Rose Simpson: #Savethedutchie: Do it for Tim Horton

_ Rose Simpson’s column appears every Tuesday morning on the OttawaStart Blog. She also blogs at Rose’s Cantina . You can read her previous columns here . _

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_ Dutchie Timbit - Photo by Calgary Reviews _

Forty years ago this month, Tim Horton wiped out in his sportscar near my St. Catharines home.

The rest is history.

Poor Tim didn’t get to enjoy the spoils of the Tim Horton empire. Apparently, his business partner did very well by him. Then so did Dave Thomas, late of Wendy’s. And now that l’ll red headed girl has cashed in, and is wearing cashmere sweaters and talking on television about burgers with more than a hundred grams of fat.

I don’t think she’s as good a huckster as her dad.

Apparently, unlike Dave, Wendy’s not very good at driving traffic.

So they’ve replaced her with a younger redhead who runs around extolling the virtues of slabs of cow tucked into ciabiatta bread. It’s just so darned adorable.

But I digress.

Dave sold the company back to a Canadian company a few years back. Or did Wendy? I think Dave was dead by then and I’m too darned lazy to google it.

Anyway, this blog is not about the ownership of Tim’s, it’s about a serious error the company is about to make, an error that I believe will do tremendous damage to the brand.

By now, sans doubt, you have learned that Tim’s is deep-fried sixing some of its products including ice cream. (What you didn’t know Tim’s sold ice cream? Me, neither.)

It is changing its menu. Don’t worry diabetics. Tim’s isn’t getting rid of coffeeshakes that taste like chock nor are the owners getting rid of “steeped tea” something you can make yourself and forget for an hour on top of the stove.

That’s not the problem.

Tim’s has decided to trash a number of popular Timbits, the ones we Canadians have come to treasure. Tim’s announced it is getting rid of the Dutchie donut hole.

Why the change?

Has the Dutchie adversely affected Tim’s bottom line?

Did it insult the owner?

The Dutchie is a symbol of deliciousness, the very donut piece that gets me to buy the damned Timbits whilst on my travels between Ottawa and Toronto. Scott says they’re getting rid of the Dutchie because it doesn’t have a hole and therefore doesn’t qualify as a donut. Scott says that the Dutchie is not a donut hole; it is a pastry.

I am not convinced.

Perhaps, Tim’s is getting rid of the Dutchie because it has raisins, possibly the only nutritious thing on the whole menu.

I believe that Tim Horton would not have approved.

Why, Tim would say, would you mess with a proven formula, the very one that gets me, Rose Simpson, into a Tim Horton’s once every five years.

I can tell ya, I don’t go for the coffee, laced as it is with edible oil product that is being sold as “cream”.

Nope the Dutchie is the only reason for Tim Horton’s.

So please join me as I launch my Twitter campaign #savethedutchie.

I’m doing this in the memory of Tim Horton who came to me in a dream last night.

He told me to do this.

And have a donut on him.

So please, please don’t let the Dutchie simply fade away.

#savethedutchie. Do it for Tim.

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Rose Simpson _

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_ ** See also: ** Ottawa Food Guide

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