So the other day, I met my first real snob. Not just a pretend snob, or wannabe snob, this was an absolutely real, fully fledged snob, and it was an amazing experience.

Basically, I was frequenting my cafe, sitting at the communal table eating waffles, and eventually the barista asked me how my coffee was. The person diagonally opposite me then got asked the same thing. Due to my response (which was usually some panicked survival instinct kicking in to help me describe my coffee in the hopes of not sounding like I have no clue), he started talking to me. It always starts out the same, “so you like coffee?” which then turned into a very interesting conversation.

I was explaining that I love coffee because of the flavours and that it’s interesting to drink, and then he mentioned how he liked places that serve consistently good coffee – that it was important for him that a cafe had a solid house blend. Actually, my memory is no better than it was before so he could have just as easily meant that as long as a place had a solid coffee, then that was what mattered. I then discovered that he used to also live in Sydney for a bit, and wait for it… he thought everyone on the south side of the bridge was scum! At this mention I realised I was talking to a very interesting kind of person. He then went on to say that  the Melbournian coffee scene was getting boring as it was all the same thing, that the cafe culture was so established that while you go there to get good coffee, you don’t go there for a surprise.

Going on from there, we then discovered we both work in nerdy jobs and had another common talking point! Again, very strong opinions, most of which make sense and some which were very subjective. Being in a job where everything was maths and computers, he valued artsy friends highly and said that it was great, even vital, to have arts/music people to hang out with in a very technology related environment. He then mentioned that he was writing about cafe culture and I commented about how he still used pen and and notebook, and there, another point of mutual agreement that the core of creativity comes from the motion of pen to paper.

His observations included his opinion that the Adelaide coffee scene was not yet refined enough, that most patrons were too loud and made the atmosphere akin to that of pubs. He believed that communal tables were for solitary people who read, worked or were on their phones, and that noisy/chatty people were to sit outside or facing the window/wall. He was very adamant about this. While I didn’t judge his comments, I did say things that showed I had a different opinion, and that’s when he confirmed he was a snob, and all his friends knew this. He’d often be told that he was a snob and he admitted to it and it was something he was completely comfortable with.

It was fun having that length of conversation with him, as I’m generally terrible with conversation, however I love when I meet new people. It’s always interesting and I didn’t mind one bit that he was a snob. I think that’s how we talked about so much , cause the whole time I was thinking, wow, that’s some extreme snobbery right there, but he was confident and comfortable in his own skin and that’s all that matters.

And hence, my very first encounter with a real snob! Very exciting and enlightening indeed.