Stephen Twining, 10th generation member of the famed tea family, arrived in Manila to promote the very popular English tea brand. British Ambassador to the Philippines Peter Beckingham and his wife Jill hosted an intimate dinner at his residence for Twining with distinguished guests for a dinner prepared by the Mandarin Oriental. Twining explained the proper process of making and serving tea while models wearing British label Burberry posed with fine British porcelain manufacturer Royal Doulton, a perfect combination for the Twinings tea event. Some lucky guests who won in the raffle were able to take home products from Twinings, Royal Doulton and Burberry.
Twinings is the world-famous English tea brand with over 200 premium tea blends including the popular English Breakfast and Earl Grey teas. Its product range has a wide selection of classic and flavored black teas, refreshing green teas and contemporary fruit and herbal infusions. In the Philippines, 21 blends are available.
Twinings was one of the very first companies to introduce tea drinking to the British in 1706 when Thomas Twining broke with the ale-drinking British tradition and started selling tea from his newly purchased premises in London. Twinings soon became so popular among the elite tea drinkers including the royal family that in 1837, Queen Victoria had appointed the company as the official supplier of teas to her household. Today, Twinings hold Royal Warrants of Appointment to the Queen and The Prince of Wales. As Stephen Twining said: “The Twinings philosophy is simple — to be totally committed to producing the highest quality teas and making them accessible to everyone.”
Twinings is imported by AB Food & Beverages Philippines, Inc., part of the international food, ingredients and retail group Associated British Foods. Twinings is available across the Philippines in leading supermarkets, specialty stores, hotels and restaurants.
Ascend into the night
Ascend Superclub at Bonifacio High Street-The Fort went into full party mode last month with some of the most memorable parties so far. Popular French DJ and music producer Didier Sinclair rocked Ascend’s main room with his own brand of electronic house music, working the big crowd of mostly European expats into a frenzy. Recently, Ascend played host to Playboy (US) and FHM covergirl, Filipina-American Jeri Lee, as she go-go danced her way at Fame Fridays.
Ascend then flew in God is a DJane, Europe’s well-loved party label featuring hot female DJ duo, Austrian Martina Kaiser and Swede Jennifer Lopez. The club’s main room was packed as Manila’s party people came out in full force and danced the night away with a set from the gorgeous DJanes, full of club anthems, house classics and electrohouse.
“Weekends at Ascend keep getting bigger. In the next months, we will be flying in more international DJs like Buckley from Las Vegas (resident DJ of The Luxor’s Cats), and will be launching fresh new concepts that will definitely get Manila’s nightlife in full gear!” said Ascend’s Oliver Mendez.
Panic in Manila
Panic at the Disco is a band that originated in Las Vegas, Nevada. Its sound incorporates elements of pop, punk, big beat, electronica, dance and rock, along with many other genres like psychedelic, folk and jazz. Its 2005 debut album, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, has sold over 2.2 million copies since its September 2005 release. The band’s second album, Pretty. Odd., was released this year with the album’s first single, Nine in the Afternoon.
Opening for Panic is Crowned King, a rock band from Canada which has practically invented a new genre that uniquely combines your usual four-piece rock band set-up with some horn brass — a trombone, a trumpet and a saxophone.
Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance to see Crowned King show off its chops as it opens for Panic at the Disco at the Araneta Coliseum on Aug. 14.
Produced by Concertus, Panic at the Disco Live in Manila event is presented by E-Aji, Magnolia Pure Water, GSM Blue and Little Asia together with media partners ETC, 2nd Avenue, Jack TV, CS, MYX, 89.9 Magic, Jam 88.3, Campus 99.5, Wave 89.1, Mellow 94.7 and Crowne Plaza.
(Call Ticketnet at 911-5555 or Concertus at 813-2612 and 813-2617.)
Sanctuary for the senses
Osim, a global leader in branded lifestyle products, opens another store at the Power Plant Mall after the launch of its Shangri-La Plaza shop. The 165-square-meter Power Plant store offers a full range of products from state-of-the-art massage chairs and reflexology machines, to water and air purifiers and audio-video equipped space-age treadmills and other fun exercise machines. It also includes a nutrition section where the vitamin and supplement brand GNC Live Well can be found.
Welcoming the guests at the opening was JV Borromeo, VP for operations of Asian Therapeutics Inc., the exclusive distributor of Osim in the Philippines.
(For more information, call OSIM’s Customer Service Hotline at 723-OSIM.)