Tim Hortons Doughnuts: Ranked
Ask almost any Canadian, and there’s a good chance they’ll have a favourite Tim Hortons doughnut. And that’s all well and good, but it doesn’t answer the real question:
Which is the best Tim Hortons doughnut?
Seven Yahoo employees set out to very unscientifically answer that question ahead of Tim Hortons 51st anniversary, taking place on May 17. After a lot of doughnuts, here are our thoughts on which are the worst, all the way up to the best, the single pinnacle of baked doughy goodness to go with your double-double.
Method: We each tasted a piece of doughnut, purchased that day, from a Tim Hortons in the Toronto area. After tasting the piece of doughnut, we ranked it from one to 10. Those scores were then averaged, to reach an overall mean score for each doughnut. Based on those averages, here's how the doughnuts stacked up:
 | 26. Sour Cream Plain |
 | 25. Chocolate Cruller |
 | 24. Canadian Maple Okay, maybe we're a cranky bunch because we're not fans of maple or custard on the whole here, either, so the Canadian Maple received very little praise amongst the group. For more than one person, the maple just tasted too artificial. |
 | 23. Maple Dip |
 | 22. Chocolate Dip Despite having chocolate in the name, this doughnut didn't come across as 'chocolatey' so much as 'sweet.' Coupled with the issue of getting all the icing stuck to the top of the bag when you get one to go, and, well, this probably won't be the doughnut we go for on our next Timmy's run. |
 | 21. Vanilla Dip with Sprinkles Aside from a demand for the version with smaller sprinkles, this one came across as any other run-of-the-mill sprinkles doughnut to us. Pretty inoffensive, but not exactly something you'd crave. |
 | 20. Game Day Compared to the Vanilla Dip, this doughnut suffered the problem of too many sprinkles (not to mention, some people weren't sure if the decal was edible -- don't worry, it is). Unintended benefit: If you're not a Blue Jays fan, you can cruelly devour the logo of the team. |
 | 19. Chocolate White Coconut Apparently, coconut isn't a very popular option amongst this group, either. Most thought it was too much coconut (and too much ranged from "any at all" to "coconut should be used as an accent). Bottom line: It didn't add anything to the chocolate. |
 | 18. Maple Swirl |
 | 17. Honey Cruller Again, the moist interior of the honey cruller was not everyone's cup of tea. The overall flavour found favour with about half of the group. What was agreed upon though was if this doughnut wasn't baked just perfectly, biting into an overdone or underdone one would be very tragic. |
 | 16. Boston Cream This one suffered from both the custard filling that some didn't like, and the chocolate topping that sticks to the to-go bags (yes, that problem again). However when the doughnut is really fresh and the balance between chocolate and custard is just right, this doughnut can be pretty darn good. |
 | 15. Sugar Loop For those picky few who didn't like the sanding sugar, this doughnut was considered really, really unpleasant. But the majority of the group found it to be tasty, with a good sweetness and reminiscent of traditional fairground doughnuts. |
 | 14. Old Fashion Plain While this doughnut doesn't seem to have much happening at first glance, it's got a great texture and flavour, and was deemed "very dippable for hot beverages." It did feel "unfinished" to some, though, which is probably why the other varieties of Old Fashion performed so much better. |
 | 13. Apple Fritter The Apple Fritter might have been more cinnamon taste than apple taste for most of us, but it still remained quite a popular choice amongst the group. Those who didn't like it, though, really didn't like it. |
 | 12. Double Chocolate A perennial favourite of one reviewer, the others found this doughnut to be very rich and heavy. Perfect for some, a definite miss for others. You can't please everyone. |
 | 11. Honey Dip The glaze spread all over the doughnut ensures that there's a consistent sweetness to the doughnut, which elevates the basic yeast doughnut base. Not a show-stopper, but none of us would turn it down if offered one! |
 | 10. Old Fashion Sugar Adding some complexity to the basic Old Fashion Plain, the sugar on this doughnut makes it that slight bit sweeter and gives it more textural interest (which appealed to some, and not to others). |
 | 9. Toasted Coconut Surprisingly, the Toasted Coconut was overwhelmingly prefered over the Chocolate White Coconut. Those who really hated coconut still didn't like it, but those on the fence about it were swayed by this neutral-but-pleasant combination. |
 | 8. Strawberry Vanilla There was a lot going on here: strawberry jam, vanilla icing and sprinkles. We agreed it would have a really strong appeal for kids, but was a tad too sweet for any of us to make this our go-to doughnut. |
 | 7. Sour Cream Glazed This doughnut was described as "melt in your mouth" and "smooth" by reviewers. The consensus was that glazing the Sour Cream doughnut makes a world of difference for the better. Not necessarily a strong "sour cream" flavour, but that's probably not a bad thing. |
 | 6. Pumpkin Spice The spices in this doughnut makes it more interesting than the Old Fashion, and gives it a flavour reminiscent of Christmastime treats. Even those who had turned up their nose at many of the previous doughnuts admitted this one was pretty fine. |
 | 5. Strawberry Filled This doughnut was definitely good enough for the top 5 with its soft exterior and delicious powdered sugar coating, but compared to the Raspberry Filled (which we had tasted just before), it was a little too sweet to make it any higher on the list. Definitely likely to be preferred by a younger crowd, though. |
 | 4. Old Fashion Glazed This really felt like the 'classic' doughnut to us. The glaze helped sweeten the basic Old Fashion to improve the flavour (which we already liked). Loved by just about everyone. |
 | 3. Chocolate Glazed During the review, one of the judges we brought in was visiting from the U.K., and had never tried a Tim Hortons doughnut before. This was the doughnut she went out and purchased again on her own. If any of the other judges had been trying this for the first time, we agreed that we'd probably have gone out and bought a whole one for ourselves, too. |
 | 2. Old Fashion Dip This unfortunately rare doughnut was a perfect blend of Old Fashion cake-based doughnut and chocolatey topping. We wish we could find it in more places, because it's such a well-balanced treat. Ideal for dessert. |
 | 1. Raspberry Filled For its delicious powder sugar coating, its tart-but-not-too-tart raspberry filling, and its soft exterior, this doughnut was our overall winner. The only complaint? We wish there was even more filling to enjoy, and that these were more easily found! |
Watch the video below about the best and worst items you can eat at Tim Hortons, according to a nutritionist.
