Speaker 1: Welcome and thank you for visiting the Informatorium 56 Podcast Studio.

This location is dedicated to general education and information and features this podcast.

I am Greg Bell and my partner Julia Korony is here with me.

Julie is going to be taking the lead on today’s show and I am really excited to hear about it.

So what have you got in store for us, Julia?

Speaker 2: Today we will be exploring the world of the drink coaster or beverage coaster, also known as the beer mat.

So Greg, what do you think of when you picture a coaster?

Speaker 1: Uh, when I think of a coaster, I think the first thing that pops into my head is a bar.

And specifically, well, it probably says more about me than it does about coasters or anything else, but I remember right when I turned like 21, there was a bar I went to and there was a bartender there and he would always, he would throw the coaster on the bar and land it right in front of you and then put your beer on top of it.

It was like a little trick.

I mean, it was kind of stupid, but I think because this was the first time, like I finally got to be at the big bar, you know what I mean? Like drinking legally, you know, I can walk into a bar, I can saddle up the bar, I can sit…

Speaker 2: Right, you’re out there, it’s like, “Here’s my test, I want to start a tab.”

Speaker 1: And this guy was there and he would always do that where he’d like spin it and it would like land right on the bar in front of you and then he would put the beer on top of it, set it down for you.

Um, and I also like, I actually really love bars and it was a really, really nice bar.

It’s one of my favorite bars.

That place is actually gone.

They knocked it down and put in a gas station with food in it, which is what we do on the East Coast.

We knock down beloved childhood memories and replace them with a gas station with food in it.

But, and then on top of it, I don’t even drink beer anymore.

I mean, it’s been 10 years since I’ve had a beer.

So that’s even more strange.

But that is, honest to God, when you say coaster, that is the first thing that pops into my head.

Speaker 2: You don’t think of a shallow skiff or a boat doing like coasting along a shoreline type situation?

Speaker 1: No, that was definitely, that was not what popped into my mind.

I went right to youthful drinking and wasted time at a local beer hall.

There was no productivity going on there for sure.

Speaker 2: So the coaster as we know and love today is used under a cold or hot beverage to protect the surface when you place the drink on a table or, you know, condensation or the heat from it.

You put a coaster and then you put your drink on top.

It can be made out of an array of materials from wood, metal, stone, twine, cardboard, and even ceramic ones.

And they can be very simple, just like plain wood ones, or they can have lots of decorative ones, like we have the wood-carved ones.

Those are nice.

Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what I always liked was the, uh, the cork ones.

You know, they’re just made out of cork, but they’re like really absorbent.

I liked them because they’re usually round.

I guess they probably make them in all kinds of shapes now that I think about it.

But the round ones were cool because you just spin them.

I think they were a little thicker and then you could just put it at, like, again, on the bar.

I don’t know, this whole thing’s going to be about me at the bar apparently.

But you just spin them and like they’d be like “bzzz” and they would sit in a circle then fall over and, you know, all that stuff.

They seemed to work better with the cork ones, but I always liked those.

Speaker 2: Oh, interesting.

I once got a pair, not a pair, a set of like four ceramic ones that were really nice and heavy.

So when you put your glass on it with the condensation, it wouldn’t stick.

You know how after a while the cold drink like sweats?

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 2: And you pick it up and then the coaster falls into your lap? These were really nice because they were so heavy when you picked it up, it just stayed there.

Speaker 1: Yeah, that’s good.

Speaker 2: Anyway, coasters can have some interesting uses because of the messages that can be printed on them.

Some areas have used them for political campaigns and messages and as promotional merch.

Believe it or not, some people collect beer mats and I looked it up on how to pronounce it and I don’t know if I’m going to do it right, but I believe they’re known as tegestologists.

Speaker 1: Okay.

Speaker 2: They just collect beer mats mostly.

Speaker 1: Coasters.

Okay.

Okay.

