Canadian Cuisine - Part 1: Coffee

Ah coffee, how I miss you! While there is a Tim Horton's on every corner (about 50 in downtown Toronto alone), and a Starbucks on every other corner (about 25 in the area), it seems that real coffee is hard to find. As a fellow expat put it to us: "you have to think of coffee as a different concept here". The word 'coffee' means percolated drip coffee in North America, and sadly the words 'flat white' do not seem to exist. Let's review the two major players, Starbucks and Timmy's:

You're probably familiar with the standard Starbucks formula - cheery baristas decked out in green aprons that insist on knowing your name, offering an almost endless range of coffee products. I usually go for something simple like a grande decaf double ristretto non-fat organic cinnamon dolce latte, extra hot with whipped cream, double blended and served in two paper cups. I find Starbucks coffee reliably consistent, yet somehow unsatisfying - it feels like a coffee placebo.

The Canadian alternative to this US multinational giant is Tim Horton's, where the coffee is awful, but much cheaper (you can buy 2 coffees with $5 and still get change back). I'm told that the immense popularity of the chain stems from a strong sense of patriotism, as it's named after a hockey legend who co-founded the company. One redeeming feature of the menu at Timmy's is TimBits, which are the sugary blobs cut out from the centre of donuts. They come in a happy-meal shaped box which is designed to draw your attention away from the coffee.