Tim Hortons is bringing its Canadian-style coffee and doughnuts to New York City, displacing Dunkin' Donuts. This is huge news, judging from the volume of stories.
Doughnut wars! Hortons horns in on NYC Dunkin's (New York Post)
Dunkin' Donuts loses out to Canadian invaders Tim Hortons in war of donuts (New York Daily News)
The morning doughnut? The choices are getting complicated (New York Times)
And Google News says it has more than 60 articles about this. (Update: way more now.)
Photos from the Tim Hortons opening in New York City. (The Province)
Tim Hortons vs. Dunkin' Donuts, a New York Times taste test. They're a little snobby. What do they expect from a mass-produced doughnut?
The doughnut wars begin - blog item about first day of business for Tim Hortons. Clearly, coffee is a bigger deal for many people than the doughnuts.
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The New York City franchise holder says he hopes Tim Hortons will make more money for his company than Dunkin' Donuts did because Hortons offers more things to eat, such as sandwiches and soups.
In an earlier post (to some derision) I praised the Tim Hortons chicken salad sandwich, for $3.09.
Tim Hortons in Canada got bad publicity a while ago about par-cooking their doughnuts at a central plant, freezing them, and shipping them to stores. They used to make the doughnuts at their stores. A 2008 story from the Financial Post: Tim Hortons sued by franchisees over frozen doughnuts
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I'm not sure what's going on, but in the old days, our family was able to whip through a dozen Tim Hortons doughnuts in a couple of days. Now, we can barely get through a six-pack in three days. By Day 3, the doughnuts are unpleasant.
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I lined up for Krispy Kremes a few years ago during a California visit. The store was an attraction in itself – you could see the doughnuts being made, mostly through automation. They have a little movie showing this at the Krispy Kreme Canada website, but it's a disappointment after you've seen and smelled the real thing. There's also a bigger and longer video on YouTube.
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Best doughnut I've ever had was a huge and heavy one, coated in a thick layer of real chocolate, not the shiny, pretend stuff you get at the doughnut chains. It came from a bakery in Sidney, but I can't remember which one. I'll try to track it down so that I can have another one.
