This is probably going to happen every time the Duchess of Sussex has an As Ever product drop. The people over there are going to cry and scream about every little thing, they’re going to pay people to lie about the products, they’re going to examine the metadata of every single little thing they can get their hands on. That’s what has happened now – the British press has found one of Meghan’s manufacturers/suppliers. Instead of just saying “hey, we found the company which supplies Meghan with her As Ever teas,” we’re getting hysterical screaming about how Meghan is marking up the tea. Congrats, Daily Mail, you just figured out how businesses work?
A dupe of Meghan Markle’s herbal tea seems to be available direct from the company that appears to manufacture it for almost a quarter of the price Meghan charges, it was claimed Wednesday. The practice of purchasing “white label” goods and repackaging them for a brand is common. However, the revelation that Meghan’s herbal tea might actually be being made in Illinois by a firm called The Republic of Tea could arguably be damaging to Meghan’s authenticity.
Meghan, who recently launched a rosé wine, has often sought to give her wares a homespun feel. She has emphasized the fact that her jam, for example, was first made in her home.
However, the Daily Mail reported Wednesday that Meghan’s commerce team made a grade-school error by leaving telltale metadata on product pages for the tea reading: “Brand: republic-of-tea.” The same metadata reportedly appeared on product pages for Meghan’s signature flower sprinkles. The Mail claimed that after they approached Meghan’s team for comment, the metadata was changed to say “As Ever store.”
The Mail says that Meghan’s own website says tea orders are fulfilled by The Republic of Tea, whose own website sells hibiscus tea for as little as 28 cents per tea bag. On the As Ever website, hibiscus teabags are $1 a pop with the As Ever branding, almost four times the price on Republic of Tea. The As Ever product is currently sold out.
The Mail notes that Meghan’s tea bags are triangular, with a string, as opposed to the round tea bags on The Republic of Tea website.
The Sun also had an exclusive about this, where they claim that “sources close to Meghan confirm Republic of Tea is her supplier but insist her blend is ‘different’ to what they offer.” The Sun also got “royal expert Margaret Holder” to say: “Customers are paying a considerable increase for Meghan’s label. She is taking advantage of celebrity branding. But it’s a case of Meghan Mark-up not Meghan Markle.” I’m so tired – it’s beyond clear that Meghan’s tea is being supplied by this Republic of Tea business. Meghan probably has proprietary blends, so no, it’s not the exact same tea offered under Republic of Tea’s own label. Every month or so, we’re going to have to do this, right? We’ll have to calmly explain completely normal business operations to a whole-ass national media. “Meghan is being SUPPLIED by a tea company, HOW DARE SHE.”
Photos courtesy of Netflix, As Ever’s site & IG.
Republic of Tea makes nice teas, and frequently does tie-in teas to things like Downton Abbey, so this doesn’t seem surprising as a source. The As Ever pricing is about what I pay for the Earl Greyer Vanilla that I like from them, so doesn’t seem like there’s an outrageous markup to me. Though frankly since I keep being too slow to get any of Meghan’s teas, maybe I’ll go check out the ones her blends came from, as I love a good hibiscus tea in the summer.
Sounds like she has excellent taste in tea.
Had they not forced her to flee, she’d have been a great ambassador for Twinings or Tetleys but the racist rats don’t think about her impact on other industries besides her clicks.
Obviously she has a supplier. Tea isn’t a huge commodity in California. The tea they sell in Royal palace gift shops is also sourced from a supplier because tea is also not a big crop in the UK.
Replying to Megan…I’m sure the royal palace gift shops make a NICE profit on their “special” teas.
The As Ever website is crystal clear under FAQs (see Products) that they partner with ‘best-in-class’ vendors to to create bespoke and scaled products from their founder’s recipes and concepts. UK tabloid trash must know this.
Did they think we thought Meghan was in her kitchen hand scooping tea bags like in the photos?
I don’t like the attempts at sabotage. Meghan left that hateful little place 5 years ago. They look so pathetic and obsessed.
They are going to keep her business (As Ever and anything else she ever does) thriving with the amount of free marketing they do for her. A person as petty as they are might send them a gift basket in gratitude.
Fun fact: Republic of Tea was founded by the same couple as Banana Republic. Their book Wild Company is well worth a read.
Thanks for the book recommendation. Frankly, I don’t care what company Meghan works with for product fulfillment, but I find it hilarious that the irony of “REPUBLIC of Tea” has totally escaped BRFCo’s PR Associates.
Now do the King’s products!
No one can be bothered checking that website’s metadata.
