If ever there was a year to do your Christmas shopping purely with independents, it’s 2020.

Northern food and drink businesses have been hit hard by fluctuating restrictions and the national lockdown. So, let’s try avoid Amazon, swerve the big brands and support Greater Manchester businesses this festive season.

Not only is it the right thing to do to shop local this year, there are also just some absolutely brilliant products and gifts on offer. We’ve rounded up our favourite gifts, as well as festive food and drink to enjoy at home. With these, you’ll definitely be in the good books of whoever you’re buying for this year.

Blossom Coffee Roasters – from £8

Blossom Coffee Roasters, an independent roastery based in Manchester’s NOMA district has a range of beautiful coffees and espressos. They are available to order by the bag or as part of a coffee subscription – a gift that will keep on giving.

They also stock Bare Bones chocolate bars and hot chocolate made from single origin cocoa beans, as well as equipment like V60s, Aeropress and cafetieres.

All available to order via their online website here.

Green Lab’s Gift hamper – £35

Northern Quarter health and wellbeing studio, Green Lab has released two festive specials which are the perfect balance to Christmas indulgence, with a gift hamper and a Christmas day meal kit.

The hamper includes a wellness shot to cure Boxing Day hangovers, as well as Christmas juice, green harissa hummus, garlic and chive ‘cheese’ and chocolate orange brownie bites.

The ‘Christmas Life Savers’ meal kit costs £12.50 per person for three courses, with a minimum of two people. Dishes include shiitake mushroom parfait with Christmas chutney, a vegan Christmas dinner and a ginger orange bundt cake with Creme Anglaise. Order by end of day 21 December to collect on 24 December

For more information, visit: thegreenlabnq.com/xmas-specials.

Salut Christmas wine boxes

Independent city-centre wine shop and bar has launched a range of wine boxes especially for Christmas, such as the Adults’ Christmas Eve Box (£35) with a cheese board, olives, prosecco and a ‘spicy’ festive red. There’s also a Vegan Christmas Box (from £36.50); a Christmas Essentials Box (£65) which includes a festive ‘wine journey’ for the big day itself, from breakfast bubbles, mealtime wines and port to finish; and other selections available too.

With more than 400 wines available for takeaway, delivery and click and collect, staff at Salut can also help build custom cases over the phone or in store. View all the boxes here.

MAMA Z’s Zero Waste Homemade Soap – £8.50

Earlier this year, Mama Z launched her very own Banana Ketchup (which we had, and loved).

In a brilliant next step from that, Zos has taken the banana peels left from making her sauces, roasted and pounded them to make sustainable soap. Locally made in Manchester, each bar is hand poured by Zos and comes in beautiful packaging.

Order here. (currently sold out – restocking next week)

Pollen Bakery – Bûche de Noël (Yule log) – from £23

Pollen Bakery in Ancoats have launched a Christmas section to their webshop (for collections on 23-24 December), the Bûche de Noël immediately caught our eye, it looks absolutely sensational.

Available as a whole (six to eight servings) or a half (two to four servings). If you won’t be around Manchester to collect, the Pollen Bakery Christmas Hamper is able to be delivered nationwide.

Order here.

Oh Mei Dumpling – Frozen Christmas Bundle – £30

Oh Mei Dumpling – the winner of this years Manchester’s best Street Food trader – is putting together a frozen bundle for Christmas. It comes with 20 frozen dumplings (in 4 different flavours; Pork and Prawn Siu Mai, Chinese Chicken Curry, Beef and Christmas Turkey) alongside a bottle of her mum’s homemade Mama Mui’s chilli oil, a dipping sauce and slaw dressing.

Order here. Vegan version here.

Booze and Burn – Winter candles in recycled wine bottles – £18

Booze and Burn, run by Manchester local Sophie is trying to repurpose just a fraction of the 28 billion glass bottles that end up in landfills every year.

The brand’s winter candle sets include Gingerbread and Mulled Wine. All the candles are vegan friendly and burn for around 45 to 50 hours.

Order here.

Dishoom’s Masala Dabba – £33

Last Christmas, Dishoom’s cook book was a go-to gift for many foodies, and this year they’ve released another great product to go with it.

The Masala Dabba contains collection of nine of Chef Naved’s go-to spices and signature blends, presented in a reusable dabba (a silver metal storage tin for spices found in all Indian kitchens).

These gifts and more can be ordered for nationwide delivery from their online shop.

Salvi’s Deli Hampers – from £35

Does anything say Christmas quite like a deli hamper?

