COFFEE STORY

From Bean to Cup

Our Coffee Story

At Tim Hortons we have been celebrating our passion and expertise for coffee for over 50 years. We are relentless in our pursuit of the perfect cup. There is an incredible attention to detail through the different steps along the way in the journey from the bean to a cup of Tim Hortons coffee.

Growing with Care

Our Coffee Plants grow and mature in some of the world’s most renowned coffee regions. In Huila, Colombia, our beans grow at high altitudes in the fertile northern Andes Mountains, producing delicious, complex flavors. In Santa Rosa, Guatemala, the mineral-dense soil from active volcanoes result in coffee that is rich and full-bodied

These and other growing regions are carefully evaluated by our coffee masters to ensure they meet our strict requirements for growing conditions.

Selecting with Care

We only use 100% Premium Arabica Beans. Our coffee buyers go the extra mile, literally, to travel to producing
regions in search of distinctive coffees grown in different
micro climates with rich soil and higher altitudes. 

All Tim Hortons coffee begins its journey as a seedling of the Arabica plant, widely regarded as the variety that produces the best-tasting cup.

Our Arabica plants then grow and mature in some of the world’s most renowned coffee regions. In Huila, Colombia, our Arabica grows at high altitude in the fertile northern Andes Mountains, producing delicious, complex flavours. In Santa Rosa, Guatemala, the mineral-dense soil from active volcanoes result in coffee that is rich and full-bodied. These and other growing regions are carefully selected by our coffee masters for the diverse flavours and characteristics they bring to our coffee blends

Picking methods vary by region, but in Colombia, ripe cherries are carefully plucked by hand, one by one.

While a true labor of love, this artisanal process ensures that each cherry is picked at the moment of peak freshness and flavor.

Processing with Care

Once coffee cherries have been picked, their inner seeds are quickly removed from the pulp and dried to avoid spoiling. In Central America, we often use a method in which beans are separated from the pulp and then sun-dried and tended to by coffee farmers.

The dried beans are then sorted and graded by size, weight, and quality, with only the finest Premium Arabica beans selected and shipped to our roastery.

Once the beans reach our roastery, we maintain a high quality control process which results in a rejection rate of more than 10% of the green coffee beans received. Beans are rejected if they don’t adhere to our high quality standards.

Learn more about our process and the people behind your Tims coffee. Like Sharon, who carefully examines shipments of Tims’ 100% Premium Arabica Beans:

Roasting with Care

If blending is the art of coffee, then roasting is the science—transforming green coffee beans into the more familiar brown coffee beans that our Guests know and love, with their rich aroma and characteristic flavour.

Our coffee beans are roasted in Tim Hortons Roastery locations in Ancaster, Ontario and Rochester, New York.  There, rotating drums are carefully calibrated to roast each blend for different lengths of time and at different temperatures in order to get the flavour just right.

Creating the Perfect Blend

The true art of coffee lies in creating different blends. In order to formulate our original coffee blends, our Roastery Coffee Masters combine the unique qualities of green beans from various sources to match to our signature flavor
profile that is balanced with the right amount of sweetness, acidity, and body.

Learn more about our process and the people behind your Tims coffee. Like our Roastery Coffee Master, John, whose team slurps 300 cups of coffee per day to ensure the best taste:

Our Secret Recipe

We’ve gone to great lengths to ensure our Original Blend Recipe remains the same since 1964. Only 3 people know the secret recipe, and together they make up over 51 years of experience with the brand.

Our Head of Coffee Operations, Kevin West, can confirm that the recipe has never changed: