Canadian Facts: Food Edition

Canada Day is upon us, and if you’re like me, you’ll be stumped on what to wear to your local Canada Day celebration to really wow people with your knowledge of your nation (or just look cooler than everyone else). Why not show off your Canadian pride all year round by wearing one of these sock options that show just how much you know about Canada’s food industry?

When thinking about Canada, most of us will not often conjure a cohesive idea of a national food identity. However! If you dig deeper, you’ll actually find that so many of our habits, snacks, meals, and food exports are quite unique. For example, Canadians love mac and cheese – out of the 7 million boxes of mac and cheese sold weekly around the world, Canada buys 1.7 million of them! And I definitely believe it, judging by my university diet of Kraft Dinner. Read on to find out more Canadian food facts. 

Whenever I’m travelling and someone asks me about Canada, nine times out of ten they’ll also ask me about one extremely famous Canadian meal: poutine. Poutine was invented in Quebec in the 1950’s and has since become the de facto national dish of Canada, and its popularity has spread to many other countries with poutine festivals also occurring in some American cities. Don’t forget though that despite its growing international popularity, poutine in Canada is still far and above poutine made anywhere else (fries, gravy, and shredded cheese on top is not poutine – looking at you, Britain).

Most of us know that maple syrup is one of the most identifiable national symbols of Canada… I mean, we have a maple leaf on our flag. It’s important to our country. But did you know that 70% of the entire WORLD output of maple syrup comes from Quebec? We’re quite serious about it, too: in Canada, syrup must be made entirely from only maple sap in order to qualify as maple syrup! Maple syrup is such an important part of our industry and economy, and in 2011, the industry took quite a hit: the largest heist in Canadian history occurred when around 3,000 tonnes of maple syrup – valued at $18.7 million – was stolen from a manufacturer in Quebec. Whether you steal it in a multimillion dollar heist, put it on your waffles, French toast, or pancakes, or perhaps on top of your bacon or in your oatmeal, or even add it to your coffee as a sweetener – maple syrup is a staple in most Canadian kitchens.

Did you know that Canada is one of the only countries where you can easily buy ketchup flavoured potato chips in most stores? Ketchup chips were invented in the 1970’s in an attempt to add the flavour of French fries with ketchup to potato chips. They gained widespread popularity in the 1980’s and have since become an iconic and defining Canadian snack. Are you a ketchup chip super fan, like my mom is? If so, grab a pair of our ketchup chip socks to show off your eclectic taste!

All-dressed: ketchup chips' equally Canadian yet much tastier cousin. Ruffles, the potato chip brand who makes the most popular all-dressed flavoured chips, describes all-dressed flavour as being a mix of ketchup, barbecue sauce, and salt & vinegar. All-dressed chips weren’t actually made in the United States until about 2016! Show your pride for this iconic Canadian flavour by wearing a pair of our all-dressed chip socks – you can even mix and match them with the ketchup chip pair to show off your knowledge of the Canadian chip industry.

Growing up it was always a stereotype that American police officers would stop outside of donut shops while on shift to indulge themselves… but did you know that the country with the most donut shops per capita in the world is Canada? I can only assume a very, very large percentage of those shops goes by the name of Tim Hortons. Interestingly, the country that places second behind Canada is Japan – I’ve just checked and unfortunately, Tim Hortons won’t have accounted for much of that number, due to there being zero Tim’s locations in Japan.

Speaking of a certain donut shop... did you know that Canada is the 10-highest coffee consumer on a per capita basis on the world? Not only that, Canada consumes more coffee than any other English speaking nation! No wonder Tim Hortons is such an important part of our national identity. Browse for one of our many coffee-related socks to show off just how truly Canadian you are on your next Timmies run.