"But I don't feel I'm superior to people who can taste the difference. In fact, I'd say I'm inferior - my range of experiences in my life is poorer than theirs - at least when it comes to coffee."

I don't feel superior either, I'm just glad I have time and money left over for other things. Feeling superior due to a taste for fancy coffee is the kind of elitism I have no interest in.

Plus there's some well-known psychology behind this stuff. Expensive wine tastes better, in part, largely because it is more expensive.

"Honestly, I don't see how you can present the ignorance of better things as an advantage, except in are really base, utilitarian way, where we are all hamsters on the hedonistic treadmill with no higher aspirations beyond immediate pleasurable gratification."

If you're ignorant of better things, you're happy with what you have. If you're familiar with better things, you're unhappy with what you have, unless you spend time and energy on better things instead, at which point you're just as happy as you were before except with less money and less free time. That's the same reward profile as drug addictions, frankly.

I think it's even more hedonistic to waste time and effort on exceptional food and drink when you could just keep yourself contented with average stuff and devote that time, money, and energy to higher pursuits. Not that I'm entirely uninterested in those kinds of experiences, but I'm not the one to be accusing of hedonism here.