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Iced coffee and donuts at Canadian fast-food institution Tim Hortons
If Hamilton, Ontario-headquartered restaurant chain Tim Hortons personifies everything that is good and decent in Canada, then I want to live there for the rest of my life. Though categorized as a fast food or quick service joint, Tim Hortons' second branch in Metro Manila—in UN Square, Ermita—doesn’t have the messy and greasy feel of most fast food establishments.
Known for their quality coffee and donuts, the local menu also has breakfast items that are available from opening until 11 a.m. like the Steak and Eggs Biscuit Combo (P190), as well as sandwiches, cookies, and bagels. All of these pair well with their hot and cold coffee concoctions, particularly the signature Tim Double Double—coffee + two cream + two sugar.
The UN square branch has a more upbeat and brighter ambience than other international coffee chains or local third wave coffee shops; while the tall tables and chairs, and use of bright interiors differentiate Tim Hortons from their competition, there were still quite a number of patrons who were conducting meetings, doing work on their laptops, or just hanging out the day I visited the branch at the corner of United Nations Avenue and San Marcelino Street.
Wanting to have a sample of their brunch menu, I passed by Tim Hortons on a Saturday morning and after a few minutes of familiarizing myself with the menu, chose the Steak and Eggs Biscuit with a side of hash brown and iced coffee. The beef steak and biscuit themselves didn’t taste like it came from a fast food restaurant, but the eggs could have been prepared a little better. The hash brown, not as crispy as the ones I am accustomed to, also needs some improvement in both the visual and texture departments.
Good thing that every sip of that iced coffee was a delight. Known for their use of 100% Arabica coffee, the quality of Tim Hortons’ is very high, as evident in the iced version that I had. An infographic hanging from a wall inside the store even boasts that only three people in the world know the exact blend and roast of their coffee at any given time and that 75,000 cups a year are taste tested by Tim Hortons coffee masters. They really take their coffee seriously.
Remembering that their coffee and donuts attracted me to try Tim Hortons in the first place, I decided to added to order a piece of the Old Fashioned-Glazed Donut (P40 per piece, P200 for six pieces, and P380 for a dozen). Other donut flavors available locally include Chocolate Dip, Vanilla Dip, Chocolate Glazed, and Double Chocolate Fudge. Based on their official website, I can’t wait for flavors like Maple Dip, Canadian Maple, and Honey Dip to come to our shores.
The doughnut actually has more of a dense cake but lighter dough texture, and also I love the use (or at least taste) of a citrus zest in every bite. A tad smaller than the ones found in specialty doughnut shops, Tim Hortons’ doughnuts, nevertheless, can be quite addicting.
Other items from their Fresh Bakery menu include the equally famous Timbits (Birthday Cake, Chocolate Glazed, Chocolate-Filled, Strawberry-Filled, or Old Fashioned-Glazed for P10/each, P80 for 10 pieces, and P160 for 20 pieces), Muffins (P90/pc., P450/6pcs., or P890/12pcs.), Classic Cookies, and Signature Filled Cookies. The Classic Bagel, Biscuit and Croissant all costs P50 a piece (add P25 for cream cheese).
With only two branches (the aforementioned one in UN Square and the first branch in Uptown Mall in Bonifacio Global City), availability and accessibility are probably the only reasons why Tim Hortons Philippines has a modest following so far. But with plans to rival bigger international coffee chains in all 7,107 islands in the Philippines, it won’t be soon until “Tim Double Double” joins Macchiato and Frappuccino as part of the Filipino dictionary. — BM, GMA News
The Tim Hortons branch in Manila is on the ground floor of UN Square Mall in Ermita, open from 6 a.m. to midnight.
