Java Showdown: Who’s got the better coffee? Starbucks or Tim Horton’s?

If you’re anything like me, coffee is as necessary to the start of your day as the breaths you take. Sometimes coffee is even more important than food…actually, it is more important than food. But where to get your coffee? By the time I get to my favorite coffee shop, I’ve already had about two cups of coffee at home, but when you’re out there and need that fix…what’s the best place to go? Today we answer the question: Who’s got the better coffee? Starbucks or Tim Horton’s?

And whatever the caffeine fix, it all comes down to just getting it in your system so you can function. If they had coffee IVs, I’d go for it for sure, but then I wouldn’t get the taste I need to go along with the jolt. A combination of both then….

Who’s got the better coffee? Starbucks or Tim Horton’s?

Tim Horton’s

The shop and now fast food chain was brought to life back in 1964, and yes, the Canadian company was founded by a hockey player of all things…the legendary Tim Horton himself. He played a whopping 24 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL).

He was named one of the 100 greatest players in the league’s history; he played for The New York Rangers, The Pittsburgh Penguins, The Buffalo Sabres and yes, even the good old Toronto Maple Leafs.

Since then they’ve become the place to go for your coffee in Canada and in the last decade or so they’ve expanded into the beautiful United States and have found success in that market as well that was and is way different than the Canadian market, because in the States, let’s face it, there’s much more choice as far as fast food and coffee are concerned, including way more mom and pop locations for either.

Interesting though that when they first started out, the scope for the chain was intended to be hamburgers. All these years later they do have some burgers on the menu…mostly chicken and an assortment of sandwiches, but I think we can all agree that coffee and donuts is most certainly their jam.

And about the coffee…it’s perfectly brewed and it’s epic both in taste and in caffeine power. So we’re covered on both fronts, people.

So spoiler! Tim Horton’s win’s the match. You know the outcome, but you don’t know why. We’ll get to why they have the edge in just a second…

Starbucks

Starbucks started in 1971 so they’re a tad younger. Founded by Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker and Zev Siegl, but at that point it was just a coffee bean company. It would be Howard Schultz, who after taking a trip to Milan, Italy, was inspired to buy the company and turn it into a shop that would serve coffee..much like he had seen in Italy where coffee shops are a dime a dozen and they’re all good.

Trust me I know…you could be walking up a hillside in the early morning September coolness and be pleasantly assaulted by the wafting smell of espresso brewing off at some local place in town…and very much like a cartoon floating on the jet stream of that beautiful aroma, you’re carried to that bar…perhaps at the town piazza…and it was perhaps a similar experience that so affected Mr. Schultz, but then again this is all conjecture…seems plausible though.

Regardless…the coffee shop was started and throughout the eighties it gained a lot of success. Today, and as of a 2021 census, Starbucks had 33,833 locations in up to or just over 80 countries! Dreams do come true, people…if your dream is to bring coffee to the masses that is….

And throughout the nineties, especially at the dawn of the hit NBC sitcom Friends…people were looking for their very own ‘Central Perk’ where they too could go for coffee and act out scenes from their favorite show, perhaps even calling each other Joey, Chandler or Monica…Starbuck’s was the perfect place.

The showdown

Well, this won’t be a long fight; nor will it be a spectacularly violent or eventful one. In the end, both places are good…and for a coffee drinker who needs a caffeine fix and any one will do, then either place will do you just right…but there is a difference and it may surprise you….

There’s one cup of coffee offered at Tim Horton’s that cannot be replicated no matter how hard Starbucks tries, and they have tried, but to no avail…

So which coffee is the one…the absolute number one contender…?

The iced cappuccino, folks.

You are talking about the absolutely single best seller on their menu…the iced cap in Canada sells at top numbers even in winter for crying out loud! WINTER! Yes, at a whopping 40 below, people are still sucking these things down with a straw!

People are chilled to the bone and they still order this frozen drink, and why? Because nothing beats the taste of an Ice Cap, and it still gives you that necessary jolt in the morning or that pickup you need in the afternoon.

I was just recently at my local deli in line to order some luncheon meats, and a young woman worker walked in carrying a tray of four of these Tim Horton’s Ice Caps, as they’re called in Montréal East. Her co-worker said: “You brought for all of us?” To which the girl replied: “Two of you can fight for these two, but the other two are mine.” In the end, I think that sums up my point perfectly.

So…whose coffee is the bee’s knees for you, dear readers? Let us know, even if it’s neither Timmy’s or Starbucks.