Today is a holiday in Canada so the coffee bar in Montreal’s Radio-Canada building is closed and I will tell you why this is something of a crisis for us employees.
Out of 80 countries, Canada is ranked number one in terms of how much coffee we drink outside the house. We are also third in terms of the total amount of coffee we drink inside and outside the house. It averages 152 litres per person per year.
The only people who beat us on this are the Dutch and the Finns.
Coffee, hot or cold
So why do Canadians drink so much coffee? It might have something to do with the weather.
“With the colder temperatures, long winters, what have you, waking up in the morning to a nice warm cup of coffee, oh my god, it’s tranquility,” said Euromonitor research analyst Mark Strobel to CBC. That’s the firm that conducted as study on coffee consumption.
But today in Montreal it will be 29 C and with the humidity it will feel like 34, and I guarantee you, people will not skip their morning brew. They may skip the ones later in the day because, it being a holiday, people may have a few beers or wine instead. But I digress.
Java is big business
Coffee is big business in Canada. Tim Hortons coffee shop chain has become a cultural icon, yea verily, an essential service…to the point that after Canada went on a military mission in Afghanistan, an outlet opened at the military airfield in Kandahar in 2006 and provided some comforts of home for five years.
The first Tim Hortons ever was opened by a former hockey player by the same name and now there are 3,692 locations across Canada. That’s one for every 9,000 people. And there are also Starbucks, Second Cup, Java U and loads of other independent shops.
We’re okay
Anyway, before you get too worried about those of us at RCI who have to work today, fear not. My colleague Levon Sevunts found a coffee machine in the building and I went to a little coffee shop on Ste-Catherine street a block away.
So, it may take us a little more time to post, but post we will–after the coffee run.
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