Tim Hortons in London

I just drank a double-double and ate a Boston Cream from Tim Hortons. Yes, I am still in London. No, not the one in Ontario. The other London.

A former classmate of mine sent me a message on Facebook a short while ago... asking if I was one of those donut-obsessed Canadians -- and if I was, to let me know he'd noticed a Tim Hortons sign in a shop window near Piccadilly.

A bit of googling later, and hot damn, it turns out he was right. So this morning I meandered my way to Haymarket -- a major road which lives between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square.


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But who needs such sights, when there's donuts needin' eatin'... Haymarket being a one-way street, I pushed my bike along the pavement, looking out for the sign for Spar -- that being a chain of corner shops in the UK and Ireland.

Didn't see the Spar sign, but I sure as hell noticed the massive Timmys logo on the window. My heart soaring, I parked and scrambled inside.

It's (obviously) not a proper Tims, more like the ones you find in Esso stations. But beggars can't be choosers, and when it comes to donut options in London, you've got 1) crap and 2) Krispy Creme (ie, Krap).

The coffee comes from a machine, and shamefully, isn't very good. They do sell the tins of take-home coffee, but you could get that from the Australia Shop (which has a corner of canuckistan shiznit -- mmm... Kraft Dinner).

There wasn't much of a donut selection. They had lots of Boston Creams -- my favourites -- as well as chocolate ones with chocolate bits on them, ucky looking white-iced ones with sprinkles, jam-filled naked ones (no sugar? no icing?) and the basic chocolate iced ones.

The icing looks a bit weird, like they're doing something wrong somewhere along the line. And the donuts themselves don't really taste that fresh, though possibly they simply weren't. So not quite on par with walking into a proper Tims, right when they're putting still-warm donuts on the shelves... Still, a sweet, gooey taste of home, washed down with caffeinated awesomeness.

We just need to get slurpees out here, and I'll be happy. Morbidly obese, but happy.

Now for an aside on identity and branding: I realise it might seem stupid to connect a donut brand with nationalism, with "home." It doesn't just seem stupid, it really is. Canadians shouldn't feel patriotic for cracking open a can of Molson's Canadian (if the name wasn't enough, the slogan "I. AM. CANADIAN" and that lovely commercial kinda slammed the idea home).

The idea of Canadian-ness, however it should be defined, shouldn't be defined by marketing departments (even those that created Roll up the Rim to Win). Donuts aren't culture; they're not identity.

That said... I've spent many, many, many hours in Tims, chatting with friends into the wee, wee hours of the morning over an extra-large mocha and apple fritters -- shout out here to Kris, Mary, DarNat and Mel. (I just started salivating at the thought of apple fritters.) To me, Tims is one of those familiar stand-ins, a comforting pill to swallow when you can't have the real comfort of familiar faces and places.

And sometimes, when you're rather far away from home, something as basic as a familiar experience or taste is what you really need to feel a bit grounded and okay again. So it's not so much patriotism as homesickness, I guess.

All that, and donuts too...