Food snobbery

[Feckingfeck]

DM always buys "good eggs" I mean nearly £4 a box from Waitrose. I ate one. Wasn't really too impressed- I mean not sure what I could hope for from an egg really?!

What things do you insist on buying branded?

Are there things you simply wont skimp or get own brands of?

AIBU to think any free range egg is just the same as the next?

This is actually my pregnancy craving at the moment. A bowl of corn flakes. No milk or anything else added. I have tried Lidls and Aldi and they don’t compare to Kellogg so would have to disagree with you on that one haha.

If she prefers the taste and can afford them, then why not??

I think a lot of us have preferences that other people don't understand because we can taste a difference that they can't.

I buy free range, and what I prefer. E.g. I prefer cheap orange juice to expensive.

I am snobby about coffee. I will only drink "real" coffee and not the instant crap. My favourite is the Lidl fair trade Columbian one, so not branded.

Aside Heinz tomato ketchup, salad cream and Heinz tomato soup. Pretty much Everything else I buy is supermarket own stuff. Can't abide mega cheap bog roll or kitchen roll though but I will still use the asda sensation aloe or coconut one.

Heinz beans
McVities digestive biscuits (chocolate and plain)
And always free range eggs and English asparagus.

We've been in Copenhagen for past 19 months and you get some good stuff that I've never seen in the UK- a lot of very good Knorr packet sauces , cartoned soup - terrific tinned fruit brands too that I've not seen in UK

Oh and a fantastic toilet roll called Just 1 by Lotus - I believe you can get it on Amazon too but it's pricey-- here it isn't - I think it's French maybe? It's incredibly thick and soft

It’s not snobbery to care about quality. Good quality food is a basic need and supports good health. It also supports local farmers who are trying to do the right thing in producing good food, protecting the environment and creating jobs. I don’t understand why so many UK people who can afford to buy better are so obsessed with food being as cheap as possible.

The people buying marmite are bonkers. Supermarket “yeast extract” is so much better. And far more spreadable.

We buy our eggs from a local farm where you have to drive in slowly to avoid the hens that are truly free range, wandering about. £2.40 a dozen. The egg side of the business is run by the farmers children, and they make a point of not using additives in the food to make the yolks a darker colour, not killing the hens at 18 months when they start to be less productive, and the eggs may be different sizes as they charge the same for every size egg. We like buying there as they are a lovely family, but the eggs taste like eggs.

I always buy midrange loo roll, not the really cheap stuff that's like sandpaper, life is too short for that. Also I don't scrimp on bin bags, I learnt that when I was a student. Nothing worse than a bin bag splitting when you're taking it out, gross.

I buy branded ketchup Heinz and Branston pickle, but I am not fussed about much else. I buy supermarket brand beans because they're significantly cheaper.

Is it maybe not about the taste of the egg but more the treatment of the chicken she is paying for?

I will freely admit to being a food snob. Like is too short to eat unpleasant food and thankfully I have not (yet) reached the point where I have had to eat transparent looking eggs.

I don’t think it’s necessarily always about price v non price though or brand v non brand. It’s about knowing what you like and value.

Unashamed food snob here! Burford browns, posh French butter (Lescure or president), Maldon salt, Bo Tree black pepper, the best quality meat I can get my hands on etc etc. High quality definitely does make a difference to me - just because you can get food cheaper, doesn’t mean you should (for taste AND sustainability reasons) provided you can afford to.
And then the less posh things that I insist are branded - Diet Coke and Heinz ketchup and beans because they just don’t taste right otherwise!

And marmite

But more expensive doesn't necessarily mean better quality or better for you, it really doesn't, not when the product/ingredients are objectively compared.

There's been countless blind tests on programmes like Eat Well for Less where the people who could only possibly ever eat a certain expensive brand, can't pick it out of a line up, say it is cheap rubbish when they don't know which one it is, actively prefer the Lidl/Aldi version or any other outcome that proves that expensive doesn't necessarily mean better or nicer.

I tried Burford Brown eggs after a thread on here a few months and while they looked a bit more orangey they didn't taste any different to our normal eggs at a third of the cost per egg (M&S 15 for £2 unsorted free range eggs or farm shop eggs).

It's true that more expensive products may give a better price to the producer or better animal welfare, but this is not what the OP is talking about here.

Eggs are very healthy. If they taste better to her then the expense is not a luxury. Plenty of people can afford good brands by not buying as much take away or soft drinks and eating better, more locally produced foods.

@TheGlitterati DS has wholemeal toast with melty butter and marmite or jam, normally with a satsuma or sliced apple. Or he has boiled egg and soldiers.

High days and holidays we have chocolate or raisin croissant and fruit.

If they’re burford browns then I completely agree with her!

I agree that the golden yolk ones are nicer. Taste is a pretty indervidually thing so I wouldn’t say this is snobbery.

I hate the view that having preferences or caring about what you eat is snobbery. Our friends have a farm, and their eggs definitely taste different from supermarket ones.

I have chickens, ducks and a goose! Honestly the eggs are so much nicer as they have, what I think, is a more natural diet. They eat lots of bugs and vegetation this time of year. Chickens are brilliant for eating ticks etc. which really helps as we're surrounded by sheep.

The yolks are really rich and make brilliant cakes. I find eggs lacking in flavour if I go away anywhere.

Definitely. Marmite is the devil to get out of the jar and spread without it dripping all over the shop and down your knife. For that reason I buy Aldi though I also prefer the taste of it.

We use loads of eggs and I can tell the difference between a decent and a cheap egg.

That said, we buy ours from a farmer and they work out at 16p an egg which is cheap. I used to buy Waitrose but the eggs from our local farmer are much better.

Orange yolks do taste better to me. I bought some Burford Browns from Sainsbury's and I'm converted. I used to just buy the cheapest free range, but the Burford Browns are much nicer