Her pricey jams are said to be ‘inspired by the recipe Meghan Markle crafted in her home kitchen’.
To highlight its cozy yet aspirational feel, a touching Instagram video features a fruity concoction simmering in a pot at a California home, with four-year-old Lilibet admiringly calling it ‘beautiful’.
However, the origins of the £6.50-a-jar raspberry spread sold by the Duchess of Sussex under her As Ever brand have remained a mystery until now.
Today the Mail can reveal that the sweet treat is manufactured by the same US giant which sells her £9 packs of herbal tea.
It also makes her sold-out orange blossom honey – priced at £20 ($28) a jar.
The facility also produces a ‘strawberry and wild rose’ preserve, created in collaboration with Bridgerton, the popular Netflix series set in Regency England, with which the Sussexes have an agreement.
The firm – which has the decidedly un-Royal name The Republic of Tea – is headquartered in Larkspur, California, 350 miles away from Meghan’s Montecito mansion.
However its factory is 2,000 miles away in Illinois.
The Duchess of Sussex’s As Ever raspberry spread is billed as being ‘inspired by the recipe Meghan crafted in her home kitchen’ – but is in reality made by a food manufacturer with a factory in Illinois
Sources said that in order to formulate the commercially available product, they ‘started with the version Meghan makes at home and worked to develop a version of it that could be produced at scale’
With half-a-million visits to her As Ever website after the last ‘product drop’ on June 20, a tie-up with a commercial manufacturer was inevitable to satisfy customer demand.
Neither the Sussexes nor Netflix has yet confirmed exactly where the spread – currently marked on Meghan’s website as ‘coming soon’ – is made, or where the raspberries are sourced.
But a source close to the Duchess said that in order to formulate the commercially available product, they ‘started with the version Meghan makes at home and worked to develop a version of it that could be produced at scale.’
Nevertheless after months of marketing the preserve as an artisanal ‘crafted’ product, the truth will only increase scrutiny of the brand’s sustainability credentials.
Her website describes her ‘signature’ raspberry jam as ‘inspired by the recipe Meghan crafted in her home kitchen’ – and also says it was deliberately ‘crafted with a fluid texture’.
But a video shared by the Duchess shows that her spread is made in a factory, with fingers quickly pointed at The Republic of Tea, which also makes a fruit preserve.
Last week Mail Online revealed that it appears Meghan’s hibiscus, lemon ginger and peppermint teas are made by the firm thanks to tell-tale metadata on the As Ever website.
Meghan’s £9 ($12) tins of hibiscus tea contain 12 bags, equivalent to 73p per cup – three times as much as Republic of Tea’s own product.
The berries for both her raspberry spread and newly launched apricot spread are said to be Californian-grown and bottled
The Duchess has gone to great lengths to portray the preserve as an artisanal product. There was an enchanting video posted to her Instagram Stories showing a bubbling pot of the jam and featuring four-year-old Lilibet
Its ‘Natural Hibiscus Tea Bags’ retail at £8.45 ($11.50) for a tin of 36, working out at 24p (32 cents) per cup, albeit in differently-shaped bags.
Republic of Tea also makes jars of Bridgerton strawberry and wild rose tea fruit preserve, priced at £9 ($12) for a 306g jar – working out at around the same price per gram as Meghan’s offering.
Its ingredients are listed as: ‘Strawberries, cane sugar, wild rose syrup (custom rose tea blend, rosewater, cane sugar), lemon juice, fruit pectin.’
Meanwhile Meghan’s As Ever raspberry spread – it is not, technically, a jam because of its high fruit content – is made from: ‘Raspberries, organic pure cane sugar, organic lemon juice concentrate and fruit pectin’.
Meghan revealed for the first time in February that ‘jam is my jam’ – and recorded a video explaining why those who know her best are aware of her secret love of making jam.
When she first released 50 fruit spreads and sent them to her nearest and dearest friends she was careful to point out that each one was home made at her kitchen table using her own recipe.
On her Netflix show With Love, Meghan described harvesting berries in her kitchen, making small-batch jars, saying: ‘I did save one of 50 for my mom.’
Meghan’s As Ever products including her jam launched in April and rapidly sold out
A promotional image for As Ever’s orange blossom honey – made by the same firm as her raspberry spread, it has been confirmed
Last night a source close to Meghan confirmed to the Daily Mail that Republic of Tea makes her As Ever raspberry spread but said the supplier was changing.
The firm also makes her sold-out orange blossom honey – priced at £20 ($28) a jar – although it is not known whether it also manufacturers her newly-released apricot preserve.
In a statement, US streaming giant Netflix said: ‘Netflix and As Ever take pride in working with best-in-class vendors that meet our high standards for exceptional products.
‘It’s been exciting to see how much fans have embraced the As Ever product line, with the first two launches selling out so quickly.
‘We’re looking forward to continued success as we expand and release more As Ever products throughout the year and beyond.’
The Republic of Tea was approached for comment.
