Haikou doesn’t have a Starbucks. Or at least according to rumours, doesn’t yet have a Starbucks. However, unlike the rest of China, and much like India and Thailand, we do have branches of Coffee World and Pizza Corner.

The downtown Guomao Coffee World and Pizza Corner was the first Western restaurant we were introduced to after moving down to Haikou. I’d never heard of the chains before, but was looking forward to sampling something not steamed, stir-fried or boiled, and I wasn’t let down. Their pizza, while not earth-shattering and a far cry from the ‘za of home, was more than enough to subdue my comfort food craving.

Unfortunately, its distance from where we live made it a bit of a non-starter for regular visits. I think other parents with young kids will sympathize; when it comes to eating out with a toddler, close to home tends to win out almost every time.

We’re fortunate that where we live in Haikou has a variety of decent Chinese restaurants, and one crappy “pizza” place. As such, I’ve not really been left wanting, with the exception of not having a good spot to get a Starbucks-style coffee nearby.

But now we do. Not 10 minutes from our place is a newly opened Coffee World location, on Haidian Dao’s Wuxi Lu. This morning Maggie, the boy and I decided to take the spot up on its offer of 2-for-1 waffles and see if it was any good. It was.

Prices are about on par with what you’d expect at a Starbucks — iced coffee drinks run 25 RMB (med) to 35 RMB (lrg), and the waffles range from 22 RMB (plain) to 30-ish RMB for fancier stuff. Our berry-covered waffles were 27 RMB (and two for one!). The location is small, much smaller than the downtown spot; and lacks a Pizza Corner, so food is limited to waffles, NY-style bagels, some wraps, pasta, and other simple stuff. But still, it’s a nice addition to the collection of restaurants in our “18-month-old-meltdown-must-run-home” radius.

I should mention that Coffee World isn’t the only Western-style coffee shop (not to be confused with the plethora of UBC clones on every corner). There is a cute café called Milli Coffee just around the corner from the downtown Coffee World, and a newly opened one a few doors down from the Coffee World by us on Haidian Dao. It’s the spot I want to love, but can’t.

Milli’s old-sofas and ambient interior have a bit more charm than Coffee World’s polished cookie-cutter chainishness. However, both times I’ve been there its staff seemed more interested in practicing invisibility than serving customers. What’s more, the drinks are over-priced, especially considering their decor couldn’t have cost more than a day’s worth of iced cappuccino sales. I have a hard time paying a premium to sit on dirty second-hand furniture in a dimly lit place — but that might just be me.

And it has no 2-for-1 waffles (at least until the end of the year). But maybe the near proximity of both locations will be for the betterment of both places, and ultimately us iced-drink lovers.

So Starbucks, this is just to say, we still want you to come to the island, but in making us wait you’re going to have some decent competition when you get here.

I’m sure I’m not alone in this confession, but I thought I’d make it regardless.

I drink so much in a day that I’ve set a cut-off limit of 5pm, anything later and I increase my chances of having night-terrors. Now, instead of night-time misadventures, I find myself cramming cups in the hour leading up to 5pm, causing me to be a tweaking twitchy mess of a person.

When I first moved to China, up in a small town just outside of Dalian in China’s north-east, it was a hassle to even track down instant coffee that didn’t come in crappy satchels and were made of a powder than never quite dissolved.

I’m not sure if it’s my change in location or China’s breakneck development, but now finding coffee (even proper non-instant grinds) isn’t much of a hassle. However, there’s still something missing – it’s just not Timmies.

Tim Horton’s coffee, for anyone not from Canada (or one of the few US states that have a chain), is a quintessential Canadian coffee/donut shop that holds the unique honour of also working its way into our national identity.

Say “large double double” to any Canadian and they’ll almost assuredly know what you mean.

Alas, unlike Starbucks, there’s not a Tim Horton’s drive-thru for more than 9,000 km (Starbucks has a location about 200m from my apartment). Fortunately, for the last couple years my (true and dear) friend Amanda has made it her Christmas mission to stock my Chinese cupboards with Tim Horton’s coffee via their brew-at-home packets of “authentic” Tim Horton’s blend.

The gesture forced me to bite the bullet and purchase myself a coffee maker a while back – but the results have been lackluster at best. The coffee was alright, but didn’t have that “Timmies” quality.

I blamed my coffeemaker (cheapish Phillips), the water, the milk/cream ratio… nothing seemed to work.

So, I started hunting around and found this interesting post. It claims, from a source deep within the Tim Horton’s echelon of power, that no matter what I do, I’ll never get that Timmies’ taste – as the stuff brewed at the shop contains something my packets don’t.

The secret Tim Horton’s ingredient? Roasted black mustard seed. Apparently you just grind them into the coffee (to taste) and voila! True Timmies at home.

One problem – finding roasted black mustard seeds here might be just as hard as finding a Tim Horton’s drive-thru.

But I’m making it my mission (and Amanda’s generously offered to Santa me some seeds should I not find them by Christmas). If any fellow Canucks have tried this, or try this before me, let me know the results.

Note: other Internet sources, and Tim Horton’s corp, state that this is completely false and that Tim Horton’s has no “secret ingredient”. They state that you just require a commercial coffeemaker that (a) super heats the water, and (b) doesn’t burn the coffee while it’s sitting in the pot (Timmies has a 20-minute freshness rule). Though both of these make sense, additional research online showed people who had bought the “official Tim Horton’s coffeemaker”, and the home brew was still missing something.

Update – 8/20/2008

I’ve just heard back from Amanda, whose husband rushed out to buy some roasted black mustard seeds, and we have total success!

Approximate usage:
Amanda put 1/4 tsp of roasted black mustard seeds mixed in with two heaping tbsp of coffee for a 12-cup coffeemaker set to “medium” strength (she’s apparently got a way cooler coffeemaker than my 2-cup beast).

Also – she wasn’t using Timmie’s brand coffee grinds, but just regular Folgers.