It was… Once upon a time. Now those who drink coffee largely regard it as brown, burnt water.
Tim Hortons was once a magical place that lives up to the nostalgia fuel marketing that drives the franchise to this day. Every single store has actual bakers on staff who made the pastries, the coffee was genuinely fresh, and it seemed like staff were valued.
Then it got sold to the investment bankers and franchise conglomerates. It’s been min/maxed to death, whittling down every cost to the bare minimum. Things taste like cardboard, and people go because it’s there.
Interestingly enough, when McDonald’s moved into the coffee game, they picked up the bean contract that Tim Hortons held for eons. Tim’s dropped it for cost, and not an insignificant amount of people swapped over to McDonald’s for their coffee.
In 2001, when I left Canada, I had fond memories of Tim Horton’s donuts and other confections. In 2016 when I went back for some paperwork and stayed a month I was absolutely shocked at just how crap Tim Horton’s donuts had become: stale, lifeless, and oversugared/underflavoured. (I’d never liked the coffee so I didn’t try it.)
The donuts are still sometimes ok if you get there at juuuuuust the right time. But they go stale so fast now. And yeah, some of them seem to be way more sugary than they used to be (some of them hurt my teeth, they have so much sugar).
The coffee though… There’s no magic time where it’s possibly ok.
This can’t be overstated: back when baked goods were freshly baked in every store, the quality was anywhere from better-than-now to Tremendous. And as a side benefit, a lot of people who previously had little or no baking experience learned skills that could last the rest of their lives. The current mass-produced version of their baked goods is universally inferior and degraded the brand in a way that they’ll never recover from.
Nostalgia and wrapping themselves in the flag is their marketing because that’s all they have left, but it’s been wearing thin for years.
McDonald’s for years really stepped up their coffee game.
McDonalds found themselves in a weird place in the 90’s. Drive-throughs were tremendously successful, to the point where they had massive amounts of real estate that was primarily empty inside. People weren’t eating in as much, and so the dining rooms were empty.
Hence refurbishments and the introduction of McCafe — the whole point of which was to encourage more people to come in and use the dining rooms (and by sticking around, maybe buy more stuff than they would if they just came through the drive through). It’s why they introduced baked goods and mini doughnuts — back in the 80’s the only “baked goods” you’d get were apple pies and boxes of prepackaged mini cookies. Coffee and baked goods were the driver to get people to sit inside the restaurants more often — and if you go to any McDonalds in Canada in an area with a decent number of retirees, I’d say it seems to have worked.
And while I was still working out of a truck a few years ago, the mcD’s coffee went to shit again, so they changed yet again, but for the worse. But for that brief time, McD’s did have the best cheap takeout coffee.
Yep, worked there during the changeover. 2003-04ish. I actually loved working there under the old management, the food was good, quality was the priority. Then the fryers left, replaced by industrial microwaves…but we still baked the muffins. I’m sure even those are frozen/reheated these days.
It was… Once upon a time. Now those who drink coffee largely regard it as brown, burnt water.
Tim Hortons was once a magical place that lives up to the nostalgia fuel marketing that drives the franchise to this day. Every single store has actual bakers on staff who made the pastries, the coffee was genuinely fresh, and it seemed like staff were valued.
Then it got sold to the investment bankers and franchise conglomerates. It’s been min/maxed to death, whittling down every cost to the bare minimum. Things taste like cardboard, and people go because it’s there.
Interestingly enough, when McDonald’s moved into the coffee game, they picked up the bean contract that Tim Hortons held for eons. Tim’s dropped it for cost, and not an insignificant amount of people swapped over to McDonald’s for their coffee.
In 2001, when I left Canada, I had fond memories of Tim Horton’s donuts and other confections. In 2016 when I went back for some paperwork and stayed a month I was absolutely shocked at just how crap Tim Horton’s donuts had become: stale, lifeless, and oversugared/underflavoured. (I’d never liked the coffee so I didn’t try it.)
Something big was lost in that decade and a half.
Fucking capitalists.
The donuts are still sometimes ok if you get there at juuuuuust the right time. But they go stale so fast now. And yeah, some of them seem to be way more sugary than they used to be (some of them hurt my teeth, they have so much sugar).
The coffee though… There’s no magic time where it’s possibly ok.
I only went twice in 2016. Both times were so lousy I decided I’d not bother anymore. Which is too bad. I used to really enjoy Tim Horton’s. 😬
Timbits are so bad now. Encrusted in sugar, and they use some kind of weird oil now.
This can’t be overstated: back when baked goods were freshly baked in every store, the quality was anywhere from better-than-now to Tremendous. And as a side benefit, a lot of people who previously had little or no baking experience learned skills that could last the rest of their lives. The current mass-produced version of their baked goods is universally inferior and degraded the brand in a way that they’ll never recover from.
Nostalgia and wrapping themselves in the flag is their marketing because that’s all they have left, but it’s been wearing thin for years.
McDonald’s for years really stepped up their coffee game.
I’d choose a McDonald’s coffee for $1 over a Starbucks black coffee that’s $3. The hard part is dealing with having to walk into a McDonald’s.
McDonalds found themselves in a weird place in the 90’s. Drive-throughs were tremendously successful, to the point where they had massive amounts of real estate that was primarily empty inside. People weren’t eating in as much, and so the dining rooms were empty.
Hence refurbishments and the introduction of McCafe — the whole point of which was to encourage more people to come in and use the dining rooms (and by sticking around, maybe buy more stuff than they would if they just came through the drive through). It’s why they introduced baked goods and mini doughnuts — back in the 80’s the only “baked goods” you’d get were apple pies and boxes of prepackaged mini cookies. Coffee and baked goods were the driver to get people to sit inside the restaurants more often — and if you go to any McDonalds in Canada in an area with a decent number of retirees, I’d say it seems to have worked.
And while I was still working out of a truck a few years ago, the mcD’s coffee went to shit again, so they changed yet again, but for the worse. But for that brief time, McD’s did have the best cheap takeout coffee.
Yep, worked there during the changeover. 2003-04ish. I actually loved working there under the old management, the food was good, quality was the priority. Then the fryers left, replaced by industrial microwaves…but we still baked the muffins. I’m sure even those are frozen/reheated these days.