And when you’re, I guess I think so when you’re saying coaster, I’m thinking, you know, like the more permanent ones, you know, like it’s going to be ceramic, it’s going to be… and then beer mat, I’m thinking those like thin ones at the bar that have like the… they’re an eighth of an inch, they’re usually round or square with the rounded-off edges.

Speaker 2: Right, and then printed with all kinds of stuff, like promotional, like the brewery or, you know, a beer on it.

Yeah, exactly.

Okay.

You know, you have your coaster, which is what you might find in someone’s household, and then you have the beer mat, which is what’s at the bar.

What is the history of the beer coaster? According to the Oxford Dictionary, the first record of the word “coaster,” kind of like how we’re using it today…

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 2: …was found in a catalog dating from 1887 describing two choicely pierced coasters.

Now, at that time, what they were talking about was a little bit different than what we know today.

They were small trays, mostly made out of silver, porcelain, or wood, you know, fancy decorated, and some would even have wheels on them.

Speaker 1: How did the wheels thing work?

Speaker 2: Well, they were on the bottom of these platters or trays and then you could just pass it down the table, like wheel it over to you.

So if I had it, I would just like slide it over to you.

Speaker 1: Okay.

Speaker 2: These coasters were used to place a wine decanter on them and with the help of the wheels, you would pass it along the table from person to person, especially as the servants retired, you know, it got late into the night and the servants weren’t going to stand around there all night.

Speaker 1: So the servants, they do…

Speaker 2: They were just like, “We’re going to bed.”

Speaker 1: I just want to know, do they have a 401k? Are they retired?

Speaker 2: Probably not.

It’s the 1880s.

Speaker 1: Okay.

But I’m still imagining it’s like, “Margaret, Chauncey has gone to his quarters, would you please roll me the Cabernet coaster?”

Speaker 2: Exactly.

That’s, you know, if we were there, I imagine that’s exactly what would have occurred.

Now, I also think that these little small platters and trays would actually help protect the table and the linens from the inevitable drips, the drips that happen when you’re drinking, right? When you’re pouring wine, there’s always a drip, always a drip coming down the bottle.

Speaker 1: “Do not bother yourself with the spill, darling.

We will have Chauncey clean them up after they have dried into the carpet tomorrow as punishment for this eve’s early retirement.”

Speaker 2: But imagine as the night went on and people got more and more intoxicated and rambunctious and poor Chauncey had no idea what he was coming for.

It’s going to be like wine like all over the table and the carpet and even the walls.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Poor guy.

Speaker 2: It’s a lot of work for poor Chauncey.

Speaker 1: I mean, it’s a nice place to live.

Speaker 2: That’s… well, yeah.

Speaker 1: Be grateful for the small things.

Speaker 2: So why call them coasters though? Is it because of the coasting these decanters were doing around the dinner table? Well, according to the Oxford Dictionary, in the late 1500s, the word “coaster” is what they would call smaller boats that would go along the coastline and stop from port to port and to trade and bring different goods.

And this is exactly how those wine bottles were doing on, you know, what they were doing on those platters.

It’s like a mini little boat on your table.

Speaker 1: Exactly.

But with wine.

But you could have a really big boat, like these people with a really big table.

Speaker 2: Right.

Well, imagine those big parties and, you know, they go late into the night.

Speaker 1: And these are like rich people with those long Bruce Wayne tables with, you know, 45 chairs and you’re like…

Speaker 2: Who else can afford like a silver thing just to hold their wine bottle, you know?

Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2: By the 1890s, people were going bonkers for these things.

Um, according to the Stratford-on-Avon Herald, next to spoons, all-silver coasters are the mania of the day.

They are made to do duty as stands for ink bottles and pin cushions.

Flower glasses raise their heads from coasters.

The homely little brown jugs of Surrey cream come upstairs set in coasters.

And the coasters offer chocolate creams.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I actually thought that was pretty interesting though because I… this is like a real like hot item.

You know what I mean? This isn’t just some kind of… it sounds like people were like really into it.

I guess, you know, when you think about it, this was something you could make fancy and that’s kind of what people were looking for.

It’s a total luxury item and that’s probably why it was such a neat thing to have.