There’s no interest at all with Chuck and his grifting ways.
Right? Let’s have some analysis of this nonsense: https://www.highgrovegardens.com/collections/food-drink-highgrove-teas
$21.00 for a tin of tea? That wasn’t grown anywhere near the UK?
Hey Cluck & Cloppy, what’s good?
When are they going to realize that everything they do against her will fail? Their screeching isn’t going to prevent people from buying.
Free publicity for Meghan. And given the products aren’t sold in the UK, they sure are desperate.
Dear Rota and UK tabloids:
Thank you for giving Meghan free publicity for her product line, that will give H&M the cash to continue to sue you for your slanderous BS attack articles.
BRF & Tabloids working in concert to destroy themselves in their desperation to put one biracial Duchess “in her place” is some next level own goaling.
I will enjoy hibiscus tea I ordered when it arrives. All the products sold out and the dm can’t stand it.
The drummed up outrage is pathetic and is absolutely exhausting! They really have nothing to talk about, or better to say there is plenty to talk about with the other royals but they aren’t willing to go there.
“ However, the Daily Mail reported Wednesday that Meghan’s commerce team made a grade-school error by leaving telltale metadata on product pages for the tea reading: “Brand: republic-of-tea.” The same metadata reportedly appeared on product pages for Meghan’s signature flower sprinkles.” – good god, metadata (and I’m still not 100% on what that is) is a grade school error now? They really are going line by line of every single piece of code they can get, aren’t they?
They sure are. I had to laugh at the
“a grade-school error by leaving telltale metadata”
😂
They really want a scandal when the Lazy Photoshop Kween gets away with cancelling an hour before showing up at Ascot?
Deflect, deny, deflect. It ain’t working. At the very least there never was a kill photo for Meghan…unlike the “authentic” one.
Right? “We examined the metadata and her team left noise words in SQL!! Clearly a rookie a mistake that even a five year old wouldn’t make ”
And as far as @Kaisers question yes they are going to do this. They’re going to pretend that they did not realize that for profit businesses sell their products for more money than they pay their supplier. Just like they pretended they didn’t know that trademark issues and copyrights take a long time to work out. Just like they pretended that they didn’t know that production delays are normal part of business, just like they pretended that they didn’t know that the owner of a company will promote their business, ad infinitum.
Metadata in cases like this means — at least here in the EU — a unique identifier code that lets you see the country where something was manufactured, plus more details, like e.g. a specific code for flour mill, or dairy company, or supplier of… tea, jam, marmalade, soda.
These metadata codes are mandatory, in case there’s an outbreak of something, or a contamination with allergens or similar and a product needs to be recalled.
So it’s nothing too far out of the way if someone needs to find out more about a manufacturer.
Help those poor folks over there. Someone else puts together Meghan’s tea blend, call the police.
I don’t understand how they can’t see how completely unhinged and psychopathic/stalkerish they look. It’s wild.
And yeah, as Me at home below says, wow, shocker, Meghan isn’t growing and harvesting the tea herself. It’s all so absurd and stupid. These people are obsessed, jealous, and deranged.
What? Meghan doesn’t have her own colonial-style tea plantation in India or China? She pays another company to put it into little triangular blends? She adds a mark-up for the special blend and triangular bags instead of selling it at cost? Well knock me over with a feather.
How does the British press not know wholesaling works?
No need to explain @Kaiser. They know how business works they just pretend ignorance so they generate fake scandal. This is no different then when they pretended not to know what privacy meant.
Its all disingenuous nonsense.
They are banking on the average Joe on the street not knowing the ins and outs of business. Although wholesale is a pretty simple concept that most people should know about.
People just want to be mad at her. They are pissed she’s not growing her tea in her back yard, harvesting it and packaging it all on her own. They probably expect everything to be done in her house, from prep to packaging to shipping. How dare she outsource any of this!
So… I know Meghan and Harry are too classy to do this, but, if they were of a mind to clap back (thank god they’re not) the brief might be something like: discover how Palace gift shop / Highgrove / Duchy products are produced and harvested and marked up from wholesale to retail prices. How many “illegal” immigrants are involved in picking the fruit that goes into royal jam? As this seems to be a touchy issue for the Brits these days. Immigrants in the UK — like myself — find it funny that they feel threatened by desperate asylum seekers in boats but don’t seem inclined to do any of the hard graft those people do, once they get here, to survive. Granted, we have the same issues in the US. Identical cognitive dissonance: we need you, to do the work we don’t do; we need you to be invisible and not take up places in public housing or schools or GP offices or buses or trains when you’re not at work. You can do that, right? Riiiiiiiight. These people really need to get a life. Look in a mirror. And have a word with themselves. Also? Party Pieces — the Middleton “middle class” mom-and-pop shop — ripped off its suppliers, some of whom were literally asylum seekers, in England, building a life. The man whom they stiffed came from Afghanistan. To supply thousands of pounds of tat so Carole could swan around Ascot. What Meghan is doing is sound business practice by any reckoning. By any reckoning, what Carole did is fraud.
