Coffee chain boycott?

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by youngregina

Tim Horton's isn't really focused on coffee anymore, it's more of a fast food outlet than coffee shop now. Even their doughnut selection has decreased to see an uprising of chicken burgers, wraps, and other pastries. I myself really enjoy their breakfast sandwiches when road-tripping. Their coffee stinks.

As for a former Starbucks employee, I do appreciate a solid pike place every now and then.

When you worked at Starbucks, did you adhere to the 30-minute rule for coffee? I've heard a lot of locations don't, and that's why the coffee can taste "burnt". I rarely ever drink Starbucks coffee anymore for that reason.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

When you worked at Starbucks, did you adhere to the 30-minute rule for coffee? I've heard a lot of locations don't, and that's why the coffee can taste "burnt". I rarely ever drink Starbucks coffee anymore for that reason.

I thought the "burnt" taste of Starbucks was from the way they over-roast their beans.

[MolsonExport]

^yeah, I think that is it

[MolsonExport]

Tim Hortons was late setting up in Montreal, partly due to the extremely strong local coffee chains, and partly due to the widespread presence of Dunkin Donuts. Years later, they are still picking up the casualties.

[matthew6]

I remember being on a long greyhound bus journey in western Canada. The bus driver would make regular announcements for pit stops at Tim Horton. Thought that was cute.

Anyways, I think that most Canadians drink coffee out of habit rather then because they are connoisseurs. It's cold. You are on the road, and you want something hot to sip.

[Marty_Mcfly]

Originally Posted by matthew6

I remember being on a long greyhound bus journey in western Canada. The bus driver would make regular announcements for pit stops at Tim Horton. Thought that was cute.

Anyways, I think that most Canadians drink coffee out of habit rather then because they are connoisseurs. It's cold. You are on the road, and you want something hot to sip.

Agreed. Plenty of times I've commuted (say Charlottetown to Halifax, St. John's to Port-Aux-Basque) the first thing you do when you start your journey is pull up to Tim Hortons and grab a large coffee for the road. Also, I always made a habit when driving between Ch'town and Halifax to stop in Ahmerst at the Albion Street Tims.

I don't know why. I'm sure I could have found better coffee.

[Trans Canada]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Tim Hortons was late setting up in Montreal, partly due to the extremely strong local coffee chains, and partly due to the widespread presence of Dunkin Donuts. Years later, they are still picking up the casualties.

Was Dunkin more widespread in the past? Looked at their website and they have only 4 Canadian locations, all in Montreal.

[le calmar]

Dunkin almost went extinct in the last few years. I thought they had closed all their Canadian locations.

[urbandreamer]

I recently had a latte at McD's--don't laugh--and it was surprisingly good.

Aroma is my favourite chain coffee.

[manny_santos]

I have never understood the appeal of McDonalds coffee. So many people I know fawn over it, but I just don't like the taste very much. It doesn't have the burnt taste I'm accustomed to at Starbucks, but it has a flavour that I do not like which I can't quite put my finger on. Not the worst coffee out there though. I do find the wait times for the coffee at McDonalds to be longer than Tim Hortons, from the time you order until you get the drink. I'm not sure if that's a local quirk or if different work processes are used chain-wide.

But more importantly, McD's has a coffee formula that a lot of consumers like, so I'm happy with them keeping it the way it is - in an era of increasing uncertainty for McDonalds, this may be their strongest point in their Canadian division. That said, give me a McDonalds muffin any day over a baked item from Tim Hortons.

In order of preference, I rank coffees I can get locally as follows from top to bottom:

- Tim Hortons
- Coffee & Company
- Sipps (tied with C&C)
- McDonalds (very far below Sipps/C&C)
- Coffeeco
- Starbucks

Yes, I ranked Tim's first. Obviously a lot of people will have different preferences, but there's something comforting and familiar about their coffee.

I've only been to Second Cup once and I haven't been in almost a decade, mainly because they're never located in areas I frequent. Without looking online, I don't even know if Kingston has one.

[youngregina]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

When you worked at Starbucks, did you adhere to the 30-minute rule for coffee? I've heard a lot of locations don't, and that's why the coffee can taste "burnt". I rarely ever drink Starbucks coffee anymore for that reason.

