McDonalds picked up said supplier and their regular coffee
nowadays tastes very much like the old Tim's.
And that supplier is Higgins & Burke which sells coffee under the
homey sounding name Mother Parkers. Don't let the hokey name fool
you: it's a large company. It's privately held, not public, owned
and operated by the fourth generation of the Higgins family. Mother
Parkers is also a fairly dominant supermarket brand of ground and
instant coffee here.
During the last days of US Air, its coffee supplier
switched to Mother Parker's; it was not very good
(rumor had it that it was instant), and the joke was
that the CEO, Doug Parker, had something to do with
the change. Now, of course, it's called American
Airlines (he's still CEO), because as with United
and Continental, the more profitable but lesser or
lesser known company took over the more prestigious
but financially troubled one, and in both cases the
better name was the one retained. I don't know what
the coffee supplier is to the new American; United's
is Illy.
McDonald's coffee has had its ups and downs. For a while, Green
Mountain Roasters was its main supplier now, who knows
They have four regional suppliers: Green Mountain, Distant Lands,
S&D (Davis and Switzer) and Gavina. I guess they are too big to rely
on just one supplier exclusively.
And the geographical reach is such that consistency
of taste is not all that critical.
By all reports from cross border travellers I know the Canadian
coffee is better. And it just might overtake Timmys in popularity.
That's a US-Can cross-border perspective, I
presume.
Right now the coffee market is split up:
1 Tim Hortons
2 McCafe
3 Second Cup
4 Starbucks
5 everybody else
That shows the superior tastebuds of above the
border, but if spots 4 and 5 were reversed it
would be even better.
Second Cup is a successful Canadian coffee house chain. (Back when I
was a banker I helped a lady set up the first franchise in Ottawa
back in the 70s.) Yellowknife has a copy cat knock off of it called
Gourmet Cup.
MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v7.07
Title: Tamer Bi Sumsum - Dates with Sesame Seeds
Categories: Snacks, Arabic
Servings: 10
20 Dates stuffed with almonds
-(Madinah dates)
2 tb Sesame seeds
Place the sesame seeds in a small frying pan over low heat and roast
until
golden, stirring constantly. Remove and cool. Roll each date in the
seeds
to coat and arrange on a tray. Serve with Gahwa (Arabic Coffee). Serves
10
people. Source unknown
MMMMM
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
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