Coffee for Me, Please

Posted by Susanna McLeod Mar 23, 2008

Let’s not be shy about it here – I enjoy a good cup of coffee or a nice cuppa tea several times a day. One day the news is good about the beverages –health benefits, protection against disease. The next day, the news could be the opposite – damaging to health, causing disease of organs. Let’s just have our favourite coffees or teas in moderation and not worry about such things. Life is much too short and much too long to deprive ourselves of good things, don’t you think?

The great thing about our local coffee and tea establishments is that they were made in Canada. The Tim Hortons franchise began operation in Hamilton, Ontario in 1964, when hockey player Tim Horton needed an off-season way to make income. Three years and three restaurants later, he partnered with former police officer Ron Joyce. Horton died in a car accident in 1974, but under the guidance of Joyce, the chain has grown phenomenally across Canada and slowly making headway into the US. The coffee is delicious, the sandwiches and doughnuts scrumptious and the restaurants are clean and inviting. Plus there are several of them in walking distance!

The Second Cup started business as a kiosk in a mall, selling only coffee in 1975. There are now at least 360 Second Cup shops in Canada, offering the tastiest coffees, a wide assortment of tantalizing teas, and comfortable places to enjoy them. The café in our downtown has a delightful music theme painted on the walls. Just sticking one’s nose in the door is a sensory treat – inhaling the brewing coffees and teas pulls me right in the door.

Though their corporate ownerships may change from time to time, these coffee shops will always have a Canadian-made flavour to me.