Christmas has come early as everyone’s favourite bakery releases a plant-based version of its famous festive bake.
Greggs’ festive bakes have finally arrived in stores this morning, November 22, after a three-week delay.
The new vegan version is made with Quorn pieces, sage and onion stuffing, a vegan bacon crumb, and a sage and cranberry sauce.
The original version is much the same, but with real chicken and bacon.
People have been flocking to their local Greggs to grab the delicious bakes, truly the first sign of Christmas.
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Both versions are priced at £1.60 a piece.
The Manc went to get one of each – a vegan festive bake and an OG – to see how they compare.
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Appearance
There’s an immediate difference in appearance between the two festive bakes.
While the original, meaty one is golden-brown and freckled with pepper, the vegan bake is pallid and washed-out.
It’s like a before-and-after of a pasty that’s spent a fortnight in Benidorm.
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Once you cut into the bakes, there’s not much visible difference, though the vegan filling has all bunched up on one side in a weird gooey ball.
Texture
The pastry lets the side down again with the plant-based festive bake.
While the original has a delicious crunch and visible layers in its puff pastry, its cruelty-free friend is a limp imitation. Pastry is just a bit sad without butter.
Both of the fillings are moist. Like, really, really moist. Closer in texture to a yoghurt than a Christmas dinner.
There’s barely any difference between the meat and fake-meat pieces though.
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As tends to happen with vegan dairy substitutes, the new festive bake has gone a bit gluey on the inside.
Flavour
It’s good news for vegan Greggs fans – there’s barely any difference in flavour between the two festive bakes.
Both are packed with all the good bits of Christmas, from the fragrant sage stuffing to the sweet cranberry sauce.
Featured image: Greggs / The Manc Group
Food & Drink
Electrik Bar in Chorlton is giving away 100 FREE frankfurters to celebrate their latest kitchen collab
Danny Jones
We all love a freebie, so we thought we’d spread the good word of the scran lords by letting you know that Electrik over in Chorlton is giving away 100 free frankfurters to celebrate their newest menu takeover.
The popular neighbourhood bar and kitchen on Wilbraham Road in the South Manchester suburb has had a couple of different foodie collaborations over the past couple of years, with local residents Paramogeddon and Four Side Vegan Pizza being the most recent, but now they’re doing hot dogs.
Welcoming their latest vendors Tisch Und Teller, Electrik will be giving away a total of 100 free frankfurters to the first century of people there this evening.
Bringing a taste of Berlin, Bavaria, Frankfurt and more (with a Manc twist, of course) to the popular pub for the Thursday launch party, all you need to do is order a drink upon arrival to get your hands on a free frankfurter sandwiched between a lovely fluffy roll.
Who doesn’t love a hot dog? Especially when they’re giving them away.
As for Tisch Und Teller (TuT), they’ve been serving up German-inspired favourites from the likes of The Shakespeare in Manchester city centre and Nip and Tipple in Whalley Range since September last year, including some very impressive brunches and Sunday roasts.
But the brand just keeps gaining more traction and now they’re setting up shop in Electrik, we’re sure the word will continue to spread – and fast.
Better still, as advertised on the promo poster, not only will TuT now be serving up their delicious food from Electrik every Thursday-Sunday for the foreseeable but the launch party will also live music by local legend and DJing veteran, Abigail Ward of Ghost Assembly.
Free food, pints and top tunes – what more could you ask for on a random weeknight?
The offer will be available from 6pm tonight and, once again, you have to be among the first 100 people to buy a pint to be eligible for a free frankfurter.
Manchester’s new Instagrammable coffee shop is giving away FREE drinks tomorrow
Emily Sergeant
One of Manchester’s newest Instagrammable coffee shops is giving away free drinks tomorrow ahead of the bank holiday weekend.
With another long weekend right around the corner, and much of Greater Manchester and the UK fortunately looking set to bask in the springtime heat, popular coffee chain, Blank Street – which is one of Manchester city centre’s newest residents, with two sites in Piccadilly Gardens, and on the corner of King Street and Cross Street – has decided it wants to help the country “beat the 3pm slump”.
Ahead of the upcoming bank holiday weekend, the chain is inviting Mancs to “meet for matcha” tomorrow afternoon (Friday 3 May).
The exciting freebie offer is all said to be “inspired by data” that shows that almost half of office workers aren’t taking a break from their desks during the day, even despite research showing that this can boost productivity.
Hundreds of iced matcha lattes will be served up at Blank Street‘s Manchester branch on the corner of King Street and Cross Street between 3pm and 4pm tomorrow.
For anyone “ice cold pick-me-up ahead of the long weekend”, but keen not to tip their employers off, the coffee shop chain has created an online tool to allow workers to discreetly add a matcha moment to their diary.
The brand-new online tool will apparently help to “distract calendar snoopers” by creating a cleverly-named meeting and adding it automatically to Outlook, Google, or Apple calendars – with potential meeting titles that include plenty of corporate jargon to “provide the perfect alibi”.
So, all matcha fans need to do tomorrow afternoon is show the Blank Street team at their chosen branch a meeting in their calendar, and in return, they’ll receive a free small iced matcha latte of their choice from the chain’s delicious spring menu.
Blank Street’s popular matcha offering includes the Classic Matcha, the viral Blueberry Matcha, the silky-smooth White Chocolate Matcha, and the brand-new sumptuous Golden Matcha, so there’s something to “inspire every matcha lover to take a little time out”.
As matcha allows a slow release of caffeine, Blank Street says it’s the “perfect drink” to keep energy levels up throughout the afternoon when you’re stuck at your desk on a Friday.