The hangover is biting, you’ve got a thirst you can’t quite quench, your sugar levels are dipping – what you need is cold, fizzy, liquid sugar.
Imagine, now, popping in to an ordinary-looking corner shop, expecting to grab a Lucozade or maybe a Fanta, and being greeted by something beyond your wildest dreams.
A wall of soft drinks in just about every imaginable flavour, like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, but for pop.
This isn’t a weird gimmicky hipster hangout though.
Manchester Mini Market. Credit: The Manc Group
It’s just a standard corner shop that’s quietly developed a niche and a massive following.
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The Manchester Mini Market is on Oldham Street, just off Piccadilly Gardens.
Past its Coca-Cola-red facade and the ATM poking out of the wall, beyond the wall of scratch cards, and you’ll find a glowing wall of cold drinks.
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There’s an entire range of energy drinks, flavours of 7up and Fanta we’ve literally never seen before, and a full spectrum of Vimto.
The wall of Coke at Manchester Mini Market. Credit: The Manc Group
And despite many of the drinks being imported at Manchester Mini Market, they’re not sold at inflated prices like some of the American sweet shops tend to do.
There’s fizzy Ribena, Tizer, Capri Sun and Oasis.
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Strawberry Coke, vanilla Coke, lime Coke, and all its siblings.
There’s a selection of cans inspired by Chupa Chups lollies, with flavours like grape, strawberry and melon.
You’ll find a Mojito 7up from France and a Vietnamese sasparilla Fanta that’s vaguely similar to root beer.
You want a Tango? What about a dark berry one, or a strawberry watermelon flavour?
These are new! Credit: The Manc Group
There are even some of the pink mystery flavour Fantas if you want to play a game of what-the-hell-am-I-drinking.
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And energy drink fans can raid Monsters in pacific punch and mango loco, Rubicon Raws in pomegranate, mango and blueberry, and a massive range of Relentless cans.
Honestly, The Manc staff dash in here every week and we’re always surprised by new drinks to try.
What a gem.
Featured image: The Manc Group
Food & Drink
A month-long, mile-long, margarita bar crawl is returning to Manchester
Daisy Jackson
An award-winning bar crawl that’s all about celebrating margaritas is returning to Manchester this month.
El Tequileño’s Margarita Mile will see venues right across the city centre creating bespoke tequila cocktails, alongside events and loads more.
The mile-long, month-long celebration will kick off on 16 February, with 11 brilliant local venues taking part this year.
Those involved will include Mexican restaurant favourite Madre (and its sister site, Mexican pool hall Salon Madre), margarita bar Ramona, and cosy cocktail dens like The Daisy.
Also joining in this year is the city’s newest rooftop destination, Chotto Matte, which is home to Claude’s Skyview Bar with staggering views over Albert Square to the Manchester Town Hall.
It’s all been handily laid out into a mile(ish)-long bar crawl that will showcase the best in tequila and some of the best watering holes in the city.
Billed as the ‘ultimate margarita experience’, you can spend the next month visiting participating venues to sample bespoke menus, with the main celebrations taking place during Mile Week from 16 to 22 February – ahead of National Margarita Day on 22 February.
The Margarita Mile launched in Manchester in 2023 and was initially a week-long celebration, designed to celebrate quality tequila, champion bartender creativity, and tempt people back out into bars during the quietest time of the year for hospitality.
Now in its fourth year, it’s grown to an award-winning event (it was named The Spirits Business Best Event of the Year 2025), spanning a full month.
Maps of this year’s Margarita Mile across Manchester are available online HERE, as well as at all participating venues, with no tickets required.
Steffin Oghene, VP Business Development for El Tequileño, says: “Each year, the Margarita Mile grows, and we’re incredibly proud that it is now an award-winning campaign.
“Our goal has always been to share a love of craft tequila while connecting Brits with the hospitality trade, especially in such challenging times.
“With some of the best bars and bartenders in the world, it’s more important than ever to inspire the UK public to get out, enjoy the Mile, and raise a margarita.”
All the venues on the El Tequileño Margarita Mile in Manchester
UK pub chain announces bottomless Guinness for the 2026 Six Nations
Danny Jones
As we all know, Guinness and the Six Nations go hand in hand, so pubs not only showing all of this year’s games, but also serving bottomless pints of the good stuff here in Greater Manchester, is an absolute match made in heaven.
With the 2026 Six Nations tournament kicking off this Thursday, 5 February – a France vs Ireland opener in Paris – Manc rugby fans are already nailing down their go-to spots to watch the fixtures.
However, we can’t think of many other places offering bottomless black gold in town, let alone anywhere else in and around Manchester.
So, if you were still unsure of where to watch this year’s tournament, the Social Pub and Kitchen group might have just made the decision for you…
That’s right, this widespread British chain is looking to keep the pints flowing throughout the duration of this year’s competition, thanks to a twist on their standard bottomless brunch format.
Running for every single televised meeting between the much-loved half dozen rugby union teams, all 103 of their locations across the country will be providing this impressive offer on pints.
Here in central Manchester, that includes Tank and Paddle in the Printworks, Crafty Pig on the edge of the Northern Quarter, The Beech Inn in Chorlton, and The Director’s Box right in the heart of the city – and dangerously close to The Manc office…
As well as these nearby venues, there are obviously plenty more around the North West for those slightly further afield, including the likes of Cheshire and Derbyshire.
With a new food menu too, which features several honey-based dishes like the sweet sriracha pizza, chipotle loaded fries, as well as honey chipotle chicken wings, the matchday scran is on point.
So too are the drinks, clearly, and if any of your party wants to stray away from the bottomless Guinness, there are series of special Six Nations-themed cocktails, such as the ‘Midnight in Dublin’, a ‘Peach on the Pitch’ margarita, Baby Velvet, and the bold ‘G-Bomb’.
Yes, we suspect it is as boozy as it sounds.
Running throughout February and March whilst the games are on, we imagine plenty of people will be making at least one Social Pub and Kitchen site their chosen destination for watching all the action.
Even if you happen to be reading this outside of Greater Manchester, you can find your nearest Social Pub and Kitchen and book your table right HERE.
And if you’d still like some other alternatives here in the city centre, you can do no wrong with our helpful little round-up.
Daisy Jackson -
18th February 2022 