But to me, it’s the difference between like I had an Atari and now I have a PlayStation 5.

It’s just gone to the world whereas like back then this is like the new thing.

Speaker 2: Right.

And it probably came as part of a set.

You know, you ordered your table silver set with all your stuff in it that would have all like the little different like pitchers and, you know, random little things that would probably like a coaster like this would be part of that set.

Speaker 1: If you really like your butler, so Chauncey can go to bed at 9 o’clock.

Speaker 2: Or how many butlers do you have? Can they do a shift? “Chauncey, depending on how well this coaster works, we may not need your employ anymore.” But anyway, by the 1950s, the coaster used to protect the table from hot or cold beverage is in the common lexicon.

And now I don’t think you’ll find a household that doesn’t have some sort of coaster.

You can buy drinking glasses and coaster sets like online.

They make really nice gifts, even like souvenirs.

You know, you travel, you go somewhere, you’re like, “Oh, let me get these coasters because this is actually would be a nice reminder of our trip as I’m putting my glass down.”

Speaker 1: Yeah, it’s like the Planet Hollywood, what’s the one with the music? The Hard Rock Cafe.

Oh, yeah.

But instead of like a stupid t-shirt, you know, you have like an actual coaster you can actually use once in a while.

Speaker 2: Right.

When my brother came and visited, I actually think I found one with our little town, the town that we live in.

I found one and he was so excited and like he took that as a souvenir and that’s what he uses as a coaster now.

Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.

Yeah, that’s kind of cool because he’s in another country.

So it’s like, “Yeah, this is…” people are like, “What is that?”

Speaker 2: But what about the beer mat?

Speaker 1: That’s what I have been wondering.

Speaker 2: And where does it come in historically into this whole…

Speaker 1: Scene.

Yeah, the coaster scene where we’ve evolved from obviously having a really well-made coaster of like everything we go into to a much more mass-produced disposable item.

Speaker 2: Funny, you know you say that, but going by the dates on it, it kind of happens concurrently.

Like it’s kind of happening, yeah, like you know that entry was from the 1887 with the choicely decorated coasters.

And in the 1880s in Germany… now there’s debate about the source exactly and…

Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean these things are always open to a little bit of interpretation, but we’re talking about basically when they got started making the beer mats and the first ones that they had.

Speaker 2: Right.

So they start out in the 18th century when beer is a very popular beverage.

Alcohol is consumed more than water because of many reasons.

It was safer to drink and also life sucked and everything was hard and alcohol made you feel better.

Speaker 1: And that is actually a topic, a point of historical fact that will probably come up on 90% of our podcasts because everything you do is like something like, “Yeah, that’s what we did back then because it sucked and the water was terrible and our entire life revolved around not getting dysentery.” So we were just drunk until noon.

Speaker 2: Exactly.

So German pubs and taverns, they had cloth or felt pieces of fabric that they would put under the glass to protect the bar.

But mostly they were used to protect the beer from bugs and insects, which apparently were everywhere because there was no central air and you had to have all the windows open and so you were getting invaded by these flies.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw in one of your sources I was looking at there, it said that this is actually the reason they used these coasters, these beer mats, excuse me, originally was to actually cover the beer to prevent these insects because it was mostly like poor people using these to put on top of their drink at the bar.

Speaker 2: Right.

And in Germany, rich people had beer steins, which you know are the tankards with the lids.

They’re very famous, you know, we got people in lederhosen holding their beer steins like singing…

Speaker 1: Right, and they’re like… they can be pewter-looking…

Speaker 2: Right, and they’re like… they can be elaborately painted with landscapes and they can get real fancy with them and not everyone can afford them.

Speaker 1: I bet when the first guy that had an actual beer stein and he put it on a coaster, people probably just lost their minds.

They just laughed at him like, “What an idiot! Like what are you doing? Like stop with that.

Jeez.”

Speaker 2: But these pieces of fabric, people would also use them… you’d put them on top of your drink, not just to cover it for bugs, which I think was their main use, but you would also let the barkeep know that, “Hey, I’m still drinking this.”

