If You Still Haven't Partaken Of Tim Hortons, Some Fun Facts To Get You Started

Courtesy of The New York Canadian Meet Up:

In case you’ve missed the extensive coverage from the New York Times and haven’t noticed the giant dancing coffee cups in midtown Manhattan, Tim Horton’s has opened up shop in New York City. For the benefit of my American friends, I decided to put together a little primer about what makes Tim Horton’s so uniquely special.

Tim Hortons, the Canadian cultural institution.

So why all this fuss over a coffee chain? Well, for us Canadians Timmy Ho’s is an institution that goes hand in hand with hockey, our unofficial religion. The link goes all the way back to its roots – Tim Hortons was co-founded by the NHL player, Tim Horton. Most of us Canadian kids fondly recall the 4 a.m. stops at the Tim Hortons’ drive-thru prior to hockey practice while the parents reloaded on caffeine for the drive to the rink. It was “always Tim Hortons”, since nothing else was open at that ungodly hour.

Tim Hortons has also dominated the airwaves for years with their “there’s always time for Tim Hortons” jingle. Come to think of it, most of those ads were on during Hockey Night in Canada. Up north, Tim Hortons stores are known for their great service, the unique strong flavor of the coffee, fresh baked doughnuts and soup and sandwich cobons. And yes, Timbits.

Tim Horton’s is also Canada’s largest restaurant chain and is a publicly traded company, with a ~4.7 B market cap. It’s pretty big. They’ve been slowly making their way down south, starting first with “almost Canadian” cities like Buffalo and now taking NYC by storm.

Tim Hortons in NYC.

Be warned. If your first time at a Tim Hortons will be at a NYC store, don’t judge the brand by your experience. It’s like those Disneylands that they’ve built abroad – they’ve copy-pasted all the stuff, but I didn’t sense the same magic. Maybe it’s just because there aren’t guys sitting around talking about the Canucks over the morning paper and a coffee. For us Canadians seeing the brand again is good enough, but it looks like they’re still working out some kinks with the service, which is the hallmark of Timmy Ho’s back home. The coffee is spot on though. Yum.

Some quick facts to get you on your way.

• A “double-double” is a coffee with double cream, double sugar. Try it.
• The name of the store is “Tim Hortons”. That’s right, no apostrophe. Don’t ask.
• Those delicious doughnut holes are called Timbits. What’s a “munchkin”?
• Tim Horton was a NHL defenceman who played for the Leafs from ‘49 to ‘70, with stints with the Rangers, Penguins and Sabres at the end of his career. Sadly, he passed away in ‘74 in car accident during the NHL season. Horton started his namesake coffee franchise with a business partner.

http://euwyn.com/2009/07/18/a-tim-hortons-primer-for-new-yorkers/