Forget the best way to brew the freshest coffee — the first batch of trainees hoping to work at a Tim Hortons outlet in Afghanistan are learning about how to handle a potential nuclear or biological attack.

About 70 people are undergoing training at Canadian Forces Base Kingston for 41 jobs at a Tim Hortons trailer on the Kandahar airfield.

Tim's employees in Afghanistan need to be prepared for gas attacks. (CBC)

The Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency, the morale and welfare arm of the Canadian Forces, will operate the outlet, which is set to open at the end of May.

Candidates are learning about land mines, hostage situations, nuclear and biological attacks and medicine in developing countries.

If chosen, they'll be offered a six-month contract in Afghanistan.

In early March, Tim Hortons announced it would be opening a Kandahar branch of the popular coffee-and-doughnut chain. Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan had lobbied for the move for weeks.

The 2,300 Canadian soldiers around Kandahar can line up at the converted trailer for a familiar taste of home:  timbits, cookies and double-doubles.

The first Tim Hortons doughnut shop was opened by its namesake, hockey player Tim Horton, in Hamilton, Ont. in 1964.

Horton died in 1974. His partner, Ron Joyce, later sold the chain to U.S.-based fast food chain Wendy's International, which spun part of the company off in a share offering earlier this year.