Speaker 1: That’s like a normal use.

I feel like when I was younger, that was a thing people did and I don’t really see it anymore.

I think because it’s so gross.

Like that coaster is disgusting.

Speaker 2: They were just sitting on a bar and also like, has he used this coaster on the guy…

Speaker 1: Yeah, but that’s what I feel like when I started drinking people did a lot of time because you’re like, “I gotta go to the bathroom.

Don’t clean up my stuff.

I don’t want to lose my seat here.” Not a ton of ways to express that or, you know, you don’t want them thinking you’re bailing out on your bill.

You know what I mean? I’m just…

I gotta get up for a minute.

You would put your coaster on there.

But it’s just so gross.

I mean, you really shouldn’t be doing that.

Speaker 2: Right.

So based on that, you can imagine how like grungy these pieces of cloth would get, like how disgusting, because it’s not like they were doing laundry and using bleach in 1732 in a German pub and where no one has bathed in months.

Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.

And they said, apparently I had seen in the same source you gave me that like these coasters would actually be spreading germs even back then is why they were like, “Yeah, why are we doing this? We gotta come up with something else.”

Speaker 2: And honestly, if you think about back then, just I can’t even imagine the smell in some of these places, right? Like that is the least of your concern, like the grunginess of that felt piece of fabric that you’re giving me when there’s streams of poop in the road and, you know, decomposing garbage.

Like what are we doing with this piece of fabric? Like I don’t really care.

Speaker 1: Like this is holding the whole bar together.

Speaker 2: This is In the 1880s, this is where it’s a point of debate amongst like tegestologists.

Speaker 1: I’m sure, I can’t even imagine those conversations.

It is just a heated…

Speaker 2: They have clubs.

They have clubs.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I’m sure it’s a weekly meeting.

I mean, honestly, it totally lends itself to clubs.

You come over, you’re drinking, you talk about coasters all day.

Right, right.

Speaker 2: It’s coasters and beer labels.

Apparently, it’s a big like collector’s item, yeah.

And how to get them off of bottles.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw apparently even the bottle because somebody sold like a bottle of Miller High Life or something from like the 60s for like a bloody fortune.

It’s like there’s always somebody collecting something.

It doesn’t matter what it is.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

So in the 1880s, a German printing mill and company started making beer mats.

And because they were also a printing company, they were putting little messages on them.

And that kind of marks the beginning of advertising on a bar coaster.

However, the true beer deckle, which what do you think deckle means?

Speaker 1: The beer deckle?

Speaker 2: Yeah, it’s just German, beer deckle.

Speaker 1: Deckle? I mean, it sounds like you’re building a deck off the bar to like put your beer on it or, you know, like when you’re outside on your deck, you’re like this is the deckle.

Well, maybe that’s a meaning for deck.

Yeah, it’s like you’re putting deckle on the you have a little thing going off the side of your deck and it’s like a coaster or I mean like a not a coaster, a cup holder.

Speaker 2: Yeah, it means mat in German.

Speaker 1: It means mat.

My German is not so good.

Speaker 2: Well anyway, the beer deckle or the beer mat is born in 1892.

Robert Spauth, I think that’s how you say it, of Dresden, Germany, filed a patent number 68499, class 54, paper products, in which he used a process to create wood felt boards or covers which are supposed to be cut in round or square shapes, inscribed and decorated, and because of their absorbency could be placed under beer vessels.

Later they started making them out of wood pulp and so they became plentiful and cheap and a really good way to advertise for like different brewery and different all kinds of different things.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that’s where you hit honestly the purpose of most things it seems like anymore.

But you know, once you get the advertising involved in there, you’re like now we got a we got a hit product.

Like we can make money off of this thing, we’re good to go.

I bet that’s when they were just suddenly everywhere.

It’s like just all over the place.

Speaker 2: Right, and they’re you know, they’re almost one-time use type of thing and you kind of solve like the germ situation, you know.