Of course we did, the three roasts that brew are on a 10 minute brew rotation. If we didn't adhere to that we'd be shot. Or fired. Starbucks corporate stores are incredibly strict with guidelines. Every location is slightly different when they stop the rotation however. At our location I'd usually stop when we'd hit the 10-15 customer an hour range, usually 2 hours before the store closed. It's then we would just leave the roast going. I was a shift supervisor and HATED wasting coffee.

I used to work for Tim Horton's too, but food wastage is a huge issue in these coffee chains. Both companies wouldn't let me take the extra food at the end of the night to a homeless shelter after work citing 'employee health and safety liabilities'.

So instead of throwing the food and coffee out at the end of the night, I'd divvy it up among my coworkers and let them take it home. I strongly believe it not to be theft when its being thrown in the trash anyways...

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by youngregina

Of course we did, the three roasts that brew are on a 10 minute brew rotation. If we didn't adhere to that we'd be shot. Or fired. Starbucks corporate stores are incredibly strict with guidelines. Every location is slightly different when they stop the rotation however. At our location I'd usually stop when we'd hit the 10-15 customer an hour range, usually 2 hours before the store closed. It's then we would just leave the roast going. I was a shift supervisor and HATED wasting coffee.

I used to work for Tim Horton's too, but food wastage is a huge issue in these coffee chains. Both companies wouldn't let me take the extra food at the end of the night to a homeless shelter after work citing 'employee health and safety liabilities'.

So instead of throwing the food and coffee out at the end of the night, I'd divvy it up among my coworkers and let them take it home. I strongly believe it not to be theft when its being thrown in the trash anyways...

Indeed, many shelters will no longer accept donations of fresh food, except from approved suppliers. Fear of liability and litigation, unfortunately.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Indeed, many shelters will no longer accept donations of fresh food, except from approved suppliers. Fear of liability and litigation, unfortunately.

That's a shame - there's at least one church in Kingston that provides free lunch to the needy on weekdays, and they get most, if not all of their food donated by a couple of restaurants getting rid of stuff left at the end of the day. If those restaurants stopped those donations, the lunch program would end.

[youngregina]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Indeed, many shelters will no longer accept donations of fresh food, except from approved suppliers. Fear of liability and litigation, unfortunately.

It was Starbucks that did not allow us to give 'expired' Pre-Packaged food and drinks away; not the shelter organizers. Everything in the case in any Starbucks is only there for 1-2 days and then thrown out it not bought by a customer. Even the coffee beans have an expiry date on them. Lot's of times we would have to throw that away too.

To stay on topic though, I still prefer starbucks coffee most of the time. Maybe my taste-buds have become accustomed to the strength of their coffee over the period of time I was working there, as everything else tastes weak to me.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

That's a shame - there's at least one church in Kingston that provides free lunch to the needy on weekdays, and they get most, if not all of their food donated by a couple of restaurants getting rid of stuff left at the end of the day. If those restaurants stopped those donations, the lunch program would end.

There's also a program to distribute surplus food from Queen's cafeterias to the needy in Kingston.

I worked at a Tims when I was in high school. At least with our franchise owner, the policy was that uneaten food was given over to employees for snacks/meals.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

When you worked at Starbucks, did you adhere to the 30-minute rule for coffee? I've heard a lot of locations don't, and that's why the coffee can taste "burnt". I rarely ever drink Starbucks coffee anymore for that reason.

Tims has a 20-minute rule, and at the one where I worked at it was enforced religiously. Even during the overnight shift, when we'd get maybe 1 or 2 customers per hour, we had to brew a pot every 20 minutes. 95% of the coffee brewed from 11pm to 5am got thrown out. It was horrible.

We did not, however, keep decaf or tea ready. If customers ordered those, we would ask them to wait a few minutes for a pot to be brewed.

[MolsonExport]

Montreal's homegrown coffee franchise.

wikipedia

[MrOilers]

Burger King has surprisingly good coffee.

Yes, Burger King.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MrOilers

Burger King has surprisingly good coffee.

Yes, Burger King.

Never have tried their coffee. I've had coffee at Wendy's though, it wasn't too bad. I liked it better than McDonald's.

[SpongeG]

there used to be one dunkin donuts in Vancouver, it was a combined store with TOGO subs, was fairly popular only lasted a couple of years though

there is one krispy kreme still they have good coffee