A new luxury chocolate cafe has opened in Manchester today, bringing a huge range of chocolate milkshakes, iced chocolate, hot chocolates and mochas with it.
Called Knoops, it has taken over a former dry cleaners shop on the corner of Cross Street and South King Street close to the Town Hall.
Offering twenty different styles of hot chocolate and six styles of rich and creamy chocolate milkshakes, on the menu there is a huge range of different percentage chocolates available to choose from – but seating is minimal inside.
With room for just 14 covers in total, it makes for a cosy little chocolate lover’s haven: offering the ultimate drinks personalisation process with a four-step method designed to create your perfect chocolate drink.
Customers can choose their preferred hot or cold drink, followed by their chocolate percentage, then their milk, before finally enhancing their drink with tasty add-ons such as lavender, freshly grated orange zest, matcha, vanilla, and other various herbs and spices.
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The drink is poured out as a smooth hot chocolate, over cold milk and ice for iced chocolate, and can be blended with ice cream for a delicious milkshake.
With twenty different percentages of chocolate to choose from, options will range from a 28% cocoa white chocolate to a 100% extra dark variety with a menu featuring single origin blends from Peru, Congo, Tanzania, Uganda, Ecuador, Venezuela, Columbia, The Solomon Islands and Mexico.
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Any and all hot chocolates and iced chocolates using 54 percent chocolate or above can also be made vegan.
To accompany all that liquid chocolate, the new Knoops cafe also features a bakery selling locally-made fresh pastries and cakes with a counter featuring the likes of cannolis, pain au chocolat, marbled cookies, croissants and more.
The brand is led by international chocolatier Jens Knoop, who founded his brand on the original concept of Knoopology: the art of crafting the perfect chocolate drink.
At the heart of the brand is his own passion for chocolate. Jens has had a strong relationship with chocolate since his childhood in rural Germany.
In 2013, he decided to share his passion and opened the first Knoops store in Rye, East Sussex. Having observed that chocolate drinks were so often underloved; an afterthought on café menus or the preserve of high-end chocolatiers, he set about creating a business fully centered on drinking chocolate, both hot and cold.
He started to experiment, making the truly personalised drinks that you can enjoy in Knoops today, and he’s built up an encyclopedic knowledge of the taste profiles of many different chocolates.
Jens has spent the last eight years (about 10,000 hours) perfecting these drinks combining different percentage cocoas, with a range of milks and fruits, roots and spices.
He named this process “Knoopology” – and it’s an ongoing journey, with new flavour combinations still being discovered.
The shop is Knoops’ very first in the north of England, and marks the tenth opening for the fast-growing artisan cafe chain which already has other locations in London, Rye, Brighton, Oxford and Cambridge.
Featured image – The Manc Eats
City Centre
Elbow teams up with Co-op Live to donate equipment to Manchester grassroots venues
Thomas Melia
Bury band Elbow have joined forces with Manchester’s biggest indoor arena, Co-op Live, in aid of supporting local grassroots venues.
The funds will help improve the already incredible music scene in Manchester, benefitting staples likes Night and Day Café, Matt and Phred’s Jazz Club, SOUP and more.
All of the donations will be distributed across six independent music venues and will be used for various instruments, PA equipment, backline technology and other necessities depending on the requirements of each site.
Elbow have teamed up with Co-op Live in aid of supporting Manchester grassroots venues.Credit: Supplied
This initiative has been keeping Manchester’s Northern Quarter in the forefront of people’s minds when it comes to live music as well as the impressive Co-op Live.
Alongside providing vital resources for these local institutions, Elbow teaming up with Co-op Live also helps cement the North West as one of the main powerhouses in relation to live music.
The latest efforts from the largest indoor arena in Manchester fall in line with celebrating one year of bringing some of the best live music to the city, being officially open for 12 months in May.
Co-op Live have made a commitment to the people and the planet, promising to donate £1 million annually to the Co-op Foundation.
The stunning Co-op Live venue, Manchester’s largest indoor arena.Elbow performing at Co-op Live, marking history as the first act to grace the venue.Credit: Audio North/Supplied
Manchester’s latest live music venue also contributed significantly to selected charities, including Happy Doggo – chosen by Liam Gallagher and Eric Clapton’s addiction recovery centre, Crossroads.
As Elbow teams up with Co-op Live, even more money is making its way to necessary resources, this time in the likes of crucial live music establishments.
Elbow front-person Guy Garvey says: “Playing Co-op Live’s opening night will stay with us for a lifetime, not least because of how incredible the room sounded.”
“When the venue donated funds in our name to support the city we love, it made complete sense to carry that through to the Northern Quarter and to venues that have meant so much to my bandmates and I throughout our career.”
Guy Dunstan, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Co-op Live, adds: “In the past year, I have been proud to see Co-op Live become an integral part of such an incredible city.”
“Teaming up with Elbow to directly support the venues that first put Manchester on the map, and to share something so intrinsic to us as venues – proper sound – is something truly special.”
Award-winning The Kinks musical Sunny Afternoon to kick off UK tour in Manchester
Emily Sergeant
Multi award-winning musical Sunny Afternoon is set to kick off its UK tour here in Manchester later this year.
Following a sell-out run at Hampstead Theatre, the musical production featuring all the hit songs by legendary rock band The Kinks opened to critical acclaim at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London’s West End, where it ran for two years ahead of its sensational UK and Ireland tour throughout 2016/17.
It also collected four Olivier Awards, including Best New Musical and Outstanding Achievement in Music for Ray Davies, along the way.
Award-winning The Kinks musical Sunny Afternoon is kicking off its UK tour in Manchester / Credit: ATG Tickets
Set against the backdrop of Britain on the cusp of the rebellious 60s,Sunny Afternoon is described as being an ‘exhilarating and moving’ celebration of the music, life, and the band that changed it all, The Kinks.
Sunny Afternoon celebrates The Kinks’ raw energy, passion, and timeless sound.
Charting the ‘euphoric highs’ and ‘agonising lows’, the smash-hit production tells the band’s story through an incredible back catalogue of chart-toppers – including ‘You Really Got Me’, ‘Lola’, ‘All Day and All of the Night’, and of course, ‘Sunny Afternoon’ itself.
Tickets are on sale now from just £15 each / Credit: Kevin Cummins
Producers Sonia Friedman Productions and ATG Productions announced last week that the show would be returning for another UK tour later this year, and it’ll be opening right here on one of Manchester‘s most iconic stages.
The hit musical will open at Manchester’s Palace Theatre on 10 October 2025 and it will run right through until 18 October.
Sunny Afternoon has music and lyrics, and an original story, all by the band’s frontman Ray Davies, along with a book by Joe Penhall, direction by Edward Hall, design by Miriam Buether, and choreography by Adam Cooper.
Georgina Pellant -
21st April 2023 
