Mindy Kaling is the latest person to post their American Riviera Orchard gift basket on Instagram! The Duchess of Sussex sent ARO strawberry jam and lemons to Mindy shortly after Mindy appeared with Prince Harry at a BetterUp conference last week, and Mindy posted a photo of the gift basket on her Stories. Good times! As we’ve seen throughout the week, the British media has zero chill about Meghan, ARO and jam. The Mail is currently scream-weeping about how Meghan is giving away jam to fifty people and she didn’t release a list of the recipients. They’re also mad that Meghan made jam while the Princess of Wales has cancer! Did you know that King Charles is also – GASP – selling jam while he has cancer? It’s true, and Richard Eden at the Mail was eager to point out that Charles’s Highgrove-branded jams have now sold out:
The launch of the Meghan Markle’s brand of jams has had the unintended side effect of boosting sales of the King’s own brand of preserves. The Duchess of Sussex unveiled the first product of her new brand, American Riviera Orchard, with friends and influencers posting Instagram photos of a jar of her strawberry jam. It is the first part of her attempts to launch her business empire and may have taken some inspiration from her father-in-law King Charles III.
His Majesty began selling products such as jam from the Duchy of Cornwall estate in the 1990s, and has continued to sell produce from the gardens of his own private home in Highgrove. And with the renewed publicity on the Duchess of Sussex’s preserves, Charles’s own brand appears to have seen a jump in sales from royalists who have done so in such great numbers that one item sold out.
The monarch’s Highgrove Organic Strawberry Preserve was shown as being ‘sold out’ on the estate’s website on Wednesday, hours after the launch of Meghan’s own brand of strawberry jam. However, there is good news for those eager for a taste, as more 340g jars of the flavour were put on sale for £6.95 each on the Highgrove Gardens website on Thursday morning.
Other flavours sold by the brand include marmalade, rhubarb and ginger, raspberry and blackberry, and English damson.
While profits from Meghan’s business endeavours go to herself, any excess money made as part of the Highgrove brand is donated to charity.
They’re desperately trying to have it both ways – they want to say that Meghan is a tacky, jam-making hussy who should never have the audacity to create a personal lifestyle brand… and they also want to say that she’s copying King Charles and that he’s doing it better. Sidenote: I honestly didn’t know that Charles had a Highgrove-specific jam line. I know about Duchy Originals (the proceeds of which legitimately go to charity) and I know about the Sandringham food-and-alcohol brand, the proceeds of which I think go towards the maintenance of Sandringham, a privately-owned property. Who actually profits from the Highgrove line though, given that Highgrove is part of the Duchy of Cornwall?
Photos courtesy of Instagram Stories, Avalon Red, Cover Images.