MY Take on The Breakfast Sandwich

It’s true. I am lazy. And that overpowering lazyness is fueled by cheap, premade breakfast sandwiches that I just can’t be bothered going through the rigamarole (real word, check it) of making one myself, no matter how cheap it ends up being in the long run. It’s just simply too awesome to roll out of bed, go downstairs, walk 40 yards, give a person some pocket change, and be handed a smoldering, delicious hodgepodge of molten cheese, succulent sausage, and fresh (maybe) egg, served up on a toasted tea biscuit. Adjective overkill for the win!

Anyways, I won’t bore you with the technical details. We’ve probably all eaten an Egg McMuffin at one point in time or another, so you know what I’m talking about. Also… well… I’m lazy and Nik’s already said it all.

I’ve always been sort of a fence-sitter when it comes to the Egg McMuffin. I don’t really agree with a lot of McDonalds methods, and if I want a fast food hamburger, I avoid the place like the plague, but there are many times that a quick, cheap, accessible breakfast has gotten me through some rougher-than-usual mornings. Because of this, I’m a little biased, since the Egg McMuffin served it’s sole purpose, and sated my hunger. So, when it comes to actually picking up the new Tim Horton’s Breakfast Sandwich (doesn’t really have that same, iconic ring to it that Egg McMuffin has, does it?), with the intention of analyzing and critiquing it, it was a little difficult. I mean, it’s just a sandwich, right?

Wrong.

Okay, I’m being dramatic. It is just a sandwich. Nothing extraordinary, but nothing terribly mundane either. I’d have to say, compared to the Egg McMuffin, I preferred the THBS. I picked one up, with a medium coffee, and a new maple pecan danish (also new on the menu. I was feeling enterprising today) for just over $5. First off, let me say that Nik’s photo didn’t really do it much justice. In his photo, it seems a little distorted and it makes the tea biscuit look flat and wimpy. Speaking of the tea biscuit, I’m a big fan, it was different, and as far as I’m concerned, it handed the traditional english muffin it’s ass on a platter, and I really didn’t find it as greasy/burnt as Nik says. As for the egg, Nik’s right, it was really pre-fabbed and generic, in both texture and taste. I’d take the McDonalds poached egg approach over Tim’s scrambled-then-molded version.

Now, unlike Nik, I had the sausage version of the sandwich. I feel like the quality of the sausage exceeded that of McDonalds (no big surprise, McDonalds is pretty much renowned for their sub-par meat products). However, if I recall correctly, I feel like you get more sausage on an Egg McMuffin. Still, I’d take quality over quantity here. The cheese was better than your average sandwich-bound processed cheeses. It was still processed, but still had more going for it than the Egg McMuffin equivalent. So hot and molten-y. Good stuff.

Ultimately, I’m finding it hard to choose, so like so many other decisions I’ve had to make, I’m going to sit on the fence for this one. This is actually conveniently more literal than you’d think, as there’s a fence (along with a small parking lot or two) between the nearest McDonalds and the neighbouring Tim Hortons. If I absolutely had to choose, I’d have to go with Tim Hortons, because it’s about 20 yards closer than the McDonalds. England Lazyness prevails.

Sidenote: If you can think of a better name for the THBS, by all means, leave a comment, I’m interested in seeing what people come up with. I’m going with Breakfast Biscuit for the time being.

Tim Horton’s Breakfast Sandwich

For some time now I’ve been wishing Tim’s stocked something more breakfasty besides a bagel smothered in 6 lbs. of cream cheese, or a croissant. A few months ago, Tim’s introduced the Tim Horton’s Breakfast Sandwich to their US locations and it’s now available in Canada at select locations (for some reason The Toronto Star article says the breakfast sandwich comes on a bun.. it’s actually a tea biscuit). Tim’s has priced their Breakfast Sandwich to be in direct competition with McDonald’s, around the $2.49 mark. I have to admit that Tim Horton’s has to have balls the size of coconuts to take on fast-food breakfast champ McDonald’s, but it’s a logical step for Tim’s, as I’m sure people would love to have a one-stop shop for decent coffee and a fast breakfast.

Coincidentally, I recently went to McDonald’s for the first time in 5 years, and had an Egg McMuffin; I’ll admit it was a guilty pleasure.. and the coffee wasn’t half bad, too.

Greg and I decided to head over to Tim’s this morning to try out the new sandwich, and see what it’s like.

Nik – Breakfast Sandwich with Bacon
Cost: about $4.00 with a large coffee refill.

My first impression is that this thing looks like crap.. I’m not impressed. The tea biscuit looks a little burned on the edges, and the whole thing looks really haphazardly thrown together. The egg also looks really fake and molded (which it obviously is). I kind of like that they’re using a tea biscuit instead of the traditional English Muffin, though, it makes for something a little different. It’s also comforting to see that the bacon looks pretty much like bacon from home.

The cheese doesn’t seem to be as heavily processed as an Egg McMuffin’s, so that’s good.. unfortunately, the downside of its ‘realness’ is that it largely drowns out the egg taste; I think they’ve got to strike a better balance in that regard. While the tea biscuit is a novel idea, it was a little too greasy; every time I picked that thing up, my fingers felt like they were just dipped in oil. Tim’s opted to use a scrambled egg in the sandwich, and I have to say I’m not a fan of the texture.. it’s like a weird, stiff-foam kind of feeling which I didn’t find pleasant at all. I know they’re trying to differentiate themselves from McDonald’s, but I really think the sandwich would benefit from a poached egg instead of the current scrambled egg foam.

I really hate to admit this, as I’m a huge Tim Horton’s junkie, but I think that McDonald’s Egg McMuffin is better than Tim’s Breakfast Sandwich; and that’s not really surprising.. McDonald’s has been serving breakfast for over 30 years.  While Tim’s foray into the breakfast world is a decent first-start, I think it really needs some ironing out and perfecting in order to come into direct competition with McDonald’s.

Overall, I’d give the Tim Horton’s Breakfast Sandwich 3/5.

I’ll try to get Greg to write his review of the Sausage Breakfast Sandwich, but he’s a lazy fuck.  So for now here’s a picture of him: