As I sat in a Tim Horton’s on a Sunday morning, I began to wonder. Is Tim Horton’s really all that it’s cracked up to be? Is the coffee really that good, are the donuts really that fresh, or have we all just been brainwashed by years of hockey commercials, smiling families and Sidney Crosby into thinking that this is the case. Do Canadians really enjoy a cup of coffee from Tim Horton’s or do we just think we do because it is the Canadian cliché.
As I took a sip, I was not overwhelmed with flavour by any means (and often cups taste burnt). To be honest, I have had instant coffee from Nescafe that taste just as good as that cup did. So, why do we continually pay $1.52 for a large coffee at Tim’s? There are so many other options available. Even on campus, there is our wonderful CnD whose coffee has never disappointed me, not to mention a slew of different flavours to choose from, and what does that cost you? $0.60, that’s all. And that’s 40% of what a Tim’s cup will cost you. So, in my opinion, you are getting a worse coffee for 2.53 times the price. Is it supposed to be that the worse coffee tastes the more it costs? And don’t get me started on Roll Up The Rim, with a large portion of their prizes now “Tim Cards” you end up back in the store having another mediocre cup
Then we move on to the newest coffee player in the market, McDonalds. Now, I bed you’re thinking McDonalds coffee is probably terrible, but in fact it’s quite the opposite. Their coffee is far better than Tim Horton’s and it costs you less. I was first turned on to McJava during their free coffee campaign, which worked well, since I now buy all my ‘drive thru coffee’ from them when available. For a medium (comparable to Tim’s large), it costs $1.50, only $0.02 less, but with how much better it tastes, it’s a fairly easy decision. But then you can go up to a large at McDonalds, and for only $1.65 you get a massive cup that is bigger than the Tim Horton’s XL. But of course McDonalds still doesn’t really compete with the CnD.
Now, it may seem like I am biased in favour of the CnD, and it may have to do with the fact that I work there or that I’m EngSoc Exec, but above all else, I’m biased because I am a fan of value. In my mind, I see no reason for any Engineering student to buy from Tim Horton’s for their coffee/donut needs. With the CnD being run by EngSoc, you are going to see that money come back into our school, whereas, Tim Horton’s takes the profit and runs. Before you start saying things, I am aware that Tim Horton’s does do charitable work, and I’ll support them in that. But I would be surprised to see if the money going to charity was more than 2% of their net profit goes to charity (annual net income ~$250million)
I’ll stop here for now, if you like a good cup of coffee and money in your wallet, I suggest that you fill you coffee and donut needs at the CnD while on campus. If not on campus, I say give McDonalds a try if you haven’t already and if you’re left with nothing else, you can resort to Tim’s. Oh and for the record, for a regular cup of coffee,Starbucks just costs way too much.
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