Canadians and doughnuts

[Declan]

@Fried_Dough_Ho

So, going back to my query, other than the existence of a large doughnut chain in Canada, there is no sociological speculation why it is so pervasive within its culture?

It has to do with every road leads to timmies. No matter if your the commuter who pulls in for the extra large double double and toasted bagel with butter, or the transport driver who wants whatever or the hockey dad getting a pick me up at 0 dark thirty.

The baked goods by themselves are nothing special that you cant get elseware and the coffee is always reliably good. Mostly its a social thing, most of the parking lots at night are the younger set, just doing something for a relatively cheap price.

They can be annoying with the camp day shakedown, if your like me and make multiple visits over the course of the day, not to mention selling food and ice caps out the drive thru window, thus clogging up the drive thru.

Then say your town supports multiple timmies, you still have to pick the right one for your needs. Not every timmies will have the first team working when you want them too, and large Marge is forever getting your order wrong.

But at the end of a stressful day at work, or the post game show from the bar, a timmies will always be there. Your friends will always be there , your boss might be waiting in line behind you and the staff will always remember your order, just by voice alone.

declan

[D18]

Some interesting factoids:

1. Re: absence of the apostrophe, it turns out it was originally “Tim Horton Donuts” so I wonder when the apostrophe-less possessive came into being?
2. According to the CBC, Canada has more donut stores per capita than anywhere else in the world (check out Quick Fact 11)
3. Hi Opal! (Are we still doing that?)
   (4) And Declan Bugs Bunny would say “What’s up, doc?” of course)

[Larry_Mudd]

@D18

Some interesting factoids:

1. Re: absence of the apostrophe, it turns out it was originally “Tim Horton Donuts” so I wonder when the apostrophe-less possessive came into being?

In 1974, when Loi sur la langue officielle came into play in Québec, and corporations were required to have have a french-language name. For convenience, it makes sense for some corporations wishing to do business in all provinces to have a name that more-or-less works cross-Canada.

[D18]

@Larry_Mudd

In 1974, when Loi sur la langue officielle came into play in Québec, and corporations were required to have have a french-language name. For convenience, it makes sense for some corporations wishing to do business in all provinces to have a name that more-or-less works cross-Canada.

Larry, I get that. But my point is that even in English, it was originally “Tim Horton” donuts, which I had forgotten about.

[samclem]

@D18

Some interesting factoids:
2) According to the CBC, Canada has more donut stores per capita than anywhere else in the world (check out Quick Fact 11)

Expand that factoid to say

Canada has more doughnut shops per capita than any other country on earth. Hamilton, Ontario, home of the first Tim Hortons, has approximately one doughnut shop per 300 residents.

.

So, now your mission is to find out if any of this is true. I’m saying it ISN"T. Well, I may concede that, if Ontario has “one doughnut shop per 300 residents” then I give. But, I won’t go without a reliable cite. Current cite. Last two years. And define “donught shop.”

[elfkin477]

@pulykamell

Krispy Kreme entered the Chicago market to much fanfare a number of years ago (lines stretching around the block and that sort of thing), and now they’re all but gone from the area.

There was a Krispy Kreme in Cambridge for a short while, but after just a year or two it closed, was burned to the ground, and the grounds salted.

[Fried_Dough_Ho]

I have to thank you all for this on-going discussion! It has been fascinating for me and will eventually provide great fodder for the blog!

[Frank]

@pulykamell

Interesting. So it ain’t just Chicago. Wonder where else they’ve experienced this.

Krispy Kreme has experienced this pretty much everywhere they are not a cultural tradition. They just don’t make good donuts. Good sugar-and-air confections, yes; good donuts, no. They were able to expand rapidly based on a word of mouth fad, but then failed just as rapidly when people realized that their donuts just aren’t really worth the eating.

[Fried_Dough_Ho]

@Frank

Krispy Kreme has experienced this pretty much everywhere they are not a cultural tradition. They just don’t make good donuts. Good sugar-and-air confections, yes; good donuts, no. They were able to expand rapidly based on a word of mouth fad, but then failed just as rapidly when people realized that their donuts just aren’t really worth the eating.

I agree completely. Hot airy sugar is all Krispy Kreme has been to me. Part of why I started the blog and what I am investigating (besides historically cultural differences in various fried dough offerings), is the idea that the Doughnut is the next Cupcake as far as food fads are concerned.

We are starting to see the rise of the gourmet doughnut; namely, the Bacon Doughnut is now a favored creation and can be found at Voodoo in Portland, Dynamo in San Francisco, and Gourdoughs in Austin. I predict that larger metropolitan cities will begin to see more and more artisinal doughnut shops appear in the next few years with intriguing and exciting flavors becoming the norm.

[Siam_Sam]

Now that I think about it, the Dunkin’ Donuts I worked at in West Texas was the only one I saw out that way. I don’t recall thinking anything about it at the time, but back then I rarely left the county. This one was a franchise branch, and I became fairly good friends with the family who owned it. Perhaps it was a short-lived experiment? I know it’s gone now, I saw the building had been demolished to make way for something else during a visit back home one time, and I don’t know if it turned up anywhere else.

[Spoons]

@Declan

It has to do with every road leads to timmies. No matter if your the commuter who pulls in for the extra large double double and toasted bagel with butter, or the transport driver who wants whatever or the hockey dad getting a pick me up at 0 dark thirty.

This. Tim’s has ingrained itself into our culture by playing up just these kinds of things in its marketing. No silly clowns, no toys or playgrounds for the kids; but the place that’s open at all hours for the senior seeking a place to socialize, the trucker looking for a hot cuppa joe, and the hockey dad taking the kids to practice at an ungodly hour of a Saturday morning. This, Tim’s marketing tells us, is honest-to-goodness Canadiana for real Canadians; and it’s available at Tim’s.