Speaker 1: I mean, not at the bars I used to go to.

They were they would get reused.

I mean, yeah, I they were there for centuries.

I mean, it was a, you know, four-year-old beer coaster, it just had stains all over it, nobody was buying it.

Speaker 2: I’ve definitely had them where they already had like doodles on them.

Speaker 1: Again, that’s probably why that bar closed.

Like they didn’t have enough business.

Speaker 2: This is the same bar.

Speaker 1: Yeah, that’s the only bar I went to.

There’s only one bar.

That’s why I quit drinking.

The bar closed.

Speaker 2: But early in Germany, some bartenders would use the beer coaster to like tally the patrons’ drinks.

So you know, you order another one, they just mark it on there.

Speaker 1: Oh, that’s actually really good.

Like as you’re drinking, you’re taking a drink and he’s like mark it on there and he’s like you’re up to 10 before you leave.

Speaker 2: Exactly, exactly.

Speaker 1: And then some that seems like that would open up some shenanigans though because like, you know, you get up to go to the bathroom, I’m just like give you the old whoopty-woo.

Oh yeah, you’re mean to me, I’m just going to mark all of them.

Or barkeep, I got no, I’m saying I take mine which has got 10 on it, you got three on yours, I flip them and I’m like, hey barkeep, I got to go.

I’m in a hurry.

Come on, check me out.

And by the time you get back, you’re sitting there and you got like 25 beers you owe for and I’m out the door.

Speaker 2: I mean, this is before computers and before they could put, you know, place the orders in.

Speaker 1: I don’t know, I kind of want to go back to those days.

Speaker 2: But you know, some printers took that to heart and actually made coasters with special like markings around the coaster where it had like little tabs and you could like check them.

Speaker 1: Check them off, yeah.

Like a coaster abacus.

Speaker 2: I mean, some people use them as postcards, you know, you go somewhere, visit some place and you find this cool coaster, it’s made out of paper, stick a stamp to it and…

Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems so weird, but it’s evolved into like chicken or egg.

Like they’re doing both things now.

They’re they’re making coasters online with decorations of postcards and then other people that actually make postcards that are coasters you could use for your business to advertise.

It was like 400 of these and you can buy them on I don’t know it was eBay or somebody, some business was making them.

You personalize, looks like a coaster but it’s a postcard and then you send them out.

So it’s like two things that like just seem totally out of time and place.

But like again, everybody’s always into something so like that’s your thing I guess, so.

Speaker 2: Right, you know.

I mean, people doodle on these things like we had just talked about and you know, you use them to give directions and you know, even like pass along phone numbers and that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: Yeah, that that is mostly what I use them for.

It was you’re at the bar a little too long and you’re just like, uh, excuse me miss, would you be interested in a…

Speaker 2: The girl is starting to look pretty good after five marks on my coaster.

Speaker 1: Can I interest you in a coaster with my phone number on it?

Speaker 2: How’d that go? How’d that work?

Speaker 1: By the time you come up with that plan, it is no longer a good idea.

It is not a viable plan.

Yeah.

Speaker 2: You know, getting back to the coaster thing, apparently there is even a claim made by a Konstantin Chernenko that in the 50s secrets were passed to Soviet agents in Britain by writing them on beer mats which would then be folded and placed under the short leg of a table in a pub, like a wobbly table.

And then like no one would mess with them there because they would know like, oh, that’s just to keep the table…

Speaker 1: Yeah, you’re just thinking like yeah, they got a crooked you know chair here and like a pub chair and then like you’re sliding this under here.

Like it’s got to look a little weird though because at some point somebody’s coming in here, you know, you’re trying to be all slick like you’re like a CIA agent.

Give me give me all the coasters you got.

You just kind of sit down on the table and you’re kind of like, well, this chair’s a little wobbly, let me…

Speaker 2: Yeah, like I don’t know how true this story is, you know.

It seems a little it’s possible but I can’t…

Speaker 1: I mean, hiding in plain sight is is often times a good way to go.

That is true, but like I don’t know, just seems a little far-fetched to me.

