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A random act of kindness is a selfless act performed by a person or people wishing to either assist or cheer up an individual person or people – Source: Wikipedia

According to Michelle Robichaud, the Tim Horton’s spokesperson, it’s not an ingenious marketing scheme but a sincere and random act of coffee kindness that has spawned caffeine copy-cats across Canada.

It started on Monday, July 22 in Edmonton, Alberta, when a 20-something man walked in to a Tim Horton’s, ordered a large double-double and a Boston cream doughnut, then asked the cashier to add 500 large coffees for the next customers to his bill. His bill was over $800 and no one knows why he did it! It took Tim’s until 8:00 a.m. the following morning to fill that order. Within a day or two, another gentleman in Calgary, Alberta, ordered 500 medium coffees for the next 500 customers. On Thursday, a soon-to-retire bus driver entered an Ottawa, Ontario Tim’s and ordered 500 coffees, which were filled in less than an hour. By Saturday, the random acts of coffee had visited St. John’s, Newfoundland with the purchase of 120 Tim gift cards for the next 120 guests. By 6:00 p.m. last night, Tim Horton’s across Canada reported 29 separate incidents of large orders in a “pay it forward” motion.

Coffee lovers have other reasons to smile. A recent Harvard study revealed that people who drank 2-4 cups of caffeinated coffee a day (the equivalent of about 400 mg of caffeine) had a 50 per cent lower risk of suicide because the caffeine in coffee may act as a mild anti-depressant and increase neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and noradrenalin. In other studies, coffee has been linked to the reduced likely hood of type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia, and has been known to reduce the likelihood of other serious medical conditions.

If you’re a coffee drinker, go sip to that! And if the spirit moves you, go share a random act of coffee!