going to far with your micro-obsessions. Just do your best to forgive the un-authenticness of certain people and remember that ignorance and hypocrisy is all part of the human experiment...

It's been my experience that those who most often play the "pretentious" card in regards to another's tastes happen to be some of the least self-aware people on the planet.

I've introduced craft brew about a year ago to a few friends of mine that otherwise hadn't cared to venture outside the Shiner Bock bubble and we all love to try new beers weekly at the Flying Saucer. Weirdly enough, even after this ongoing experience, I'm finding that if I'm driving and have the radio on a certain station, the same friends tell me that I'm being pretentious because I'm listening to it. I love my friends and consider them pretty self-aware and all, but things like that are the impetus for a thread like this.

Is it self-aware to know that you choose to be pretentious about one thing, say music, but are completely unpretentious in another thing, say food. I love tilapia and Tombstone pizza and don't care who knows it! I'm not really trying to make a point here. Just admitting one way I'm hypocritical I guess. I like "pretension" in some areas but find it annoying in others.

I know the reason behind this thread, and it means a lot to me that you made it. I'm glad we can put this ugly episode behind us, friend.

I think that it would be pretentious to say that you are a better human being for preferring gourmet pizza and red snapper to tombstone or tilapia, but if frozen pizza is your thing than it's understandable (at least to my taste buds) that you would prefer tombstone over digiorno.

fu

Hey rafa.

We'll get back to where we once were, friend. Give it a few months.

I don't even think it will take that long.

nothing two naked dudes in a hot tub can't hash out over a few bottles of wine

That's fucking gay. We'll be drinking beer.

I'd say the self-awareness is strong in you.

I really do love a good scotch.

In my experience it seems as though the people who say their taste is the correct one are also the people who speak highly of themselves in an open manner. But on the other hand, the people who continually go out of their way to make sure others around them are always happy share a similar fate. The egotistical person wants to make sure everyone knows he/she is great and right in all aspects, but in the end so does the person that makes everyone happy. After all, they want everyone to think they are great because they go out of their way for others. I think all of this relates to things such as discussions of food, music, art, etc.

Why the fuck am I even participating in this thread? Shit like this normally gets my blood boiling.

I'm pretty awesome, team.

My tastes are correct. For me.