It’s a good story though.

It’s better to have a good story than be true half the time.

Speaker 2: After World War II, people really got into collecting these beer mats and that’s when the term tegestology was created.

Speaker 1: Of course.

Speaker 2: The OED has the first use for this term in 1960 and coincidentally or maybe not so coincidentally, the British Beer Mat Collectors Society, a coaster collecting club, was established that same year.

So once that happened, naturally printers start started doing limited editions and collectors’ editions, you know, some are numbered.

They put like games on them like tic-tac-toe or word search and they even made them to where you could put like a puzzle together.

So you’d collect like all these and then it would make a puzzle.

Speaker 1: Oh, you’d get all yeah, then you put it together and you have that’s really cool, yeah.

Speaker 2: Right.

With the rise of the internet, so has the price of the collectible beer mat and with that, so has fraud.

Speaker 1: Yeah, this is if you’re talking about a beer mat, I cannot imagine this is hard to duplicate with a nice printer and you know what I mean, like you could just make this thing at home and be like I’ve got the 1940 original Budweiser whatever.

Speaker 2: Right.

And some of the dyes and some of the like the printing presses or printing dyes, you know, are still out there.

It’s not like they were destroyed.

You could easily find like a mold or something and you know…

Speaker 1: Oh yeah, or your dad had it and he passed it down to you and you find it in the box.

Speaker 2: They’re really hard to date, you know.

Speaker 1: Yeah, it’s yeah.

Speaker 2: So it’s kind of it’s kind of open to like people making fake ones and selling them online.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say you should I mean, who am I to judge, do whatever you want to do with your life.

But I would think in this case, this is for fun.

This is not…

Speaker 2: And it’s funny that a lot of a lot of tegestologists have that attitude where like, you know, like it is what it is, I now have it, like…

Speaker 1: Yeah, don’t spend $40,000 on a coaster.

I mean, check your life.

You know what I mean? What you want to be doing is like, look, this one’s really cool, okay, it’s on eBay for 10 bucks.

I think that’s fine.

Speaker 2: Exactly, like I can now make my whole puzzle.

I have, you know, all the pieces to it.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I think as a rule of thumb, once you’re paying enough for that coaster that the person could have afforded to buy a printer and found an old dye, you know, so I’m going to call that like 10, 20 dollars.

Like if you go over that, now it seems like a scam.

Like it’s just not worth it, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: With that, we’ll end our look into the coaster and the beer mat.

And if you want to learn more about the manufacturing process of them, How It’s Made actually has a segment on it for which you will find a link on our website along with all the resources used to put this little ditty together.

Speaker 1: That video is really cool, I checked it out.

Speaker 1: Oh did you watch it?

Speaker 1: Yeah, it’s cool for me because I one I love that show and two I love seeing how these things are made.

It’s really good because it’s never complicated on how it’s made and you feel like you’re really smart because you watched it.

But it it’s kind of handy because they show it just in real brief like from the point that the logs come in and they chip it up, they put it in hot water and that makes pulp and then they spray that onto like a mesh which actually it dries into a sheet and that’s what you call pulp board.

And that’s what you were talking about when they they started using for the the beer mats because they were actually more sanitary and it was really absorbent.

Apparently this is like crazy absorbent this material.

Speaker 2: Right.

And it’s easy to print on it, you know, and you can just mass produce them like a bunch at a time.

Speaker 1: Yeah, because then they like layer it together and they glue it together with it was weird because they use wheat and water and it some it turns into a glue.

And then the middle layer is actually the old leftover stuff from when you cut out the actual coaster.

Speaker 2: Or other or other paper products and stuff that they had remnants.

Speaker 1: Yeah, they threw that in the mix like they had other like leftover paper.

But then they glue it together and then, you know, obviously it’s in a huge sheet and they cut it up.

Well they print it and then they cut it up and then package it and send out like, you know, a million of these a day, so.

Speaker 2: Right.

So Greg, what is your takeaway from today’s episode and what do you think the future holds for our beer mat?

