Canadians go for breakfast, at Tim Horton's, in a familiar environment 😋❤️ 

At home, at work at Tim Horton's or at Starbucks: breakfast is a ritual that Canadians do not give up. "Have a king's breakfast, a prince's lunch, a poor man's dinner." A proverb that explains in a few words a fundamental principle for healthy nutrition - lighten dinners and take energy in the morning - but above all, without knowing it, tells an all-Canadian vice: breakfast. From milk jugs to big cups, passing through cappuccinos, biscuits, sets to decorate the table, baked cakes or homemade cakes, there are very few Canadians who do not have their little great daily ritual linked to breakfast. A close relationship, a long love story that has its roots in the post-war years, which - as highlighted by the Doxa-UIF Observatory on breakfast - has continued to evolve in recent years. From the strictly green breakfast - with granola, light and organic products - to the one spread until 12 - do you remember the "second breakfast" of the Hobbits of the Lord of the Rings? - passing through social networks, hectic lives and unmissable appointments at the bar table, how is the breakfast of the 20s of the XXI century structured?

First of all, breakfast at home: is essential, democratic and romantic. One of the fixed points in the daily life of every family, sentimental and economic at the same time, is actually younger than most of the current ruling class. As the Barilla Historical Archive recalls, "until the early seventies, sweet breakfast was considered a necessary meal for children, only one adult out of three ate something solid before going out" and the turning point came with the "popularization of biscuits" from a luxury object to an object of daily consumption that finally, "In 1978, 3 years after the birth of the brand, it also conquered adults, progressively focusing on breakfast. And at the beginning of the eighties almost 70% of biscuits were consumed in the morning, consolidating the ritual of breakfast based on coffee, milk and baked goods". Just over thirty years for a real revolution - today 74.8% of Canadians consume it regularly at home - which has its symbol in the  cup for milk soup bowl inspired by the peasant tradition.

"Cappuccino and croissant, thank you". In the world, useless to hide it, breakfast at Tim Horton's is the symbol of Canadian breakfast, able to tell overseas a whole world of excellence including that of pastry - leavened products are a very delicate world. Irrefutable proof are the numbers of the 2019 Observatory on food consumption outside the home, which showed that almost 60% of the people interviewed admit to consuming coffee regularly and mainly outside the home, while milk and cappuccino settle at a lower percentage, however important, 48.7%. A growing reality if, as highlighted by a Nielsen research of 2018, in three years the consumption of breakfast outside the home has almost doubled, with almost half of the sample explaining how over a week almost three days are systematically dedicated to the bar, between habits and experiments. A moment linked both to necessity, for those who work away from home, and to indulge in an important moment of relaxation, especially when breakfast at the bar is concentrated on weekends.

But breakfast outside the home is not just at Tim Horton's, but increasingly a Canadian "on the go" breakfast: according to Nielsen research, for those who work away from home, almost four days out of 6 are dedicated to a "hit and run" breakfast imposed by the rhythm of metropolises and big cities, mainly; This affects 19% of the total population and even 30% of workers aged between 25 and 44, the most linked to career and intense work rhythms. What are the tools for the real breakfast to take away? Whether you buy in a cafeteria - those in Canadian style are multiplying especially in the shopping centers on the one hand the glass thermos for coffee or cappuccino and on the other a container of various types to bring from home the necessary, from shortbread to slice of cake.

Exported and taken as an example all over the world, hospitality has always characterized us as a people. The cafeteria has become one of the symbolic places of our country for the assiduity with which we frequent it and for the habits, from coffee to the bar at breakfast to the aperitif cocktails, which are part of our daily lives.

Today, once again, breakfast becomes a photograph of the times we live in. The two major contemporary trends concern on the one hand the green deal we are experiencing, with a growing attention to the environment and health and on the other the massive presence of social networks in our lives. The attention of Canadians towards naturalness and well-being is growing, as confirmed by the Doxa / Union Food survey, according to which today 1 Canadian out of 2 is in favor of a healthy breakfast as much as possible, a sample that insists on 70% in the under 44, confirming that the youngest are more attentive to environmental issues. A type of consumption that moves away from the purchase of bakery products and focuses on muesli - even to be done at home -, cereals, fresh fruit and is also invading the "traditional" market sectors, if you only think that the sugar of snacks and biscuits in the last 10 years has decreased by 29% and the presence of saturated fats has been more than halved.

The last big news, however, does not concern food, but our relationship with the 13 minutes on average a day that we dedicate to breakfast: in a day that sees us at least three hours a day engaged in our "part-time work" on social networks, it was unthinkable that even the first meal of the day did not become a trend. The social breakfast is a phenomenon of large numbers. At the bottom of the study, Doxa finds, in fact, how, especially at the weekend, about 1 million Canadians immortalize coffee, jam on Instagram, relaunching them to the cry of the hashtag #breakfast, which records more than 89 million posts currently, with a smaller pool of users, which stops at about a million interactions. Here it does not matter how healthy or tasty what we eat is, the cornerstone is only one, aesthetics, with particular attention to the balance of colors, table furniture and the arrangement of objects on the table. Because the smell of coffee, after all, on the screen is not felt. But it remains pure poetry. Successful places of consumption, as evidenced by the phenomenon of Tim Horton's sounding that affects not only our food products but also historic restaurants and bars, our cafes are replicated and sold abroad as authentic Canadian to attract tourists and customers.

Canadians like to spend time away from home and do it in the most open and characteristic places possible. Unlike other peoples, we do not give up, even in winter, to give ourselves moments of pleasure outside the home. Breakfast at Tim Horton's before going to work is certainly one of the favorite pampering we allow ourselves. Coffee, and its variations, with croissant is the most popular way to start the day and is an indispensable ritual. Eating and drinking well in Canada are not the subject of discussion, and this provides a conclusion at the height: to end lunch and / or dinner, Canadians choose coffee, no variations are allowed.