It’s true that I have been on and off the caffeine train in the last little while, but caffeine or not, I still enjoy coffee quite a bit. 
Starbucks is my latest vice, and I love it dearly. Yes, it’s stupid to pay over 2 bucks for a cup of coffee, but it’s just so darn good. I’ve become a snob about it all it seems, since even a Tim Horton’s double double is a second rate cup now, barely worth crossing the street for. I sincerely mean that, since there’s a Tim’s equally as close as the Starbucks at work, and I never go there. The coffee is one thing, but I have come to appreciate the fact that you get to dress your own coffee to your taste at Starbucks. Yes, I know you can dress your own at Tim Horton’s too, but at Starbucks you get real cream out of a thermos so it’s fresh, unlike the petro-creamers you get at Tim’s if you want to adjust it yourself. I’m here for a coffee break from work, not in the middle of a 12-hour road trip on the 401, snarfing down Cheetos, coffee and coke…
Secondly, the arbitrary amounts of cream and sugar you get at Tim’s have been enough to bother the crap out of me at times. When you order a large coffee and get it “double double” you would expect it to taste the same all of the time. When you order a small coffee and order it “double double” I mean that I want it to taste the same as the large, I don’t want to have to decide just how much smaller that cup is than the large, and then adjust my order accordingly. I just want less coffee that tastes the same. Which has long been my argument; “double double” is a flavour, not a recipe. Much like “chocolate” or “vanilla” is a flavour “double double” is the way I like my coffee to taste, no matter the size of the vessel it is served in.
Despite my Tim Horton’s issues, Starbucks is not without it’s flaws. I already mentioned the cost, but another problem I have is the puzzling decision to not brew decaf coffee in the afternoon. Why? Caffeine is certainly needed in the morning, if you are drinking coffee you would want it then for sure. But once you are wired for sound and your eyelashes are quivering with each stray air current, you really don’t need any more caffeine, or at least I don’t.
So there you go, a coffee-flavoured rant about absolutely nothing important. More’s the pity if you read even this far…. If you did, does anyone agree with me? Any Tim Horton’s ordering strategies to share?
From what I hear, wait ’till you discover Bridgehead…
Nothing has ever topped the Equator coffee that is brewed at the Heart and Soul Cafe and at the Bohemian Cafe. Problem with that coffee is that when I buy the beans and try to make it at home in my Cuisinart coffee perk, it never, not at all, nuh-uh, resembles the way it was when I drank it at these establishments.
*sigh* The complications and complexities of such a wee bean are many.
I hear you, Court! Loud and clear. Arnprior has two Tim’s and no other options for morning commuters. I have the exact same problem with sizing, but complicated vastly by the fact that I like to use a travel mug. So I drive up (in my gasless-on-idle Hybrid) and order. It really throws them off that I want a medium coffee, because apparently my mug is a large. But I don’t want it full, because that’s a lot of coffee, and if I *do* order large there doesn’t seem to be any way to get it to taste right. The medium with two milk and one sugar is fine, but how to you proportionally up-size that to large? Apparently it can’t be done. And they don’t have a medium refill refund, which I don’t care about, but they really do. I just want them to put the damned drink in my mug and lemme outta there. Then there’s Roll Up season. Holy frig they’ll chase you down Madawaska Boulevard to give you an empty cup, it would seem, rather than believe you might really have meant to drive away with your coffee in the travel mug, sans chance to win. When I pull up to the microphone now I feel like I’ve got to explain myself: “OK, don’t panic, but I’ve got a travel mug here, and I’d like you to put the equivalent of a medium coffee with two milk and one sugar in there. It’ll be a buck forty-four. I’m OK with that. I realize there’s no discount. Also, I don’t want the roll up cup; it’s part of my whole “reusable travel mug” thing. Thank you for your time.” I’ve resorted to getting up 3 minutes earlier to make my own stupid coffee, so this tells you what a big issue it was for me 😉
Oh crap, now that’s gold Ali. Why the hell is that such a big deal? It shouldn’t be, but it really throws them off, eh?
“Don’t panic, but…” should be the first thing we all say to a drive-through microphone. Anything off-script is the cause for sheer terror you can actually hear through the speaker. Nikki used to order her Tim’s with “two milk, 1/2 sugar”, meaning less than one whole sugar, but that was hard, hard hard to get across. Forget ordering food that way, I REALLY hate doing that for a family of five, I would rather park and run in myself than try to explain what I want. That headset seems to detract at least 20 IQ points from the wearer.
I can’t believe you are willing to take the chance that you might miss your “winning donut” cup by using your travel mug, and apparently neither can they.
Maybe instead of saying “Don’t panic” you should shriek into the microphone “NNNOOOOOO CUUUUUPPPPP!” while honking the horn. I bet you would be much more memorable than the blonde tree-hugger in the hybrid quietly murmuring, “no I really don’t need a cup, thanks”. You would probably quickly move right into being recognized as a regular (nutcase), and your problems are then solved.
Starbucks die hard here. I haven’t crossed the road to Tim’s since Starbucks opened it’s drive-thru window on *this* side of the street. 😉
Bridgehead IS the best, but I will not proselytize on that subject overmuch. I’ve come to realize that there are Starbuck’s drinkers and Bridgehead drinkers, and rarely will one accept the other’s coffee. I find Bridgehead’s brew a lot smoother and less bitter than the ‘buck’s, plus it makes me feel warm inside to know I’m buying fair trade coffee. That said, there’s a Tim’s on the way to my new office, and I admit to stopping in there a lot more often than I’m proud of over the past couple of months. Wow, when you’ve been off it for a long time and then back on it on a regular basis, the sh*t is just plain awful, even in its only drinkable concoction, the double-double. Does anyone actually imbibe that crap straight??
ps– This subject makes me feel old. Please post something about the relative merits of 50 vs. EX next.
Noonan, my man, you nailed that on the head. You truly can NOT leave Timmy’s, head to Starbucks, and expect to go back and drink the Horton’s Hell you once thought was liquid gold.
I have strayed from the Timmy’s now that ALL the kids have started school and I actually have some “me” time on my hands a bit. There’s no going back.
No to long ago though there was no chance for this mom to go anywhere BUT Timmie’s for a quick cup of sanity ‘cuz then you can launch each of them a lard bit for $0.10/ea and no one complains about the drive-thru line up or the stop you are making that, God-forbid does not revolve around their social schedule. No lard-bits at Starbuck’s ma’am…sorry, see you when your kids are older and you can pretend to be trendy and hip again.
Huh, well that certainly hit a nerve with the coffee folks. Thanks for the comments, and the “50 vs Ex” post is still being written Noonan. It requires much research, week after week, trying to get it right.
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