Salvi’s deli in Corn Exchange is packed full of Italian delicacies: cured meats, cheese, cannoli, pannetone, wine, prosecco, olive oil, pasta and more. If it’s Italian, just name it, and they’ve probably got it.

They have pre prepared hampers to choose from or you create them bespoke with all your loved one’s favourite items.

Head into the deli to order or email ruby@salvismanchester.co.uk.

Meat Co Manchester – Christmas Boxes – £115

Meat Co, a meat box delivery service, which sources meat from Lancashire and Manchester farmers has launched a Christmas box, featuring some of the areas best sourced goods to create a gorgeous Christmas meal at home.

Featuring Higher Ground Chutneys, Elnecot Horseradish Sauce and golden tarts to finish – provided by Longbois Bakehouse, as Welsh wine!

Order here. (£115)

Northern Cure – Home curing kits – £18

‘British charcuterie with a Mancunian accent’ – this is something we can get on board with.

Set up by Mancunian duo, Alex McKay and Douglas Staton, Northern Cure is all about eating meat as a treat, with a focus on well-reared, healthy and happy animals to produce intensely flavoured charcuterie. Their blog about the ‘forgotten art’ of charcuterie features recipes on how to preserve meat including recipes for salami, crispy pig’s ear pork scratchings and roast Porchetta.

Their home curing kits make the perfect gift for a keen foodie. The boxes give you all the ingredients, tools and guidance to learn how to make dry cured bacon or duck prosciutto at home.

Order here.

Chorlton Cheesemongers – vouchers and hampers – from £10

The Chorlton Cheesemongers opened this summer and have counters stacked high with delicious British and Irish cheeses.

For Christmas, they have a range of hampers starting at £20, including the ‘Cheesemonger’s Choice’ where they will package up at least four of the most exciting cheeses on the counter that day.

For a larger celebration, there is the luxury hamper and of course, you can handpick your favourite cheeses to create your own. They also have gift vouchers so your loved one can pick their own selection.

Order here.

Christmas Morning Hampers – Nibble – £15pp

Northern Quarter cafe, Nibble, has a full menu of Christmas food and drink to enjoy from now until the big day itself.

Their Christmas Morning Hampers include everything you need for a festive brunch, handmade by them and other independents. Products include fluffy pancakes, Grandad’s Sausages christmas bangers, Chorlton sourdough, Barbakan bagels and more.

There’s also boozy Christmas puddings, mince pies, beetroot fudge yule logs and more.

Order here.

Suck it up Gin – £35/bottle

When Apprentice star Claude Littner told chef and restaurant owner Simon Wood to ‘just suck it up’, when discussing the move into Tier 3 restrictions, Manchester’s hospitality industry took personal and collective offence.

And so, sticking a literal finger up at Claude, Atlas Bar, Defiance Spirits and Cuckoo Gin came together to create Suck it Up gin. It’s described as being ‘distilled with a bunch of bitter lemons and a sprinkle of northern resolve’.

This limited edition gin has been created to make a stand for the hospitality industry in the north of England, with £5 from every bottle going to Hospitality Action.

Order here.

Pippy Eats cookbook – £16.99

Manchester-based noodle maker extraordinaire, Pippa Middlehurst (aka Pippy Eats), published her very own cookbook earlier this year.

Dumplings and Noo­dles explores the tra­di­tion­al cook­ing meth­ods behind some of our favourite Asian dish­es. The book has more than 70 recipes and techniques, with step-by-step instruc­tions and options for quick and easy sub­sti­tutes. Pippa even goes into the sci­ence behind dumplings and noo­dles.

On top of all this, it’s a really beautiful book and a perfect gift for any keen home cooks in your life.

Order here.

Don Giovanni Hampers – From £25

Don Giovanni have launched their own Christmas hampers this year, for their regulars missing the restaurant over Christmas and for anyone else looking for a fix of Italian delicacies.

Stuffed with premium Italian goodies like truffled salame, parmigiano, truffle oil, tricolore fusilli, olives and balsamic vinegar from Modena, and their own homemade bottles of limoncello.

You’d be pretty chuffed getting to graze your way through that over our 5 days of Christmas this year.

You can order them here.

Manchester Union Lager  – 12 cans for £26.58

Support a Manchester brewery and some of our city’s independent music venues at the same time with this gift idea. What’s the saying… two beers one stone?

Created at their brewery in Manchester Piccadilly in collaboration with some of the city’s top independent music venues, Manchester Union Lager’s latest brew, a Black lager called After Dusk, aims to drive awareness of Manchester’s favourite venues during these testing times.

