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You can get these giant custom-made bags or buckets of pick n mix sweets delivered to your door this Christmas

And there’s a HUGE 25% Black Friday discount too.

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 23rd November 2022

You can order GIANT buckets or bags of premium quality pick n mix, filled with sweets of your choosing, to be delivered to your home this Christmas.

Once you’ve made your selection, you can add a custom festive message or picture to your bucket or bag of sweets, free of charge for that personal touch. 

Sweet Cheeks, a business based here in Greater Manchester, is also joining in with the massive Black Friday discounts and is slashing prices on their website right now. 

Through its easy to use website, you can choose from classic pick n mix sweets like fizzy cherries, cola bottles, giant strawberries, jelly snakes, fried eggs and sour dummies. 

Credit: Sweet Cheeks

There’s also giant dolphins, gummy meerkats and jelly Minions up for grabs, as well as some festive Christmasthemed sweets. In fact, you can select your own custom mix from over 100 different varieties of sweets. 

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Having had masses of the sweets delivered to The Manc office, we can wholeheartedly vouch for them being absolutely delicious, with varieties of pick n mix we didn’t even know existed. They even had The Manc branding on the bags and buckets. 

Stockport-based Sweet Cheeks stocks options to cater to vegans, vegetarians and people with gluten or dairy allergies too. 

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For Black Friday, which falls on 25 November this year, Sweet Cheeks will be offering a 25% discount, so you can get your Secret Santa gifts or stocking fillers sorted. 

Sweets from Sweet Cheeks

The family-run business was first launched during lockdown in 2020. Owner Donna McCafferty told The Manc it was ‘a way for people to send a sweet little customised message or picture on custom bags or buckets of sweets to help cheer people up when they were not allowed to meet up’.

She continued: “It really helped put a smile on people’s faces during the hard times and we have continued to do this for people since then. 

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“We do get quite a few very cheeky messages from time to time too! ‘I love you Chippy Tits’, ‘Sorry for being such a d*ck’, and ‘I love you more than fizzy cola bottles’ being some that stick in our minds.”

Read more: Deliveroo is doing a massive 25% off your takeaway for Black Friday

Sweet Cheeks pack all their orders fresh on the day of ordering, ready for delivery all over the UK – including free delivery in the SK6 postcode in Stockport. 

You can browse the massive range of pick n mix sweets and place your order at www.sweetcheeks.store.

You can follow Sweet Cheeks on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok at @sweetcheekspicknmix.

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Sweet Cheeks is also doing bespoke corporate orders for events.  

Featured image: The Manc Group

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Craig David announces huge outdoor gig at Barton Aerodrome in Manchester

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Craig David

Craig David is bringing his legendary TS5 party to Manchester for a massive outdoor summer show. 

The legendary singer, songwriter and DJ will be taking over City Airport in Manchester, also known as Barton Aerodrome. 

The special show will combine old school anthems with R&B, garage, and bashment, alongside plenty of contemporary hits. 

Craig David, who rocketed to fame in the late 1990s, first launched his TS5 parties, where he sings, MCs and DJs, as an exclusive pre-party at his own penthouse in Miami. 

Initially, Craig used them as a way to play his favourite music to the people he loved the most – but it proved such a hit that he started to take it on the road. 

Craig David presents TS5 at Barton Aerodrome. Credit: Supplied

Guaranteed to be a great night out, Craig David Presents TS5 is now heading to Manchester for a summer show. 

The star has sold more than 15 million albums, secured more than 10 top 10 hits, and achieved multi-platinum status in more than 20 countries around the world. 

His TS5 shows now sell out at prestigious venues across the globe, and he’s even taken it to the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. 

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The unique live concert will take place at City Airport in Manchester on Friday 14 July, just outside the city – the huge space surrounded by lush green fields will be transformed with epic light and sound productions. 

You can expect a night of sing-along hits, good time grooves and Craig David classics. 

Tickets will go on sale from 9am on Friday 31 March with Skiddle. 

