Day 27: March 20, 2015 - Tim Horton's Vegan Options - Νηστίσιμες Επιλογές στο Tim Horton's

There are some coffee chains that make vegan diets easy.  For example, Starbucks regularly offers soy milk products, and there is often a fruit offering on the menu.  But, does Tim Hortons take care of the customer with dietary restrictions as easily?  We think there are options, but not really as many options in the drinks.  Here is the story:

When you hear the name Tim Hortons, you may think about hockey, or you may think about coffee and donuts.  In Canada, both are true.  In the U.S., most people may think about the coffee/doughnut chain. The late Tim Horton, winner of several Stanley Cups with the Toronto Maple Leafs, lived in a house on Warden Avenue during the 1950's, not far from where we live in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.  In 1965 Horton partnered with a police officer, Ron Joyce, to create the first of many Tim Hortons coffee and donut franchises. In recent months, this wildly successful iconic Canadian brand was purchased by Burger King (by the way, we do like the Burger King veggie burger).

A few days ago, we were travelling by car to the U.S. to visit family and friends, and when we do, we plan our drives with stops along the way at different places and different sites.  One of the stops that we made is a Duty Free shop near Niagara Falls. This Tim Hortons is a convenient location for us to buy a coffee or buy a snack.  Here's what we discovered: if someone enjoys a black coffee, or just a little sweetener, then this is an easy purchase.  Or if a person wants a cup of tea, this is easy.  But, buying a cup of coffee with a non-animal milk product in public is not the easiest thing at this chain.

We stopped at Tim's to buy a coffee, typically we have coffee with milk.  During Great Lent, we use almond milk or rice milk at home for coffee.  This is one of the few areas we actually do a substitution instead of just eliminating that food from the diet.  And, for us, rice milk and almond milk do not leave a residual flavour in the mouth (as we feel that soy milk often does), and are mild enough, as well as thick enough to make a good cup of coffee.  These substitutes work for smoothies and frappe, too!  But, we did not know if Tim Hortons would offer these choices, nor had we planned ahead to bring our own container of "milk", so we asked the workers, "Do you have any non-animal milk alternatives for coffee?"  Of course, this was not a very clear questions for the young worker, so we had to ask again, "Do you have any soy milk, rice milk, or powdered non-dairy creamer to use in coffee?"  The young man answered with, "No, we have tea."

How does one add tea to coffee to make it creamy?  Who knows?  But, it was not something that we were about to try, and we asked again.  "Do you have milk alternatives for someone who doesn't eat animal products?"  The young man explained, "We have whole milk, 2 %, and fat free milk.  Or, you can have it black, or have tea."  This was not the answer we wanted to hear, but it was clear.  We looked over the menu items that were available, but we just wanted the coffee.  And, since drinking black coffee is not really an option unless it is a small Greek coffee in a demitasse with a cold glass of water, then black coffee was not of us.

So what items are vegan choices at Tim Hortons?

Well, by looking at the Tim Hortons website allergy information, there are a few options.  It may not be the milk for beverages, as the young worker explained, but we did find this list of acceptable (without animal products) foods. We have tried to identify all the possibilities from Tim Hortons website (as of March 2015).

Bagels - plain bagels without toppings or flavours are typically vegan, since they are made with flour, salt, and water.  Watch out for speciality bagels-- they likely contain egg.

Condiments/toppings - food condiments are usually safe.  Ketchup, mustard, veggies, and the like are often clean of animal products.  Of course, we avoid mayonnaise, which is egg based, creams, cheeses, and whipped toppings.  Tim Horton's, though, does have one vegan topping -- the Chocolatey Drizzle is free of milk products and free of eggs.  The mustard spread and the margarine, however, have milk product at Tim's, so be careful!