Speaker 1: Out of order, I would say you know, once you get that advertising in there, these beer mats are going to be here forever.

I don’t and you know, until we get sucked up into the, you know, the matrix computers and we’re no longer drinking beer at a bar or, you know, anywhere you go where they’re using beer mats, homes, anything like that.

There’s going to be coasters and beer mats, especially with the collectibility aspect.

You know, they’re kind of a neat little thing to have.

But I would say for like the big takeaway from this show, I think it is just fascinating.

I mean, that original coaster, the fact that it is like a metal cart with these little like molded wheels on it and that’s for servants, you know, to be like or like when you’re servants not there, like you’re you’re passing this thing down a table.

It’s it’s just absolutely adorable.

I found a couple online too like and they were like showing these little things they’re like antique Victorian age coasters and they’re just it was it was so neat.

There’s just a it was a really interesting topic with so many like crazy twists and turns.

It just shows like when you go back far enough, there’s always something something weird that happened in the story and it makes it interesting.

Speaker 2: And it’s really interesting because beer manufacturing and like breweries back then there were a lot of much smaller companies, but in you know 60s and 70s and 80s, they all kind of like bought each other out.

So at one point you really didn’t have that many breweries anymore, right? It was like Busch and like, you know, it was like the big the big companies.

Speaker 1: Yeah, right, they probably don’t need to be advertising anyway, they’re just advertising against one against the other and they already have every commercial in the world.

Speaker 2: Right, right.

But the world of the beer mat kind of it enjoyed a bit of a revival with all in the 2000s with all these little microbrews and you know, the craft beers that are like popped up and all that stuff.

Speaker 1: Yeah, it’s now it’s a great thing again.

Speaker 2: Right, and now it’s kind of more of a collectible item again.

It’s not like that Miller Lite, you know.

Speaker 1: Yeah, you print them off, you take it to a bar, you go, hey, here are some free beer mats which I’m sure they’re love to have.

And quite frankly, if I was running a bar, I’d rather have these like little, you know, neat little beer mats instead of just 50,000 major brand beer mats, you know, that you’re handing out.

So.

Speaker 2: But like last time we were out, I got a beer mat that had like I think it was an Allagash White one, you know, it wasn’t it wasn’t like Coors or Miller or even Guinness was like one of the big ones that you would always get at a bar, you know.

Speaker 1: Yeah, now it’s actually a nice little way to get a resurgent onto a…

Speaker 2: I don’t know what the future holds for the beer mat.

I don’t know if environmental concerns and trees and that kind of stuff is going to affect it.

Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like that is always an issue and nobody cares, so I think it’s probably safe.

Speaker 2: That’s true.

And it’s also like super recyclable, so I don’t know.

I think of the last few times we’ve gone and sat at the bar, it’s been kind of a cocktail napkin that’s been placed in front of me rather than a beer mat.

Speaker 1: Yeah, but I think a lot of that might have been the transition from COVID because everybody just wanted to throw everything away all the time and it’s like we’re not going to print off one-time, you know, use beer mats that we’re giving you for free and then you’re just throwing it away and then like we’re not getting anything out of that.

So I mean it’s possible, but I just think generally speaking people’s concerns for, you know, trees is not really high on their thoughts, so I think they’re probably going to stick around.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

And they’re also not used for directions anymore or passing phone numbers because now we all have cell phones and Google Maps.

Speaker 1: Yeah, you have cell phones.

So they should last longer.

Speaker 2: That’s true.

That’s true.

You should have more better bang for your buck.

Well, on that note, we will wrap up this episode and thank you all for listening to this short story informatory edition of the Informatorium 56 podcast.

Once again, you will find all the sources used on our website informatorium56.com.

And if you would like to reach us, you can do so at informatorium56@gmail.com.

Thank you for visiting and please go out there and live a good life.

Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you so much for visiting us here at the Informatorium.

We wish you a happy, healthy, and beautiful journey until we see you again.

Look on the bright side and good luck.

Speaker 2: Bye.