Countless cafes have made their names with experimental coffee flavors and towering whipped-cream-capped creations (which have their place). But, for coffee lovers who want a taste of an expertly executed classic, Tim Hortons may be the place to head to. Today’s Tim Hortons fun fact is all about the chain’s knack for keeping it simple: The most-ordered beverage at the chain’s locations across Canada in 2024 was the Double Double.
So what is a Double Double? This straightforward sipper consists of a coffee with two sugars and two creams. Judging by the fact that Tim Hortons serves more than five million cups of coffee every single day, it’s safe to say that’s a lot of Double Doubles.
According to the Tim Hortons website, repeat customers are the backbone of the business; a whopping 80% of Canadians visit Timmies at least once a month. With 3,558 Timmies locations in Canada and over 650 U.S. locations spanning 13 states, that shakes out to quite a few Double Doubles — and it’s no mystery why. The classic cream-and-sugar coffee is ideal for ripping on the commute to work for its straightforward sweet fuel hit, slow-savoring in the park on a weekend morning, or dunking with chocolate-glazed Timbits. Here at Tasting Table, we even prefer Tim Hortons’ donuts to Dunkin’s, but we digress…
Timmies fans double down on the Double Double
It’s worth noting that a coffee with two creams and two sugars can be ordered from any coffee shop, diner, or gas station. At many Dunkin’ locations, this same drink order is slightly ambiguously called a Light and Sweet. In New York City cafes and bodegas, it’s called a regular coffee, as Anthony Bourdain explains in one episode of “A Cook’s Tour,” saying, “I like my coffee ‘regular.’ ‘Regular’ in New York is with milk and sugar, that’s regular.” But, only at Tim Hortons is this classic concoction called by the Double Double moniker.
In fact, the term “Double-Double™ coffee” is trademarked on the Timmy’s website. Double Double has even been officially recognized by the “Oxford English Dictionary”, which defines the drink order as, “A cup of coffee with a double serving of both sugar and cream.” An example sentence provided by “Oxford Learners Dictionary” reads, “I cannot start the day without my double-double” — and in Canada at least, many coffee-lovers really do seem to agree.
Whether they’re ordering coffee or a treat (or both), Tim Hortons fans certainly seem to stick to the classics. In 2024, in honor of Tim Hortons’ 60th birthday, the chain released a retro-inspired Walnut Crunch donut, which went on to sweep the other donuts as the most popular treat among fans by a landslide.