Beverages - here are lists of the ingredients in some of the beverage choices.  That way, you can see which drinks are fine, and what the ingredients make up those drinks to decide if you want to drink them:

Bottled Beverages:
Apple Juice: Water, concentrated apple juice, vitamin C.Orange Juice: Water, concentrated orange juice.Citrus Green Iced Tea: Brewed green tea leaves, cane sugar, natural flavor, citric acid. 
Lemon Iced Tea: Brewed tea leaves, cane sugar, natural lemon flavor, citric acid. 

Coffees:
Original Blend Coffee: 100% Arabica coffee.
Dark Roast Coffee: 100% Arabica coffee.
Decaf Coffee: 100% Arabica coffee, decaffeinated by The Swiss Water Process. 

Teas:
Apple Cinnamon Herbal Tea (Caffeine-free): Cinnamon bark, roasted chicory root, apple pieces, rosehip berries, hibiscus flowers, natural flavors, nutmeg, allspice, citric acid. Blueberry 
Chai Tea: Black tea leaves, cinnamon bark, ginger root, black pepper, cardamom seed, cloves, star anise, nutmeg.
Chamomile Herbal Tea (Caffeine-free): Chamomile.
Earl Grey Tea: Black tea leaves, natural oil of Bergamot.
English Breakfast Tea: Black tea leaves.
Green Tea: Green tea leaves, lemongrass, lemon balm herb, verbena leaves.
Honey Lemon Herbal Tea (Caffeine-free): Rosehip berries, lemongrass herb, lemon peels, golden rod herb, roasted chicory root, natural flavors, citric acid, green anise seeds. 
Orange Pekoe Tea (Decaffeinated): Black tea leaves. Decaffeinated with ethyl acetate.
Peppermint Herbal Tea (Caffeine-free): Peppermint.
Pomegranate White Tea: White tea, hibiscus, rosehips, orange peel, chamomile, natural pomegranate flavor, licorice root, natural and artificial flavors. 
Neutral Base Raspberry Flavor Shot
Hazelnut Flavor: Glycerine, caramel colour, propylene glycol, natural and artificial flavors, water, FD&C yellow #5, triacetin. Contains sulfites. 
Raspberry Flavor: Glycerine, propylene glycol, water, natural and artificial flavors, FD&C red #40, FD&C blue #1.
Vanilla Bean Flavor: Glycerine, propylene glycol, water, natural and artificial flavouring. Contains sulfites. 

Specialty and Herbal Teas:
Steeped Black Tea: Black tea leaves.
White Tea: White tea, rosehips, hibiscus, natural blueberry flavor, licorice root, natural vanilla flavor, natural raspberry flavor, other natural flavors.
Orange Pekoe Tea: Black tea leaves.

Frozen Lemonade:

Original Frozen Lemonade:
Lemon Syrup Neutral Base

Raspberry Frozen Lemonade
Lemon Syrup

Lemon Syrup: Water, sugar, citric acid, natural flavor, lemon juice concentrate, xanthan gum, sodium benzoate (preservative), turmeric (color).
Neutral Base: High fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, water, sodium benzoate (preservative), citric acid. OR

High fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, water, citric acid and sodium benzoate as a preservative, antifoam (dimethylpolysiloxane). Raspberry Flavor Shot: See under FLAVOR SHOTS. 

Flavor shots (for beverages):

Creamy Caramel Flavor: Glycerine, propylene glycol, water, natural and artificial flavouring, caramel colour. Contains sulfites.
Mint Chocolate Flavor: Glycerine, propylene glycol, water, artificial flavors, caramel colour.

Beverage toppings:

Chocolatey Drizzle: High fructose corn syrup, water, sugar, cocoa processed with alkali, corn syrup, natural flavor, salt, potassium sorbate (preservative), citric acid.  (mentioned above)

"But I say to you," the Lord says, "love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who persecute you." Why did he command these things? So that he might free you from hatred, sadness, anger and grudges, and might grant you the greatest possession of all, perfect love, which is impossible to possess except by the one who loves all equally in imitation of God."

St. Maximus the Confessor

Source of quote: http://theodorakis.net/orthodoxquotescomplete.html