years ago hot-cups were indeed wax coated, but they were generally double-walled paper. And yeah, you are right, a very hot cup of coffee when left to sit woul

years ago hot-cups were indeed wax coated, but they were generally double-walled paper. And yeah, you are right, a very hot cup of coffee when left to sit would 'precipitate' some floating wax islands atop the surface; but I think it was just presumed that the wax source (beeswax, whatever) was safe to eat. the worst thing was when you'd forget your hot cup of coffee until the next day somewhere, by which point the wax was off the paper and the liquid was out of the cup.