A Christmas cocktail trail is coming to Manchester, bringing together some of the city centre’s best independent bars for the ultimate festive booze-up.
Even better, it’s all for a good cause – with a percentage of the sales from each drink going to help local charity The Mustard Tree, which works to help Manchester residents living in poverty.
Put together by spirits brand The Public Spirit in partnership with some of Manchester’s top cocktail bars, the city-wide festive drinks trail will take you from Ancoats to the Northern Quarter, down Peter street, then onto Albert Square before finishing on Deansgate.
Bars taking part in ‘The 12 Serves of Christmas’ include The Jayne Eyre, NAM, Cocoa Cabana, Elnecot, Mecanica, Reserve at Mackie Mayor, La Collina, Feel Good Club, Haunt, Motley, Jimmy’s, and Speak in Code.
Each will work with either the Golden Aged rum or the salted toffee-flavoured Original Spiced rum to create winter favourites like rum hot chocolate, mulled wine, espresso martinis and more throughout December.
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A map showing the location of each bar on the Christmas cocktail trail / Image: The Public Spirit
The award-winning Ancoats rum company is already known for giving away a quarter of its profits to local causes including food banks, community projects and mental health charities.
Founded in lockdown by Manchester couple Olly Walker and Naomi Flaherty, the brand has community spirit at its core – as the name suggests.
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Now it’s doubling down for Christmas, having teamed up with twelve different bars for the Christmas cocktail trail – ensuring that each drink sold will provide a meal for someone in need in the city.
Co-Founder Naomi Flaherty said: “It’s the time for giving and good spirit, so what better than enjoying incredible drinks and helping others while doing it.”
“Over the festive period The Public Spirit has committed to donating at least 2,500 meals for people in the city with every bottle they sell giving four meals.”
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Co-Founder Olly Walker continued: “It’s so exciting to work with these fantastic venues and hopefully it can help us to smash our target. We can’t wait to try them all!”
Every drink sold on the Christma cocktail trail throughout December will give money to local homelessness and poverty prevention charity The Mustard Tree, which has three hubs across Manchester and Salford.
Food & Drink
A tasty festival celebrating all things tacos is taking place in Manchester next month
Emily Sergeant
Manchester is celebrating the start of May with tacos, tacos, and even more tacos, so make sure you’re hungry.
To coincide with both the early May bank holiday weekend, and of course the annual Mexican celebration Cinco De Mayo, Manchester‘s biggest street food and events space GRUB will be hosting its very-own festival dedicated to all things tacos.
The Green Quarter-based social hub will be bringing hungry Mancs two days of ‘tacos, tacos, and more tacos’ from midday onwards.
Five of the city’s very best street food traders, including El Piloto Tacos and Enchilady, will be cooking for you all weekend long, bringing their own authentic take on the humble taco, plus a feast of other specials to go alongside.
The massively-popular Nina’s Taco Truck, and Pez Tacos will also be pulling up at GRUB across the two days, so there’ll be plenty of choice.
And of course, we all need a sweet treat to finish things off, so GRUB favourite Munchie Mummy’s Kitchen will also be on site serving up a wide range of plant-based bakes to suit all tastes and dietary requirements.
To wash it all down, what would Cinco De Mayo be without a margarita?
A tasty tacos festival is taking place in Manchester next month / Credit: GRUB
For anyone that books a table in advance for GRUB’s Taco Fest, there’ll be buy one get one free on margaritas from the special pop-up margarita bar.
You can also expect craft beer, cocktails, special sodas and oft drinks, and great tunes blasting out across the beer garden, so now all we need to do is hope the Mexican-style sunshine graces Manchester with its presence.
Taco Fest will be taking place from 12-8pm on Sunday 4 May, and 12-6pm on Cinco De Mayo itself, Monday 5 May – which is also bank holiday Monday.
GRUB’s themed food fairs are always busy, so big groups are advised to book in advance here.
Featured Image – GRUB
Food & Drink
Viral influencer ‘Schooner Scorer’ gives Mulligans his highest Guinness score ever
Danny Jones
If you’re chronically online like us, you’ll most likely have at least heard of the ‘Schooner Scorer’, and while everyone’s a critic these days, it does feel noteworthy that he’s just awarded his highest ever score for a Guinness to none other than Mulligans in Manchester.
For anyone not aware of the social media influencer, Alex Hendy, a.k.a. the ‘Schooner Scorer’s whole angle is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin: he goes around the world rating the best pints – no, they don’t have to be schooners – and he has quite the penchant for Guinness.
Don’t we all?
Popular on Instagram and TikTok in particular, he’s gone viral on multiple occasions during the search for the best black gold in the UK and beyond, and he’s finally made his way to the legendary Mulligans of Deansgate. It didn’t disappoint…
In addition to the typical comedic intro (now we’re panicking trying to remember what state we were in on Paddy’s Day), Hendy gives the usual mini-tour of the premises before getting stuck into a frothy head.
And, as you can see, not only is he quick to compliment the “smooth” and “creamy” texture of the drink that is regularly dubbed ‘the best Guinness outside of Ireland’ from ‘the best Irish pub in Manchester‘, but he goes on to give it a whopping 9.2: the highest score he has ever given for a Guinness.
He may not have found his perfect 10/10 pint just yet, adding the caption “the hunt goes on”, but we’re glad to hear that his experience of the much-loved city centre spot lived up to the reputation we all know to be true.
Mulligans gathered its biggest crowds ever over the 2025 St Patrick’s Day weekend as it was the first time they were able to welcome those celebrating the into their second floor following a major expansion last year.
Owner Pádraig Brady maintains that the title of the best Guinness in Manchester isn’t a self-proclamation; it’s merely something the punters have bestowed upon them over the years.
We’ll hold our hands up and confess that we’re not religious Schooner Scorer viewers, but we’ll happily accept him giving Mulligans and, therefore, Manchester the best Guinness score to date.
He’s welcome back in the city any time as far as we’re concerned, and he’ll be glad to know that we have plenty of other great places for a pint of the black stuff.
Georgina Pellant -
29th November 2021 
