Tim Hortons launches Timbits breakfast cereal

Tim Hortons has partnered with cereal company Post Foods to create a breakfast food inspired by the coffee-and-doughnut chain's iconic Timbits.

The company says stores across Canada will soon sell two versions of the cereal based on the tiny doughnuts that have been a staple on the chain's menu since 1976: one chocolate-glazed flavour, and one birthday cake flavour.

Rumours of the product launch first circulated on social media in the fall of 2019 when some social media accounts shared images of boxes of the product.

The chain was coy at the time about any cereal plans, but confirmed the product launch in a news release on Monday morning.

"The two-bite Timbits Canadians have loved since 1976 can now be enjoyed as an even more bite sized treat with milk in cereal bowls coast to coast," Tim Hortons' head of retail, Samuel Heath, said.

The move is just the latest attempt by the chain to tweak its menu with new products based on flavours its customers have gotten used to. Last year, the chain launched an edible coffee bar aimed at coffee drinkers on the go. And last summer, the chain jumped on the plant-based eating bandwagon with various Beyond Meat-based sandwiches, before quietly cancelling many of them within months.