@Parkrunmum
She’s not in the prove it game anymore. I’m enjoying her in this Entrepreneurial Era.
What did they think she grew the tea in her garden and picked it when ready and placed it in teabags herself? Does Chuckles grew and make his own jams and wines and stomps on the grapes and bottles it himself? GTFO with this new load of horse shit.
Right? We’ve seen her garden. She does not have tea fields. Sooo…this is just common sense. No metadata needed, lol. Hope you are enjoying your time in Switzerland, Susan Collins.
Thank you Jais I got home on Tuesday. Had a wonderful time. The weather was great. It was hot there but not as hot as here. Managed to see two Alps up close Piltatus and the Matterhorn. The train system is great we stayed in Bern and used the train system daily. Highly recommend a visit.
Sounds like a wonderful trip SusanCollins!
and yes , I dont think anyone buying her tea thought she was out there in her garden picking the leaves herself and packaging it herself.
Whatever. Highgrove tea is from Fortnum & Mason. Highgrove sells Earl Grey at $12 per 20 tea bags. Fortnum & Mason sells Earl Gray at $18 for 50 tea bags. Highgrove says their blend is special and Meghan says her blend is special – again, whatever.
Are they now discovering how things work? Do they honestly think Republic of Tea would allow another company to just repackage their exact blend? Store brands have used this process for decades.
I’m not even moved by the constant sabotage attempts anymore. Meghan is in her Entrepreneurial Era. She is not in the prove it game and I’ve embraced that perspective for myself.
Meghan’s target market is buying products Meghan would make herself and products she uses or would use. That’s why there is the Meghan Effect. With Love, Meghan even had an episode that showed how she personalized snacks she bought for her guest Daniel by packaging them in special personalized packets.
Meghan’s joy is palpable and I am willing to pay for her products to share that joy with her so that she succeeds as an entrepreneur.
I love everything about this stance and statement.
I mean……is this supposed to be scandalous? Meghan didnt start a whole ass tea company you idiots. She’s using suppliers and I’m sure its a proprietary blend. this is not anything shocking.
its like my husband says all the time – “this is all part of some crazy plot to turn a profit.”
This is why black and white labels exist. There are far bigger businesses than Meghan’s who get others to produce for them. We see it everyday. There are not that many cosmetic manufacturers in the world, as an example. So many brands get the big players to manufacture product to their specifications. It happens all over the world. It’s not a secret.
It’s no different to say, ALDI, having groceries manufactured for them under their name and according to their directions.
I have some Republic of Tea Hibiscus in my pantry and I have As Ever Hibiscus tea ordered. When it arrives, I plan to do a taste test. LOL! I am also excited that I managed to score some flower sprinkles and I don’t care where they came from.
When I had my oil and soap business, I used an established company to make the products. I picked my scents and was charged based on what scents I blend. Some scents cost more than others. They had already made products they sell but I didn’t like all the scents so some were swapped out for others. In the end a sample product was sent to me for approval. If I don’t like it, we start over. This can be tedious and costly. In the end you want the best for your customers. It is like a famous brand name and say Walmart using the same company to produce syrup. If they don’t taste the same, it is because one company to save cost may select lesser quality ingredients. In the end able to sell the product for far less.
Exactly.
If the Sussex’s were feeling super cheeky, they should deny the truthful and non-scandalous story, and say that Meghan makes tea with a potion in a cauldron involving dark magic, and she is casting spells over the public, obviously.
The murdoch white supremacist media is so ridiculous.
But, murdoch continues to be allowed to publish “news”.
Just like faux news here in the states.
Real countries outlaw this media that is “devoid of journalism”.
Sadly, the US isn’t a real country either.
Just a playground for oliogarchs and the morons who defend them as they are having every bit of joy and quality squeezed out of their lives by the very same overlords.
@Ariel — spot on, everything you said.
But I really want to focus in on your excellent proposal that the Sussexes “should deny the truthful and non-scandalous story, and say that Meghan makes tea with a potion in a cauldron involving dark magic…”
BRILLIANT! There is so much mileage to be had here, we need to get this going immediately!
