Get Your Timmies

This is Bryan posting now. Anna is asleep and I've taken over the blog.

I've decided to take this opportunity to discuss one of my favorite features of our new town - Tim Hortons.

While we were living in Colorado, I always felt that there was one major flaw: there was no legit drive-thru coffee option. While they had plenty of Starbucks, Caribou Coffee and well, more Starbucks locations, these rarely had drive-thru windows and none were all that great. When Anna and I visit family in Illinois, there are plenty of Dunkin' Donuts locations (and their coffee is brilliant). Likewise, when we visit family in Saginaw, there are plenty of Tim Hortons locations.

Well, here in Hamilton there is a Tim Hortons on virtually every corner (although, not any of the corners closest to us... but that's a fluke). In fact, the very first Tim Hortons was in Hamilton, Ontario. Now, it has taken over Ontario, most of Canada and is infiltrating the U.S. (Saginaw has three locations! - Saginaw doesn't have three of anything).

Tim Hortons is literally a Canadian phenomenon and has become closely connected with Canadian culture. Everyone drinks it. And, I have noticed, it has produced its own special words and phrases. So, a term like "double, double" (which means two creams and two sugars) are common when ordering coffee anywhere. Earlier in my Canadian commuting, I incorrectly ordered at a Tim Hortons. I asked for a "regular coffee with Splenda." I meant a "regular" as in, "not decaf." But, "regular" means a non-decaf coffee with cream and sugar. The lady taking my order asked me to repeat myself. She then said, "Then you don't want a 'regular,' you want cream and Splenda?" I was confused.

Since Tim Hortons is so huge in Canada, a trendy person like myself finds himself in a conflict. It's not cool to do what everyone else does or to shop at the company which dominates the market. So in the U. S. going to Tim Hortons can be seen as rebellion against Starbucks. Here in Hamilton, Starbucks are out-numbered like 10 to 1. Buying a Tim Hortons coffee is supporting the man.

And yet I it's just so damn good. Our Canadian friends, the Boskers, call it "liquid crack" (or something along those lines).

Oh, and P.S. Canadians like hockey. FYI.