In the end, of course, it’s nothing more than unexceptional coffee and donuts and sandwiches and soups; but the way it is presented and marketed, you’re almost considered a traitor if you pass up Tim’s in favour of McDonald’s or an American chain franchise. You’re allowed a pass if you head for Harvey’s, though.

[In_Winnipeg]

@antonio107

Sure. I made it up. Before you break out the atlas, there’s also no place called Hole-in-a-bucket, Nova Scotia, either.

Kind of the same status as Kiss-your-sister, Saskatchewan, although that one may actually exist.

Ah, Tim Horton…great hockey player, good doughnut maker, lousy driver. When I was a kid, it always said on the back of his hockey card, “Tim owns a chain of successful donut shops”, or something like that.

Back before that time, doughnuts usually came from companies that also made bread (eg. Weston Bakeries, McGavin’s), and you found them usually six or eight to a box in the baked goods section of your supermarket. They weren’t fancy – usually cake or bread dough, chocolate or white, glazed or sugared. Surely nothing like a cream or pudding fill or even a chocolate dip, that’s for sure. The most exotic thing to be found was likely a jambuster (or jelly doughnut), but that was exotic as things got.

The other place to get them was at an actual brick and mortar bakery, but then again, very few exotics, although any bakery worth it’s salt would also have chocolate eclairs, cream puffs or longjohns.

Therefore, there was a niche for the doughnut shop as we know it, and Tim Horton filled it.

Really, I can’t stand the place. The coffee is bitter, the doughnuts bland, and they create a traffic hazard wherever they set up shop with their frigging drive-thru lanes, which are probably the most major cause of greenhouse gases from car exhaust anywhere in the world. I’d love to see a two-bit tax per transaction for people too damn lazy to get off their butts and actually go in to order. And that’s the other thing – if you do go in to get and consume your order, you always have to wait an unreasonable amount of time because they definitely cater to drive-thru over walk-in traffic.

Sorry, but I prefer Robin’s myself. The coffee is smoother, the doughnuts are baked fresh every night, and they don’t taste like cardboard.

[Si_Amigo]

@lazybratsche

I think that no matter where you’re standing near Boston, you’ll probably be able to spot at least one Dunkin. That includes most of the subway stations… Though I haven’t noticed many people ordering donuts; it’s mostly coffee, sometimes with a muffin or bagel.

Detroit is an interesting meeting point between all of the big chains. Dunkin Donuts and Tim Hortons are all pretty common, and Krispy Kreme recently started opening a number of locations. Plus there’s a good smattering of small ma-and-pa donut shops and bakeries.

I’m in Detroit and work with lots of people who live in Boston. When the Boston people arrived they thought it strange that their were very few Dunkin Donuts (few meaning they are more than a mile apart) here, so they decided to try out Tim Hortons since it appeared to be very similar. Thier first comment was that they found it strange for a place to serve both donuts AND chili along with your coffee (the #3 I beleive). My only explanation was that when your companies customer base is above the Artic Circle you wanted to make sure that you had all of your bases covered.

[sitchensis]

Spokane WA, has a Dunkin, I lived there for 25 years and never went into the place. I think Spokane residents are more partial to the mom& pop shops that are around the area, or they just get them from the grocery store.

We had the same experience with Krispy Kreme, seemed like all the yuppies made it a happening for about a year, then they turned to other things and all the blue collar eaters tried it once and then just kept going to the same places they’d always gone to.

[Cyros]

I just wanted to pop in to say that my city has more Timmy’s per capita than anywhere in Canada!

Yay us! Now you will have to excuse me as I pop up the street for a double/double.

[mnemosyne]

There’s a Tim Horton’s in my office building, which isn’t shared with another company nor is it accessible to the public. It’s there just for employees, and the line up is long during their open hours. The company actually has free coffee in the offices, too! The company I work for is also a “proudly-made-in-Canada” business. Most of my friends are jealous.

[K364]

@In_Winnipeg

Really, I can’t stand the place. The coffee is bitter…

Surprised you would say that. I find their coffee very good with a rich roasty flavour and NO bitterness. Starbucks, on the other hand, is terribly bitter.

Timmy’s pastries are somewhat average… most of their muffins and doughnuts are not that great, sandwiches are good (mainly because of the bun), maple danishes are my fav.

[Autolycus]

A krispy kreme fresh off the conveyor belt is one of the best things in the world. I think they’ve failed in many places because if they’re not fresh off the belt, they are terrible.

[Sunspace]

@Autolycus

A krispy kreme fresh off the conveyor belt is one of the best things in the world. I think they’ve failed in many places because if they’re not fresh off the belt, they are terrible.

When the first KK openend in Mississauga, Ontario, not far from my work, we decided to send someone there on the regular Friday-morning donut run. By the time they came back, the donuts had cooled and they were nasty. The box had instructions to microwave them for exactly eight seconds. I don’t know whether anyone did.

Requiring the donuts to be warm and fresh goes against the fundamental way Canadians eat them. We often eat them a good hour or more after they’re bought. And for this to work, the donuts must be cakelike (with optional icing, glazing, or filling) and able to stand for some time at room temperature without harm. A box of donuts is the standard socialble office treat, for example; where I worked, people would come down to the caf randomly for hours after their arrival was announced over the PA system.

[Peremensoe]

@Sunspace

Requiring the donuts to be warm and fresh goes against the fundamental way Canadians eat them. We often eat them a good hour or more after they’re bought. And for this to work, the donuts must be cakelike (with optional icing, glazing, or filling) and able to stand for some time at room temperature without harm.

We suffer by having the same word, “doughnut,” for these two really different kinds of pastries.