Featured image: Wikimedia Commons

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The award-winning cocktail bar hidden beneath the old Coronation Street cobbles

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

Unbeknownst to many, there is an award-winning cocktail bar hidden beneath Coronation Street‘s original cobbles serving up some of the best drinks in the city.

Recently named ‘one to watch’ at the UK’s Top 50 Bar awards 2023, Project Halcyon has also just won the Best New Bar award – voted for by a community of some 17,000 hospitality staff at this month’s Manchester Bar Awards (MBAs).

Brought to Manchester by the team behind Zymogorium distillery, it originally opened in early 2020 – launching just weeks before the Covid 19 pandemic hit.

Like many other operators, the secret speakeasy – which is connected to the working distillery for Manchester gin makers Zymogorium – closed its doors during lockdown, then quietly relaunched in late October last year beneath Old Granada Studios.

Since reopening, it’s been flooded with accolades. General Manager Adam has just been named amongst the UK’s top 100 bartenders by World Class UK, whilst house bartender Reah Owen recently won the Rising Star award at the MBAs.

And yet, somehow, it’s still managing to fly under the radar as one of Manchester’s best-kept secrets – although, considering all the awards the team is winning, we expect this won’t remain the case for long.

Image: Project Halcyon
Image: Project Halcyon

The bar is something of a labyrinth with numerous corners to explore within its underground warren. As well as housing a large bar at its entrance, it’s also home to a dedicated absinthe parlour, Salon Vert, which has been painted to look like a woodland scene and features vintage crystal absinthe fountains.

Read more: This Manchester restaurant is serving an all-you-can-eat curry buffet throughout Ramadan

Elsewhere, there’s a still room and laboratory where the team uses chemistry equipment to create all the insane ingredients that go into their cocktails.

Add to this a self-playing grand piano and a rare collection of expensive spirits, and it’s safe to say Project Halcyon is very much up there with the city centre’s best cocktail bars.

As for its current drinks menu, open it up and you’ll discover that each signature cocktail is accompanied by a stunning illustration of a rare bird.

Choices include ‘Fourteen Days’, a long, tart drink that nods to the Halcyon days of Ancient Greece, and ‘Phoenix Down’, a smoky combination of smoky, nutty bourbon with bitter back notes that symbolises rebirth and eternal life.

Image: Project Halcyon
‘Murder of Crows’ (Chairmans Reserve Original – Cane Toad SMBS – Ming River Baijiu – Mandarin – 5 Spice). / Image: Project Halcyon

Elsewhere on the list, you’ll find the brilliantly-named cocktails ‘Act of Vanity’, a combination of melon liqueur, blueberry and Veuve Cliquot champagne, and ‘Murder of Crows’, a moody and short mix of spiced spirits that promises to be both dark and funky.

Read more: Inside the Manchester restaurant serving ‘India’s answer to a Wigan kebab’

The bar also serves up a list of six house classics, all of which are prebatched, prediluted and kept at -14 degrees ready to be poured at your table. Interestingly, though, because the drinks are already kept at the right temperature they aren’t diluted with water but rather with a variety of house-made concoctions.

General Manager Adam told The Manc that the most famous of these is the house vodka martini, made with Boatyard vodka, Cocchi Americano vermouth and clarified banana juice as the dilute.

Image: Project Halcyon
Image: Project Halcyon

“It makes for this insanely creamy, flavourful martini that’s classic but approachable,” he said, adding: “Our approach to the bar is that the science is for us to worry about, the hospitality is for the guests.

“We don’t put all this crazy techy stuff at the forefront of what we do. We prioritise good, classic, personal hospitality first and foremost.”

Read more: ‘We were treated awfully’ – ex-staffer speaks out as Freight Island gears up for reopening

The bar also boasts a vast collection of rare and expensive spirits – and amongst the usual suspects, such as Louis XIII cognac, sit some interesting pieces like the latest seasonal release from Nc’nean and Elena Wright, the latter a close friend of the bar and an award-winning Manchester bartender.

It also serves up a strong selection of wines and beers, not to mention a cracking gin and tonic. Of course, being run by one of Manchester’s original craft gin distilleries, we’d expect nothing less.

Feature image – Project Halcyon

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