A little Sugar in your Tim Hortons Black?

Yesterday I was on Rideau Street finishing up my Christmas shopping and stopped into Tim Hortons (99 Rideau Street, Ottawa) for a coffee.  I arrived shortly after 2 P.M. to find a short line and two cashes open. 

One cash was being taken up by a customer leading the Tim Hortons employee slowly through the dozen donuts and dozen Timbits he wanted flavour by flavour. 

The other cash was slowly serving one person.  Both of the cash registers only had one employee unlike the busier times of the day where there are normally two employees on the cash registers to speed up the service.  A supervisor returned and was more inclined to look at a bag that that was left at an unattended counter that was a customers who was looking for his change while in line.  Once the supervisor figured out the bag situation he ventured over to a door, entered the required code and dissapeared.  So much for helping out front with the line not really going anywhere. 

The wait was admittedly abnormal for this high volume location located on Rideau Street near the Westbound OC Transpo station and next to the McDonald's.  Normally, this Tim Horton's moves customers at a steady pace like a well oiled machine.  This afternoon, less so as it seemed just one staff member short. 

Eventually I achieved recognition at the counter for my order. 

The Order: 1 Medium Black Coffee.

I exchanged my cash and grabbed my coffee for my venture down Rideau Street to finish up my Christmas shopping. 

I did notice the bright white "B" on the top of my lid to denote "Black".  I thought that was amusing as there was only quantity one beverage ordered as opposed to two or more and the usual wonderment that goes on of whose coffee was whose. 

That white "B" turned out to be herring.  I opened the coffee took a sip and the coffee tasted funny.  I took another couple sips to figure out if my taste buds were operating correctly and to figure out what was going on.  Yes the same taste was there, now what was it.  Hmmm...good Lord! Why on earth would there by "SUGAR" in a "BLACK" coffee?  I removed the lid and inspected, yes it looked black so cream hadn't been added and the lids got switched.  Although that would have been amusing as the employee was working by themselves at the cash and poured the coffee themselves.  So that would have been hillarious to screw it up.  But really, Sugar in black coffee? 

Overall this Tim Horton's is a decent place to go to if you wish to get in and get out.  But this time the wait was a little longer than usual and a simple black coffee had sugar added.  This location is not a great place to visit if you are looking to sit down.  There are only a couple of seats in the front that are usually occupied. Your better to visit the Rideau Centre Food Court Tim Hortons location with more abundant clean seating.  The Rideau Street location needs to pull up its socks in terms of attention to what the customer wishes and to ensure it is adequatly supervised with the supervisor adding a pair of hands when needed instead of hiding in the back.