Tim Hortons wants Canadians to know that, like its coffee tasters, it's critically serious about coffee. Photograph by: Handout , Getty Images

ANCASTER - Coffee lovers are all too familiar with that satisfying moment - the first sip of a freshly brewed cup - but for the lead coffee taster at Tim Hortons, that borderline euphoric sensation has become a lifestyle.

Kevin West leads a team responsible for maintaining the trademark flavour of Tim Hortons' coffee, a process engineered from the company's facility on the outskirts of Hamilton.

Every day he pours a seemingly endless stream of coffee made with beans from around the world. The goal is to ensure that the quality of each is up to expectations, and all together he estimates that he tastes about 75,000 cups each year.

At first, West's estimate sounds like a huge exaggeration, but he's quick to follow it up.

"When we first built the facility, we cupped so much in one day that I went home calling my brother thinking I was having a heart attack," West says.

"I had about 600 cups of coffee and my heart was racing."

Tim Hortons wants Canadians to know that, like its coffee tasters, it's critically serious about coffee.

The country's biggest restaurant chain is in the midst of an intense battle for the lucrative coffee products market, facing competition from both low-priced and higher-end rivals.

But unlike a majority of businesses vying for the same market, the Canadian mainstay has built its reputation almost solely on coffee and doughnuts since 1964.

The Oakville, Ont.-headquartered company is just a short drive from its $30-million facility in Ancaster, Ont., which opened nearly three years ago.

The 74,000 square-foot building is tucked in the corner of an industrial park and operates under the guise of Maidstone Coffee, a company owned by Tim Hortons. Inside the building, a sequence of machines process beans fresh off the truck into the finished ground product.

At several points in the process, West steps in with his taste buds at the ready, looking for any brews that don't fit the profile. The procedure begins in the morning when he and his team of four other "cuppers" gather around a stainless steel Lazy-Susan that's equipped with built-in sinks that bear a slight resemblance to the spittoons at your dentist's office.

The table top is covered in a neatly arranged circle of coffees made with beans from around the world - Columbia, Brazil, Guatemala, regions of Africa. A top-secret formula determines which quantity of each bean go into making the blend that has defined the Tim Hortons flavour.

Each cup on the table has been steeping for exactly five minutes before the team "breaks the crust," or removes the floating coffee grounds, and begins their flavour critique.

"It's very similar to wine tasting," West says as he dips his spoon into one of the little white bowls.

But this tasting session is noisy enough - sluuuuuurp - to make any wine connoisseur blush.

West swishes the coffee around in his mouth while making a chirping sound that he says helps the flavour reach all of his taste receptors.