"I'd like a large double-double, please!" These are the very same words that are repeated in thousands of places all across Canada each day, with almost no variation (except maybe a variation in the size of coffee ordered). I'm referring to coffee that is sold at Tim Hortons, an establishment so Canadian it was founded by a former hockey player Tim Horton back in 1964. In those days, they served just coffee and donuts, but today that very empire has expanded to thousands of stores all across North America serving far more than that.

It was the summer of 2008 and I had been on Canadian soil for little over 10 days. It was almost time to go back home to India, at which point my cousins reprimanded me for not stepping into a single Tim Hortons restaurant. Why the big fuss about something that seemed so minute was something I never quite figured out until I stepped into a franchise. Tim Hortons is as Canadian as hockey is, that is what I learned whilst sipping on my first-ever cup of Tim's coffee. Because Tim Hortons is so omnipresent all across Canada, it has grown to become a prominent feature in the life of a Canadian. I'm assuming this was one of the reasons why the franchise took the trouble of opening up an outlet in far-off Kandahar, Afghanistan, which was housed in a 40-foot trailer, giving Canadian troops stationed there a taste of home. The outlet closed down about four months after troops left Afghanistan, but not before serving four million cups of coffee and three million donuts (the figures I state here are according to an article published by the National Post dated November 24, 2011.)

"In so many ways, the story of Tim Hortons is the essential Canadian story," the late writer Pierre Berton once said. "It is a story of success and tragedy, of big dreams and small towns, of old-fashioned values and tough-fisted business, of hard work and of hockey." I will not disagree with Berton here, for I've been told by a couple of second- year students who are in my program that I must grow to love Tim Hortons coffee. Tim Hortons can have such an impact on people, and I have an anecdote which will enforce this point. My family was coming down to visit me in December because I couldn't go back home to India for Christmas. The last text message I received from my brother before he boarded the flight from Delhi Airport was a small but simple one: "I want iced cap!" That was it. This text came from a boy who'd spent just over 10 days in Canada and has grown to love the franchise just as much as people who've lived all their life in Canada.

I've never been the biggest fan of hot coffee or hot chocolate for that matter. I have, however, always loved a nice cup of cold coffee. The sub-zero winter conditions in Canada, however, have caused me to gradually get a bigger liking towards hot coffee. I'm sure it's no surprise that the three Tim Hortons locations on campus here at Fanshawe always have huge queues in from of them, no matter what time of day it may be. It just reinforces the fact that Tim Hortons was, is and will always be Canadian and proud.

I end with a phrase that is apt and one that I'm sure is at the tips of every Canadian person's tongue: "It's time for Tims."
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