Shard

The difference is that Timmies is one of Canada's home grown fast food success stories, whereas Dunkin' is just another chain in the vast American fast food industry. Second Cup is the coffee chain that pretty much missed the 1990s coffee boom IIRC.

scrubbedexpat091

Maybe its because I come from the land of donut shops galore who make their donuts fresh daily, but Tim's donuts are not good, not good at all. I love donuts, but I will not eat their donuts, they are no better then the crummy grocery store donuts, although Safeway is the exception they have decent donuts.


Starbucks Apple fritter is the best I have found in Canada, light years ahead of the Tims version.


Nothing good comes from that place....In my view.

BristolUK

I think we need to differentiate between doughnuts sold in grocery stores and those baked (or baked for?) and sold in grocery stores.

I mean there's this kind - the crummy kind



and then this kind

scrubbedexpat091

For sure, that is where the exception for Safeway comes in. Super Store, Wal-Mart and Save On even the "in store" kind are not very good, and pretty close to the same as Tim's or 7/11.

BristolUK

I can't speak for Save On or Safeway but I know Walmart's aren't good.

But the ones in Superstore here most definitely are. Soft. Fresh. Doughy. Lovely.

I'm talking about the jam ones only. Or should that be jelly?

BristolUK

Mind you, you have to go a long way to beat a fresh/real cream chocolate eclair from Sobeys

Edo

I heard once upon a time Tim Horton's used to make their doughnuts fresh in store from scratch (hence the "always fresh" besides their brand). The Always Fresh stayed but unfortunately the doughnut production was moved to a factory and now perhaps transported freshly frozen which may explain the new taste.

Oink

You utter naffer. There’s absolutely no need to post such gratuitous pictures of cream cakes at 3:30 in the afternoon.

BristolUK

I can't help it if you're in the wrong time zone. It was 6.46 pm here.

Oink

Fortunately, there's an Italian bakery around here that sells delicious cannolis so they'll have to do.

scrubbedexpat091

Save On is good for things with cream, they use real cream, and they also have good bread and cakes, but for whatever reason they don't do well in the donut department.

Safeway is good for donuts, but not so good for cakes.


Pretty much, they found is more cost effective to make it one place, freeze them and ship, so quality really went down, just can't get a good donut from frozen.


Luckily some donuts are easy to make, so I can make some which turn out pretty good. Hardest part is controlling the temp of the oil, too cool doesn't work, too hot and they burn before the middle is done, only tried making donut hole size (tim bits) haven't tried full size or specialty ones like long johns or jelly filled.



One of many reasons I miss Vancouver, better selection of baked goods, not much to be found out in farm country...

beckiwoo

Blasphemous!!!

I know Starbucks fruit granola yoghurt isn't very good compared to Timmys.

Snowy560

I drink a lot of Tim Horton's steeped tea. Every day.

If you get a strawberry strudel with it, you only pay 20c for the strudel.

S

Siouxie

I understand that they are partially baked/cooked, then fast frozen, then transported to the stores where they complete the baking/cooking process - hence 'fresh baked/cooked in house'.

Not that I know anyone who might have worked at the dispensing factory or anything of course... (ok, yes I do).

Pizzawheel

Good thing about Tim Hortons is they sell coffee. After memorising a string of goobledegook that when uttered in starbucks would cause a cup of coffee to appear, I tried the same in canada, only to get a smile and the question "would you like a coffee?"

I've quite liked Tims ever since, though I'd agree Muccky Ds is probably a better gig.

Starbucks I could cheerfully burn down. The iphone of the coffee world.

I call these Timjams.