How Tim Hortons Makes Its Signature Coffee

Narcity Canada

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.

Transcript

00:00So how often do you do this? Do you do this multiple times a day?

00:03I spend most of my day here.

00:06Mornings would be so hard without my coffee.

00:09Hi there, can I please get a small regular double cup?

00:17So good. For so many Canadians, Tim Hortons is a part of their daily routine.

00:21It's cheap, it tastes good, and you can find one in basically every corner of the country.

00:25But did you know that all Tim Hortons coffee in Canada is produced in a small town just outside of Toronto?

00:31I was recently invited to take a tour of Tim Hortons Roastery in Ancaster, Ontario.

00:36The warehouse stores and ships 1.5 million pounds of coffee a week

00:40and produces enough coffee to make 270,000 cups an hour.

00:44When I first stepped into the warehouse, I got a big waft of that familiar Tim's coffee smell.

00:48The plant manager started the tour and showed us how Tim Hortons coffee goes from bean to brew.

00:53They really have their process down to a T. Their beans are shipped in from Central and South America

00:58from countries like Guatemala, Brazil, and Colombia. Tim Hortons is a blend of five bean types.

01:03Side note, did you know coffee beans are green in color and only turn brown before they get roasted?

01:08I'd never seen a raw coffee bean before.

01:11So the process starts with inspecting beans for defects and cleaning them to remove any sticks,

01:15stones, and metal. Then they move to the blending and roasting process.

01:19Tim's uses the Neptune 3000 roasters, which according to them are the world's most advanced roasters.

01:2410,000 pounds of coffee is roasted per hour and it takes approximately 12 minutes to roast a batch.

01:29After being cooled for two hours, the beans head to the grinders and then move to the degassing

01:33stage to keep them fresh. Finally, it's on to packing. The equivalent of 975 pots of Tim Hortons

01:39coffee are packaged every minute. And then you can see here where it's flickering, it's adding 16

01:45pouches on a layer to 144 pouches in a case. So we're doing about seven and a half cases per minute.

01:53Then a very cool looking robot automatically stacks 64 boxes on each pallet. The plant manager called it

01:59one of the best employees because it works 24 hours a day, it doesn't go for a break. Then the boxes are

02:04put in storage and shipped within two days. The plant manager says they rarely have any issues with

02:09their process. And if they do, they're easily able to backtrack to which bag it came from.

02:14Which brings me to my next point. Something else that really amazed me about the roastery

02:17was quality control. They go through such great lengths to get that signature coffee taste profile.

02:23How would you describe the flavor notes of Tim Hortons coffee?

02:26Medium or dark? Medium. Medium. Medium coffee is for everyone. It's for the whole mass. It's kind of

02:34medium-range. It's sweet, acidity, garlic. You don't think it's medium-range. It's sweet,

02:41caramel, nadinos, citrus, a touch of it's spicy. It's nothing. It's all-powering.

02:49While on tour, I learned this new term called cupping. Basically, it's another word for sampling coffee.

02:54Tim's taste their coffee multiple times throughout the process to ensure it maintains the same taste

02:59and quality. Some employees that work at the plant actually cup coffee all day long. It's wild.

03:04So how often do you do this? Do you do this multiple times a day?

03:07Uh, yes, actually, this is, um, I spend my, most of my day here. In the morning, I roast

03:15coke and then a cup for five tables. It's full of cups. So we cup 250, 300 cups a day.

03:25As I mentioned, Tim Hortons coffee beans come from Central and South America. By the time we reach

03:30the warehouse, they've already been sampled three times to ensure their quality has remained

03:34uncompromised throughout their journey. Then the coffee is tested again after it's roasted and packed.

03:48Every hour, we keep three pouches of the finished goods. Every fifth batch, which is every hour on

03:56each roaster, we take a sample and we cup that to make sure that it's our standard. The other two

04:01pouches are kept in storage until their expiration date, so the team can go back if there's ever an

04:05issue at store level. Does everyone work here have, like, the exact smell memorized? Like, how do you

04:11know what a bad batch is? You sip Tim Hortons coffee long enough, you get to find the fine notes, right?

04:19And you get to know them. And you can pick out defects very quickly. Now, how do you cup? Well,

04:24Tim's gave us a chance to blend our own coffee, then taught us how to cup properly, starting with

04:28smelling the coffee. I bring my nose close to the cup, break the crust, stir coffee grounds, inhale the aroma.

04:39Then you go in for a taste.

04:40I made my own blend mixing the five types of beans available from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Brazil,

04:58Indonesia and Colombia. Guatemalan coffee is known to have more nuttier notes, whereas Indonesian coffee

05:03is stronger and has notes of chocolate. Okay, moment of truth. Let's taste my coffee.

05:10Let's just say I will not be working at Tim Hortons anytime soon. My coffee tasted so bad. But I

05:20couldn't believe how meticulous the team at Tim Hortons was at ensuring that every cup of coffee

05:24that came out of that plant tasted just right. So it got me thinking. Now we know where Tim Hortons

05:29coffee beans come from. We know how the process works. But what actually goes into the blend that

05:36makes the recipe so unique? I've been here for 11 and a half years. I don't know the recipe.

05:41So the commodity group will be cupping the green beans and then they put in the formula. The formula

05:49will go into it in the background in the computer system. Then they'll send me an email saying here's

05:55here's the number that you're going to use today to use recipe 419. We put in 419 in the background

06:01to start drawing the amounts of coffee for the roast.

06:04Do you want to apply to the regular blend in the mix of those five?

06:07Um, you know, I don't know what is in the blend. There's only a select few of us that can tell you

06:16what that is. No one on the tour could actually tell me what goes into the Tim Hortons recipe because no one

06:22actually knows. Clearly a highly guarded company secret. I have to say the Tim Hortons roastery

06:27tour was exceptional. It really gave me insight into everything that goes into making this beloved

06:33Canadian drink. What surprised you most about the tour? Let us know in the comments.

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