19th Most Favorite Thing About the State Fair of Texas: Beer in Waxed Cups

Number 19 in my Countdown was suggested to me last year by my friend, Randy, who loves the Fair and visits every year with his family (obviously, a supercool bunch). I was headed to Fair Park with Sunni and Clare, and he said “don’t forget to drink beers in waxed cups.” His admonition made me stop and pay attention for a few reasons:

1. When people learn you are on your way to the Fair, most of them mention corn dogs, whatever fried food seems most heinous that year, their personal favorite fried food, or some throw-up ride on the Thrillway that they think is killer. No one ever mentions beer. It’s a little pedestrian compared to everything else.
2. I don’t really drink much beer at the Fair. I don’t drink a lot of beer anyway, but at the Fair, it seems like a tremendous waste to drink calories instead of eating them. Also, beer makes me feel full, and that’s a strategic misstep at the Fair.
3. The specificity of Randy’s description — beer in a waxed cup — was intriguing. What did the wax do? Did the beer taste different than beer in a glass or plastic bottle? Different than beer in a plastic cup? Did the wax leech away all the filling-up-stomach properties of the beer?

Since I’d never really paid much attention to beer at the Fair, I had to find out.

That night, between my sausage at Hans Mueller’s Beer Garden and Tent of Bavarian Delights, some fried cookie dough, a corn dog, and a cinnamon roll, we purchased some beer in waxed cups.  At this point I should admit that State Fair beer goes REALLY well with savory fried foods… and sausage. (This was something of a revelation to me, and I absolutely intend to make good use of a corn dog-beer-Jack’s Frys combo this year.)

As for the beer itself, it tasted… the same way beer usually tastes, to be honest. Perhaps a bit like frat-house beer in its watered-down-ness (a bonus, really: watered-down beer is less likely to produce that pesky full feeling I described above), but generally, it was nothing to write home about (if you happen to write home about beer drinking, which I do not).

But that waxed paper cup was something else. And not because it possessed special qualities that altered the molecular structure of the beer inside. No, gentle reader, I believe it is simply the act of drinking beer out of something that provides the least sturdy barrier between beer and your hand, beer and the table, beer and the elements that makes the waxed cup interesting. You and the beer share a very real connection — after a couple of minutes holding your cup, the sides even start to feel flimsy and you think beer might possibly begin to osmose out of the semi-permeable membrane that was once paper and wax.

Randy with his Corny Dog and Waxed-Cup Beer

I will also admit that the cups are not bad-looking. They feature a very fancy, orange, official State Fair graphic that would make you want to save the cup if it were a) durable plastic and b) not disintegrating in your hand by the time you finish your beverage.

As I thought about it, I realized that there is  a very practical reason for serving beer (or any beverage) out of a waxed cup. At our State Fair (where Texas temperatures in September-October are usually still quite toasty and beer-holders’ hands are hot and sweaty), cold beer in the waxed cup becomes warm beer in a waxed cup within a matter of very short minutes. So you have to drink fast. And often. How very tricky of the State Fair! (An important note in this regard: the cheapest waxed-cup beer I’ve found at the Fair is in the Tower Building. You can thank me later.)

I’m relatively sure that Randy has his own reasons for putting beer in waxed cups near the top of his list of favorite things at the State Fair. For now, I will say that it is on MY list because it provides the perfect accompaniment to many of my OTHER favorite things and because the waxed cup adds a terrific element of ticking-clock danger to the proceedings — danger of possibly drinking warm beer or, worse, finding that your waxed cup has simply given up and melted right in front of you.

I’m not sure how much more convincing you need that beer in waxed cups at the Fair is something special than this photo evidence provided by Clare, which clearly shows that the beverage has been targeted for heavenly illumination.

~ by nf1014 on September 6, 2009.