MISQUAH — Pat Reinholt knows what coffee costs at the State Fair.

She knows because forty-two people have told her.

The reported figure varies by location, cup size and the storyteller’s need to improve the story, but the Daybreak has received enough data to conclude that coffee in St. Paul costs more than coffee in Misquah.

This finding has surprised nobody.

It has nevertheless been announced upon entry by nearly every person returning from the fair.

Reinholt has posted a small card beside the register reading YES, WE HEARD. It has not reduced the reports.

Eunice Dahlquist maintains that the problem is not the price itself but the paper cup.

“If you are going to pay city money for coffee,” she said, “you ought to at least get a cup that makes a noise when you set it down.”

First State Bank president Yvette Boone, who went to the fair Sunday and has now been in Misquah long enough to understand what constitutes acceptable coffee discussion, declined to provide her own figure.

“I am learning the local math,” Boone said. “I know better than to add another number to this one.”

The Daybreak’s coffee remains the same price it was in June. Reinholt said she has considered raising it a nickel “just to see if anybody is paying attention” and has been advised by the Klatch that this would constitute price gouging.

The Klatch then spent eleven dollars collectively on pie.