You won't get it until you've been in it.
Many years ago when I first started working in an office, I would drink freeze dried coffee that most workplaces provide free in the kitchen. To me, it was just coffee. The more experienced members of the team would never touch it, and would head out for coffee runs 2-3 times a day, to me, on a graduate income, it was just a waste of $10-12 every day.
Not exactly sure how it started, but I did start to join them later on, I think more for the social reasons. And the more "real" coffee you drank, the more you realise how bad freeze dried coffee was. From there, you move on to "oh this shop is better than that"....and before you know it, you become a coffee snob
Melbourne coffee is bloody good. You don't realise how good it is until you live away. What makes it good? Is it the beans? The beans come from all over the world, I don't think we grow our own, so it can't be that. Is it the way its roasted? Is it the way its made? I dunno. Its just different to other places.
The McDonalds coffee here are pretty darn good too, and I think they use trained baristas.