Tim Hortons is famously known worldwide as Canada’s favourite coffee shop. Interestingly, the chain's iconic recipe hasn’t changed since it opened the doors to its first restaurant in 1964. So what goes into making every cup taste just right? Well, Narcity’s Ashna Bharkhada had an opportunity to tour the Tim Hortons Roastery in Ancaster, Ontario, and got a behind-the-scenes look at how their top-secret recipe goes from bean to brew to get that signature coffee taste.
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TravelTranscript
00:00 So how often do you do this?
00:02 Do you do this multiple times a day?
00:03 - I spend most of my day here.
00:06 - Mornings would be so hard without my coffee.
00:09 Hi there, can I please get a small regular double-cupped?
00:12 So good.
00:17 For so many Canadians,
00:18 Tim Hortons is a part of their daily routine.
00:21 It's cheap, it tastes good,
00:22 and you can find one in basically
00:23 every corner of the country.
00:25 But did you know that all Tim Hortons coffee in Canada
00:28 is produced in a small town just outside of Toronto?
00:31 I was recently invited to take a tour
00:33 of Tim Hortons Roastery in Ancaster, Ontario.
00:36 The warehouse stores and ships
00:37 1.5 million pounds of coffee a week
00:39 and produces enough coffee to make 270,000 cups an hour.
00:44 When I first stepped into the warehouse,
00:45 I got a big waft of that familiar Tim's coffee smell.
00:48 The plant manager started the tour
00:50 and showed us how Tim Hortons coffee
00:51 goes from bean to brew.
00:53 They really have their process down to a T.
00:55 Their beans are shipped in from Central and South America,
00:58 from countries like Guatemala, Brazil, and Colombia.
01:01 Tim Hortons is a blend of five bean types.
01:03 Side note, did you know coffee beans are green in color
01:06 and only turn brown before they get roasted?
01:08 I'd never seen a raw coffee bean before.
01:11 So the process starts with inspecting beans for defects
01:13 and cleaning them to remove any sticks, stones, and metal.
01:16 Then they move to the blending and roasting process.
01:19 Tim's uses the Neptune 3000 Roasters,
01:21 which according to them
01:22 are the world's most advanced roasters.
01:24 10,000 pounds of coffee is roasted per hour
01:26 and it takes approximately 12 minutes to roast a batch.
01:29 After being cooled for two hours,
01:31 the beans head to the grinders
01:32 and then move to the degassing stage to keep them fresh.
01:35 Finally, it's on to packing.
01:36 The equivalent of 975 pots of Tim Hortons coffee
01:39 are packaged every minute.
01:41 - And then you can see here where it's flickering,
01:44 it's adding 16 pouches on a layer
01:47 to 144 pouches in a case.
01:49 So we're doing about seven and a half cases per minute.
01:53 - Then a very cool looking robot
01:55 automatically stacks 64 boxes on each pallet.
01:58 The plant manager called it one of the best employees
02:00 because it works 24 hours a day, it doesn't go for a break.
02:03 Then the boxes are put in storage and shipped within two days.
02:06 The plant manager says they rarely have any issues
02:09 with their process.
02:10 And if they do, they're easily able to backtrack
02:12 to which bag it came from.
02:14 Which brings me to my next point.
02:15 Something else that really amazed me
02:17 about the roastery was quality control.
02:18 They go through such great lengths
02:20 to get that signature coffee taste profile.
02:23 How would you describe the flavor notes
02:24 of Tim Hortons coffee?
02:26 - The medium or dark?
02:28 - Medium.
02:28 - Medium.
02:29 Medium coffee is all human.
02:32 It's all man.
02:34 It's kind of medium range.
02:36 Sweetness, acidity, quality.
02:39 Everything is medium range.
02:40 Sweet, caramel, nutty notes, citrus, a touch of spice.
02:45 It's nothing, all quality.
02:49 - While on tour, I learned this new term called cupping.
02:52 Basically, it's another word for sampling coffee.
02:54 Tim's taste their coffee multiple times
02:56 throughout the process
02:57 to ensure it maintains the same taste and quality.
02:59 Some employees that work at the plant
03:01 actually cup coffee all day long.
03:03 It's wild.
03:04 So how often do you do this?
03:06 Do you do this multiple times a day?
03:08 - Yes, actually, this is,
03:10 I spend most of my day here.
03:14 In the morning, I roast coffee.
03:16 And then cup for five tables.
03:20 It's full of cups.
03:21 So we cup 250, 300 cups a day.
03:25 - As I mentioned, Tim Horton's coffee beans
03:27 come from Central and South America.
03:29 By the time they reach the warehouse,
03:30 they've already been sampled three times
03:32 to ensure their quality has remained uncompromised
03:34 throughout their journey.
03:35 - We re-juiced about 10% of coffee.
03:44 - Then the coffee is tested again after it's roasted and packed.
03:48 - Every hour, we keep three pouches of the finished goods.
03:52 Every fifth batch, which is every hour on each roaster,
03:57 we take a sample and we cup that
03:58 to make sure that it's our standard.
04:00 - The other two pouches are kept in storage
04:02 until their expiration date,
04:03 so the team can go back
04:04 if there's ever an issue at store level.
04:06 Does everyone who work here
04:07 have the exact smell memorized?
04:10 Like, how do you know what a bad batch is?
04:13 - You sip Tim Horton's coffee long enough,
04:15 you get to find the fine notes, right?
04:18 And you get to know 'em.
04:19 And you can pick out defects very quickly.
04:22 - Now, how do you cup?
04:23 Well, Tim's gave us a chance to blend her own coffee,
04:26 then taught us how to cup properly,
04:27 starting with smelling the coffee.
04:29 Then you go in for a taste.
04:40 (chill music)
04:43 I made my own blend,
04:54 mixing the five types of beans available
04:55 from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Brazil, Indonesia, and Colombia.
04:59 Guatemalan coffee is known to have more nuttier notes,
05:02 whereas Indonesian coffee is stronger
05:04 and has notes of chocolate.
05:05 Okay, moment of truth.
05:07 Let's taste my coffee.
05:09 (chill music)
05:12 Let's just say,
05:15 I will not be working at Tim Horton's anytime soon.
05:17 My coffee tasted so bad.
05:20 But I couldn't believe how meticulous
05:21 the team at Tim Horton's was
05:23 at ensuring that every cup of coffee
05:24 that came out of that plant tasted just right.
05:27 So it got me thinking,
05:28 now we know where Tim Horton's coffee beans come from,
05:31 we know how the process works,
05:33 but what actually goes into the blend
05:35 that makes the recipe so unique?
05:38 I've been here for 11 and a half years,
05:39 I don't know the recipe.
05:41 So the commodity group will be cupping the green beans,
05:46 and then they put in the formula.
05:48 The formula will go into it in the background
05:51 in the computer system.
05:53 Then they'll send me an email saying,
05:55 here's the number that you're gonna use today
05:57 to use in recipe 419.
05:59 We'll put in 419 in the background
06:01 and start drawing the amounts of coffee for the roast.
06:04 (chatter)
06:07 - You know, I don't know what is in the blend.
06:12 There's only a select few of us
06:15 that can tell you what that is.
06:17 - No one on the tour can actually tell me
06:19 what goes into the Tim Horton's recipe,
06:21 because no one actually knows.
06:23 Clearly a highly guarded company secret.
06:25 I have to say, the Tim Horton's Roastery Tour was exceptional.
06:29 It really gave me insight into everything
06:30 that goes into making this beloved Canadian drink.
06:34 What surprised you most about the tour?
06:35 Let us know in the comments.
06:37 (upbeat music)
06:39 (electronic music)