Raven hair and ruby lips
Sparks fly from her fingertips
Children’s voices in the night
She’s a joyful spirit on an endless flight
Woo-hoo, Duchess Meghan
See how high she flies
Woo-hoo, witchy Meghan
She got the moon in her eye… 🌙💛✨️
(with apologies to the Eagles)
I think we could really get the entire “royal” cabal/rat’s nest over there to follow this like a shiny new cult.
What say you?
And where is the magical witch’s broom? And can she weave sparkling spells herself or is she learning from the book of magic words? Or has she even written a magic book herself and therefore learned such beautiful handwriting? We urgently need to know all this …💓
Well, Meghan does have a lot of familiars, no. The goats alone are right suspect. As are the ducks…er, ravens. 😈😈🤣🤣,
Meghan is selling a brand. Behind that brand comes a promise of the best quality. I will take that any day.
I will be honest I am buying Meghans tea for that As Ever tin.. So they can dissect Meghans suppliers all they want I’m still buying multiple tins at a time..
What’s this? An antiquated white Britain establishment is upset that… *checks notes*
A black woman isn’t in the fields picking her own… flowers?
Strange no one was doubling down about the queen not bottling her own gin line or Charles and his jam line – benefiting from farms who pay him for the land they’re growing the fruits for his jam.
This article is actually good news. Now these idiot derangers can buy their tea from the Republic of Tea and that’ll leave more of Meghan’s good tea for the rest of us to buy!
🫖🍯🌺🍋🫚Hurrah!!! 🤣
I would imagine the Republic of Tea is perfectly cool with that…🤣🤣🤣
The obsession of everything Meghan from the British media is real. Jfc
Eh – tempest in a teapot — this isn’t unusual in any industry. Reminds me of the “Kylie” line being made in the same factory as ColorPop — yes, it’s the same process, same address and similar styles and shades — but in the end, we are buying a BRAND.
The price point is driven by the lifestyle aspiration – the As Ever brand will be popular because people want to copy her lifestyle (said ironically).
It might take a long while, but the British media are going to lose this battle.
Two reasons: it’s too much noise and Meghan is using her voice now.
There’s going to be exhaustion as far as painting Meghan with the villain brush stroke especially on stuff that doesn’t really matter. People will/have already start(ed) to ask themselves why is that every time she does something, there’s a meltdown on that salty island.
People want to look like, eat like, live like and be like Meghan. So a few more dollars for her products is not going to deter them. No disrespect to ‘Republic of Tea’ but Meghan is a brand and she has found a way to connect to people directly.
I can’t wait for her wine to sell out and Charles’s not.
Whatever. Everybody does this. People are free not biy her tea if they don’t want to.
So what I’m getting from this story is that Meghan is so popular that people like me will willingly pay the mark-up to support her.
No one forced me to buy her tea. I just wanted to buy it because I trust that it will be excellent, because I trust Meghan.
I mean, you don’t even need the metadata to guess Republic of Tea was her tea vendor- they do all those Netflix tie-in teas, and Netflix is her partner on As Ever. And of course she uses vendors. What, they think she’s presenting her business as everything coming from her personal Montecito garden? Lol.
Yes, they feel Meghan should have a factory and a warehouse on her property, along with a farm. Make it make sense please!
Is it me or are the usual suspects having an even harder time with this 2nd launch? The level of spiraling out is ramping up. I’ve seen whole easays on Twitter saying why Netflix really isn’t supporting her or people writing nasty comments when someone posts about their shipment arriving. They are constantly stalking her, her business and it is specifically targeted at her. Anyway, her team is well aware her suppliers are being stalked and hope they take measures to protect the brand. They really are afraid of the excitement about this brand and its growth potential. I hope her supply issues are resolved so that AsEver is a pantry staple.
It’s not just you. I said this weekend the second drop selling out has scared them. I think they wrote off the first drop selling out as a fluke, and a bunch of people ” hate buying” but no one’s going to do that a second go around. That means that people are actually interested in what she has and want to support her, their biggest fear.
You can’t be successful, because one it goes against the incompetent social climbing starlet who is only popular and relevant because of the Royal family’s support narrative that they’ve been trying to push. But it also gives them the financial means to continue to file court cases, to continue to support charities via philanthropy, and to continue living a good life which is the antithesis of what makes the British royal family who is not self-funded special.
The media doesn’t want their narratives to fall apart because that lessens clicks, and the royal family doesn’t want people to start asking the really relevant question of why are we paying you to do less?