Each can of After Dusk will show images of venues including the Albert Hall, Hidden, Band on the Wall, Matt & Phred’s and Mint Lounge, with a QR code which will allow drinks to access live streamed events, gig tickets and radio stations while the venues remain closed.

Order here.

Salford Roasters coffee sets – from £21

This little roastery has a wonderful range of speciality coffees, teas and hot chocolates, along with coffee makers, cups and more. There’s even a special Christmas blend, made especially for the festive season.

Order coffee by the bag (from £6.50) with a roast, grind and weight of your choice. A trio of single origin coffees can be ordered for £21 or we like the idea of ordering someone one of their coffee subscription services as a gift. Get eight pouches (two to three a month) of speciality coffee delivered to their door for up to four months, with a saving of just under 20% compared to buying the bags individually.

Order here.

Le Social wine boxes – from £45

Le Social have a selection of natural and sustainable wines which make a positive social impact throughout the supply chain.

You can buy wines by the bottle or in boxes of two, four and six bottles. They also have a monthly subscription where you can enjoy different wines each month. A perfect gift for a wine loving pal.

Alongside their wines, they have curated a selection of low intervention food items like patés and cured fish.

Order here.

Welcome to our first weekly guide, your round up of food and drink news from across Greater Manchester.

This week, as we come towards the end of national lockdown, we’ve just found out that we will be going back into Tier 3. And, while it’s not what we were hoping for, we’ve got fingers, toes and everything crossed that, with the numbers falling in Greater Manchester, we’ll be able to move into Tier 2 soon.

This week, there are some new at-home kits to enjoy and a couple of venues announce exciting plans for reopening when they are able to.

Trof launch Christmas dinner kit

2020 has been the year of DIY meal kits, among other things of course, but meal kits have been one of the nice things.

Now, Northern quarter bar and restaurant (and cracking place to get a Christmas dinner on a ‘normal’ year), Trof, has created an Ultimate Christmas Dinner Kit.

For those who want a delicious lunch on Christmas Day without the stress, Trof’s Crimbo dinner kit costs £35 includes everything you need to make a 3-course festive feast, plus a bottle of Prosecco per two people.

There are two options for each course; celeriac and apple soup or chicken liver pate for starter; turkey with all the trimmings or mushroom and cranberry wellington for main; and Christmas pudding with brandy sauce or a chocolate yule log for dessert.

The Ultimate Christmas Dinner Kit can be collected from Trof on Christmas Eve (between 10-4pm). Order here.

Dishoom launch vegan naan roll

The incredibly popular Dishoom bacon naan kit now has a plant-based partner in crime.

The kit has been created in response to ‘polite but numerous requests’ from vegans, vegetarians and people who don’t eat pork or dairy.

The Vegan Sausage Naan Roll kit contains everything you need to make two of the vegan breakfast naans including the naan dough, vegan sausages Dishoom’s signature tomato-chilli jam, fresh coriander and vegan cream cheese. It also includes the spices for their Masala Chai which can be added to milk or a plant-based alternative.

For every kit they send out, Dishoom donate a meal to Magic Breakfast, a charity that provides free, nutritious meals to children in schools in the UK who might otherwise go hungry.

The kits cost £16 for two people and can be delivered nationwide. Order here.

Manchester Union Brewery

Piccadilly brewery Manchester Union Lager has released two new brews this week, Pivot pale ale and a black lager named After Dusk. The brewery originally planned to focus solely on brewing good lager, due to tank space and the length needed to brew (three times longer than ale). However, the ongoing restrictions in Manchester has meant that the business needs to expand its offering.

Created in collaboration with some of the city’s top independent music venues, After Dusk aims to drive awareness of Manchester’s favourite venues. Each can has an image of one of the music venues including the Albert Hall, Hidden, Band on the Wall, Matt & Phred’s and Mint Lounge. There’s also a QR code on the can, which will give the drinker access to live streamed events, gig tickets and radio stations while the venues remain closed.

Christmas by Nico

Six by Nico has announced its next menu. ‘Miracle On’ will be a Christmas themed tasting menu, centered around a nostalgic look back at the festive season.

Dishes on the six-course menu will include ‘Memories of a Christmas Market’, sausage and onion compote with smoked sausage foam and crispy onions and ‘Partridge in a Pear Tree’, partridge boudain, pumpkin and pear with beech smoke and game consommé.

Chef Nico Simeone said: “Most of us are familiar with the classic Christmas lunch and all its trimmings but this festive season our team at Six by Nico wanted to bring the magic of Christmas nostalgia to the plate with our ‘Miracle On’ menu and create the ideal Christmas dining experience for all our customers”.