Tasting notes are indeed subjective, but I realized their purpose is not to say "This tastes like chocolate, banana, peanut butter, almond, cherry, and strawberries." Especially in coffee, a different way of preparing it can produce different results - so you might taste chocolate with strawberry acidity, you might taste banana and peanut butter. Maybe you think it tastes like strawberry banana. Above all, it's always going to taste like coffee, so it will maybe taste like coffee with the aroma of berries, of an aftertaste of chocolate or whatever. It's never going to be as strong as actual artificially flavored versions of those things. And I can never usually pinpoint more than one "flavor", FWIW.

The idea of tasting notes is not to tell you what to expect, but give you an idea of what you might look out for. I use them as a barometer for consistency, does this bean from this region usually have more acidity and fruit notes, and the like. Maybe they plant something in your mind, maybe they dont. I just started roasting my own beans so I'm out on my own but Im with you - I like them, it helps put a name to what youre experiencing.

Im coming from years ago getting into hipster tea and tasting notes have always been ridiculous. Mostly they exist to sell the product so they will lead with things like "chocolate", "cinnamon", "honey", "fruit" - big exciting flavors that people usually want to experience. It's always been a sales pitch. But as you drink a lot of coffee or tea you do notice the subtle differences. Sometimes, yeah, it might taste very strongly of whatever flavor, but it usually trends towards a middle ground, as if you had maybe eaten some orange candy and then took a sip - it's just tea or coffee, after all.

To me, the fun is getting to taste the drink and then going "WOAAAAAH It totally DOES taste like cherries! (Or maybe it doesnt and just tastes like coffee.)" It makes your coffee a little bit more exciting.

I almost think it's MORE pretentious to push back against that because youre too good for "too-good-for-your-types" coffee. They arent bringing it back around and making it any less pretentious, if anything they're almost stepping it up by taking it in the same direction that modern art is criticized for, just leaving the consumer/viewer totally high and dry, saying "Everything is up to your interpretation. (But is it art?)"

I mean, this also goes on in the "craft beer" industry too. This is a pretty long-fought battle.

This is probably the most pretentious, super hipster thing ever written BTW.