Here's How Tim Hortons Makes Its Coffee & So Much Goes Into Getting The Taste Just Right (VIDEO)

I don't know what mornings would be without my "medium regular coffee, double-cupped" order from Tim Hortons, but it's never going to feel quite the same now that I've seen how those coffee beans are made.

You can find Tim Hortons coffee in just about every corner of the country, and there are two things you can bet on no matter where you go: It'll be cheap, and it'll taste good.

But how does Tim Hortons make that happen? How do you ensure that a cup of coffee in Toronto tastes the same as a cup in Yellowknife or Vancouver?

I had the opportunity to visit the Tim Hortons Roastery in Ancaster, Ontario, and I was shocked to see how much goes into making the iconic Canadian coffee we know and love.

The roastery

The Tim Hortons Roastery sign in Ancaster, Ontario.Ashna Bharkhada | Narcity

The Tim Hortons Roastery in Ancaster supplies coffee to all of its nearly 4,000 restaurants across Canada, according to stats that Tim Hortons shared with Narcity. It's a 74,000-square-foot facility located just an hour outside Toronto, and it's been roasting coffee for Canadian stores since 2009.

Tims operates a second coffee plant in Rochester, New York, but the Ancaster location is the only one of its kind in Canada. The warehouse stores and ships 1.5 million pounds of coffee a week and produces enough to make 270,000 cups an hour.

From green bean to brew

Raw Tim Hortons coffee beans before getting roasted.Ashna Bharkhada | Narcity

As soon as I stepped into the roastery, that familiar aroma of roasted coffee beans hit me.

The plant manager, Lyle Fleetham, took us through the journey of how coffee goes from green bean to brew.

Beans are shipped in from around the world, including several Central and South American countries like Guatemala, Brazil and Colombia. They're then inspected for defects and cleaned to remove any sticks, stones and metals.

Next, they're off to roasting and blending in giant roller drums. Around 10,000 pounds of coffee are roasted per hour, and each batch takes approximately 12 minutes.

After cooling for two hours, the roasted beans head to the grinders and then move to the degassing stage to keep them fresh.

Finally, the roasted, ground coffee is packed and ready to be shipped out. The equivalent of 975 pots of Tim Hortons coffee is packaged every minute, and the warehouse has a turnover time of two days, according to Tims.

'Cupping' for quality control

Green Coffee Quality Manger Jay Pathirana cupping coffee.Ashna Bharkhada | Narcity

I couldn't believe the great lengths Tim Hortons goes to to ensure every cup maintains that signature coffee taste.

A new term I learned on my Tim Hortons Roastery tour is "cupping." It's the practice of evaluating the flavour, aroma and quality of brewed coffee.

By the time the beans arrive at the plant, they've already been cupped three times. Tims actually rejects around 10% of their shipment for not meeting quality standards.

Jay Pathirana, Tim Hortons' green coffee quality manager, is a pro cupper whose team checks 250 to 300 cups of coffee a day. The plant cups three pouches of product every hour to ensure it meets standards and saves two for reference in case an issue ever occurs at the store level.

"You sip Tim Hortons coffee long enough, you get to find the fine notes right, and you get to know them. You can pick out defects very quickly," Fleetham told me.

The special Tim Hortons coffee recipe

Bowls of roasted coffee beans from different regions.Reha Sandill | Narcity

Tim Hortons says its iconic recipe hasn't changed since it opened the doors to its first restaurant in 1964. We were told the blend is a mix of five bean types. So how does Tim Hortons make their coffee taste so good?

"I've been here for 11 and a half years, and I don't know the recipe," Fleetham told me.

I was shocked.

"The formula will go into the background in the computer system, then they'll send me an email saying, 'Here's the number you're going to use today. You're using recipe 419.' We put 419 in the background and it starts drawing the amounts of coffee for the roast."

Even the manager of coffee quality and innovation, John Middlemass, says he doesn't know.

"I don't know what is in the blend. There's only a select few of us that can tell you what that is."

It's safe to say Tim Hortons keeps their recipe top secret.

The roastery tour was exceptional and truly gave me a greater appreciation for this quintessential Canadian beverage. So the next time you take a sip of Tim Hortons coffee, remember that there are plenty of people who work hard to make it taste just right!