This is not late-breaking news. I saw my first Tim Hortons™ advert in a Spar™ (that’s a 7-11-type convenience store) just off Trafalgar Square back in May, but only recently parted with my pence for a coffee and donut. When one thinks about it, unless they are going to open a window in every grandmother’s living room, Tim’s will have to go abroad for growth, to keep the investors happy (happy investors: what a quaint idea). Any more shops domestically and Canada will have more Tim’s outlets than voting citizens. I’m sure they already outnumber beavers and caribou put together. While it’s never great coffee, Tim Hortons™ is the comfort food that most Canadian adults can recognize and agree on, and whenever homesick I could sure go for one. So I gave it a go this week: the results were mixed.
In my local Spar™ the Tim Hortons™ coffee is dispatched by push button from a machine. Not surprisingly, it tastes like any other pod-dispensed coffee, and nothing like the real McCoy. Not even close. No resemblance whatsoever. If you want a timmies in the UK, grind a medium-quality mocha java and drip it at home. But the donut (neither gluten- nor egg-free; I can eat what I like when on the street) was much more authentic. Chemically-speaking, it was the same boston cream donut one would be served in or Coquitlam, or Flin Flon, or Gander. If it disappointed, it was because it was clearly puffed-up in an oven off-site, and shipped to the store. In Canada, the donut is puffed-up in the oven on-site, and so is one step fresher. But the boston cream was essentially correct (although I’m more of a honey cruller girl, myself; I’d stop into a Spar™ for that).
Happy thanksgiving, Canada! Congratulations on all those solvent banks! And don’t worry: minority governments look great on you, really!
I’m just back from my latest trip to Canada having spent an inordinate amount of time in various Timmies! One of the things I like to bring back here with me is a can of Tim Hortons coffee, I actually think it’s much underrated and really enjoy the stuff.
The donuts are way too much of a temptation and I attempt to limit myself to an odd Boston Cream or two on each trip!
I really wish Tim Hortons would expand in a big way into the UK. It offers quality at a price that cannot be matched here in my humble opinion.
Happy belated Thanksgiving, Catherine!
I vaguely remember a drive-through Tim Hortons in or near Ottawa. I ate a muffin but that’s all I remember. No idea what a Boston Cream is but I’d like one right now. Please. :)
The Canadian (ie Tim Horton’s) Boston cream donut is a Berliner: a deep fried yeast-dough donut, syringed full of vanilla custard and dunked upside-down in chocolate icing. I bet the Scottish Spars carry them. They’re better in Canada, though, if only because they’re fresher. I wonder if Gregg’s does something analogous…