I received my monarchy-destroying As Ever package on Monday, and I’ve been enjoying the raspberry jam/spread/sauce ever since. It’s such a nice little treat in the evenings, a small bowl of vanilla ice cream with some As Ever spread. The taste is heavenly! There are obviously tons of uses for the spread – some people are using it as traditional jam on toast, and I would imagine it would be great on many sandwiches (I bet it’s fantastic on a turkey club??), and some people are using it on cakes and crepes. The point is, Meghan’s product launch is already a huge success and she already has one iconic product which everyone is obsessed with. I’m actually mad at myself that I didn’t buy two jars of jam!
Anyway, after the Daily Mail ran several “critical” pieces about the As Ever spread, the Times decided to do their own coverage. I hate myself for admitting this, but what the Times of London did was sort of clever. They did a blind taste test using three jams on toast. They got six Times editors/journalists to participate in it. The journalists ended up loving the As Ever spread. Here are some of the “verdicts”:
Phyllis Akalin: It’s banging
Reader, I wanted to hate Meghan’s “spread”, but it was banging. Not too sweet and sugary, zingy … I am a sucker for sour fruit, and the As Ever jam was just the right amount of sour. Suddenly I feel the urge to binge With Love, Meghan, fill a mason jar with store-bought snacks, calligraph a label and send it to my parents.As a child I used to steal unripe red currants, gooseberries and blackberries from my grandparents’ garden in suburban western Germany. Maybe Meghan would like to spend a few days with me there? We could make jam together and, as she writes on the back of her hibiscus tea, put tea leaves in a jar and let it “steep in the warmth of the sun”? Then the sugar rush passes and cold reality sets in: $14 is an insane amount to spend on jam, even in New York. But it was nice while it lasted.
Will Pavia: The jam is her biggest hit since the fifth season of Suits
Meghan’s jam was genuinely a cut above the others. It’s sharper, almost as tart as gooseberry, or rhubarb, and you come away absolutely convinced that a raspberry featured somewhere in the production. Some reviewers have complained that it is runny. I think it’s fine and really very jammy, which puts you in mind of the duchess.Whether you should be selling it in a case as if it were an 18-year-old whiskey, in this economy, and in a country where jam usually comes layered in gobs atop peanut butter, is another question. But I think Meghan’s jam is a great success and possibly her biggest hit since the fifth season of Suits. She just needs to make a limited edition peanut spread and then her fellow Americans will feel that she is giving them enough for an entire sandwich.
Lucy Anna Gray: As Ever, Meghan surprises me
As someone who is not a particular jam-fan, I was more than pleasantly surprised by As Ever. Rather than the saccharine offerings I’m usually given, Meghan’s jam was flavoursome, verging on complex. The preserve tasted of wild fruits rather than processed ones, and didn’t leave seeds stuck in my teeth. The rest of the world has complained about its runniness, but I’m a princess and had my colleague spread the jam for me, so that was no issue. It is no match to lovingly homemade jams at country fares, or spreads simmered for hours on a French farm, but it is — as loathe as I am to admit it — worth $8 (no keepsake packaging for me, please).Andrea Blanco: It will look great on Instagram
When I was presented with a blind taste test of three jams, I liked Meghan’s raspberry spread the most. It’s tart, has a faint hint of sweetness to it and it was not too overwhelming to my unrefined, savoury-favouring palate. It’s not too slimy, not too watery. If I’m honest, I think I mainly liked what it tasted like in comparison to the two other brands — one was so ridiculously sweet I’m sure RFK Jr is actively plotting to have it removed from shelves, and the other tasted like nothing at all. I can’t say the As Ever spread will become a staple in my cupboard but maybe I’ll think about ordering it for a picnic with friends this summer. The pretty packaging and calligraphy on the jar do make for an aesthetically pleasing Instagram post.
LMAO, they got New York-based journalists to sit in a conference room and taste-test jams and ALL of them figured out which one was As Ever spread because it tasted better and it tasted more high-quality than other jams. All of them liked the taste too. I agree that you can taste the real raspberries and you can taste the citrus too, which cuts the sweetness. It’s a good spread! It is genuinely worth all of the hype.
I hate TheTimes but whatever they made a video of some people blindfolded to taste 3 different rasberry jams and Meghan’s #AsEver raspberry jam is amongst them and to pick their favorite and reactions and all of them loved Meghan’s jam ofc and picked it as their favorite jam
pic.twitter.com/JLGTx5xeik — Selwa
سلوى (@w_selwa) April 9, 2025
Photos courtesy of Netflix, As Ever and Meghan’s IG.