We have to imagine that the people in these palaces and editorial offices are busy all day sniffing around like a pack of vampires and werewolves for their completely untrue image of Harry and Meghan. And opinion of this crowned royal is getting worse in his country and around the world. His bubbles of coat wearers don’t seem to be telling him the truth. In no other modern royal house would such a disgrace be possible, that a king would allow his own younger son and family to be publicly stalked in his country. And every time he leaves his bubbles and hears and sees what people really think of him and his personality, he can’t believe it. He has already let the world down twice, he will not be believed or forgiven a third time. No matter what untruths his newspapers spread daily about his younger son and his wife. He is the one who will not put a stop to the disgusting destruction of Harry and Meghan.
I figure Charles is waging war against “usurpers” and trying to colonize in the traditional British royal family way…but on a new battlefield. Man, what Hilary Mantel would have made of this…🤣🤣🤣
Did any of you get the tea? Is it sold individually bagged or in the jars line the pictures? I love the jars. So pretty AND functional.
I guess next there will be a hullaballoo about Meghan’s As Ever wine being made by a winery and not her. Some people are determined to show you their critical thinking skills need some work.
They want her stomping the grapes like Lucy and Ethel.
This is an attempt at sabotage straight from the royals. It will never work. Let them continue to sabotage Meghan, karma will continue to visit them.
I have so little patience for all the bullsh** uttered by critics of the Sussexes. Lmao no, Meghan doesn’t harvest and dry the tea leaves herself like a one woman supply chain. And if she did critics would find something wrong with that. My only regret is that I can’t compost that sh** and use it in the garden for something productive.
I struggle to understand why the UK tabloids make a big deal about something that is not produced or even sold in the UK. What does it matter who or where Meghan has her herbal teas produced? Did they believe she would produce everything in her own kitchen? As these tabloid writers continue to twist themselves into knots they continue to make themselves look stupid.
They don’t want her to succeed outside of the toxic royal mafia family/institution so they keep trying various ways to sabotage her and disrupt her network of friends and community she resides in. They want her isolated, penniless and mentally broken 😞. She continues to grow, build a network of supporters and friends, and succeed despite their shenanigans which further agitates their spirit, like demons frustrated by their lack of complete control of her.
Both the Fail and Scum should feel embarrassed to keep writing articles that prove how completely insane and stupid they are. No one with a functioning brain would think that Meghan is running a manufacturing warehouse from her home or packaging all of these orders individually. She has never implied it and she has made it very clear for those with functioning ears and brains that her idea came from making these products initially at her home mainly during the pandemic and shared them with friends and associates. It was only through that that someone (with Netflix) suggested that she make a show about it. She at best considered selling some of her products at a farmers market but the inclusion of Netflix wanting to partner with her, changed the trajectory and that is why they together have visited options to help with the growing success. Anyone with a working brain would also know that what any product a person sells, there will be a markup from the actual cost to manufacture because that is how anyone makes money from the products they sell. These people are too stupid for words. Their probable the Karens and Kens who attack children selling lemonade in their neighborhood because they marked up the price for profit and didn’t grow the lemons in their backyard, but instead bought them at the local supermarket.
Wait til they find out that her jam is manufactured by — gasp! — an established commercial jam company! Who uses their facility and her scale-adjusted recipe to make it! THE SCANDAL!!! /s
How did they think tea was manufactured? Did they think she was stirring her custom blend in a bin in her garage? Yes, manufacturers white label. But they also do contract spec manufacturing. It’s not white labeling if you have contracted with them to create a custom blend. Like Essential Wholesale white labels their personal care products, but are also one of the top custom manufacturing facilities in the country.
Like no one is freaking out that the (more expensive) Downton Abbey blend is just their standard Earl Grey with a little extra vanilla.
Eheheh. I love RoT’s endless brand/franchise inventiveness. They come out with new flavors seemingly every day—all of which are tasty.
There’s news for the British press and it’s all bad. Firstly, how is this different from a company putting out a line with a celebrity name on it and charging x3 the price? Secondly, some of those supermarket house brands are made and packaged by brand name companies. You pay $3 for house brand and $5 for the Brand. Same product.
Not saying all products. There are definitely differences in some. But it’s a non story but that’s all they have #sad.
😍 The Republic of Tea 😍… their Ginger Peach🫚 🍑 😍
Did they think she was growing it in her yard? Do they have any idea how businesses work? I’m very confused how this is some gotcha thing. It’s like people saying you can buy cheap jam at the grocery store, yeah or I can spend my money how I please. Her tea isn’t even that expensive, seriously.