I tried Meghan Markle’s first collection of As Ever products. The duchess is playing it safe, but one item stands out.

Many wondered what Meghan’s next move would be as she and Prince Harry continued to navigate their post-royal life.

There have been highs (the hit Netflix series “Harry & Meghan”) and lows (that Spotify deal) along the way. However, in March 2024, Meghan revealed she was ready to venture into the lifestyle space with her new brand, American Riviera Orchard.

One year and a trademark dispute later, the brand has been renamed to As Ever and has a key investor in Netflix, which also released Meghan’s new lifestyle show “With Love, Meghan,” a Martha Stewart-style series that features the duchess in her ultra-luxurious Montecito neighborhood.

The show, which premiered on March 4, was derided by critics but still made Netflix’s top 10 list and has already been renewed for a second season.

On April 4, Meghan released six items in her first As Ever collection.

There were mixes for crepes and shortbread cookies, three different teas, a tin of flower sprinkles, the famous jam (now called raspberry spread), and a limited-edition wildflower honey. We were able to buy everything except the honey, which sold out in five minutes.

With the exception of the $28 honey, each product cost between $12 and $15. Meghan recently told Fortune that she wanted her brand to look prestigious but have an “accessible and affordable” price point.

“I think during any time of recession, people still want to find creature comforts, items that can bring them joy,” she added.

If you’ve seen “With Love, Meghan,” then you know tea might be the only thing she loves making more than a crudité platter, so it didn’t surprise me that it was a big part of her brand. The collection features hibiscus, peppermint, and lemon ginger teas, and each $12 tin comes with 12 sachets.

Each tea comes in a black and gold tin featuring a label with “As Ever” written in the Duchess of Sussex’s lovely handwriting. At the top of each label is the gold As Ever logo, a palm tree flanked by two hummingbirds. It’s definitely pretty enough to show off on your kitchen counter.

My one design critique? There’s no branding on the tea bag labels! It’s just a small blank white square. The little label would’ve been the perfect place to add the logo again or another nice touch to elevate the tea as it dangles from your cup.

Meghan recommends enjoying the hibiscus tea as she does with her children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet — by letting it “brew with the warmth of the sun.” I popped a bag of hibiscus tea into my glass, letting it sit on my windowsill for a few hours.

There was something romantic about watching the color bloom into a bright and beautiful fuchsia hue every time I walked by my kitchen.

Per Meghan’s instructions, I served the tea over ice, which allowed its flavor to sing. The floral notes were subtle, with a delightful pop of tartness.

According to the packaging, this tea was inspired by a “soothing tincture of lemon and ginger” that Meghan has been making “for years.”

I have a Greek mother who believes chamomile tea can cure just about any ailment, whether it be a cold, a tummy ache, or a bout of sadness. When I poured a hot cup of Meghan’s lemon ginger tea and breathed in deeply, the smells brought me back to being a kid again.

Along with lemon and ginger, the blend has lemongrass, lemon peel, licorice root, and spearmint (all organic, of course). It makes for a very soothing cup of tea.

I compared Meghan’s peppermint tea to a bag from the Traditional Medicinals box I had in my kitchen, and it was hard to discern the difference between the two, although the As Ever bag had a bit of a deeper flavor.

It’s not exactly groundbreaking, but it’s a nice cup of tea!

“Why does a crepe feel more special than a pancake? I don’t know, but it does,” Meghan says before making a version of these crepes on her show.

According to her newsletter and the As Ever website, the mix was inspired by the crepes Meghan ate at Parisian cafés when she was backpacking as a student. She promises the $14 mix is “easy to prepare and endlessly adaptable.”

My first crepe was a pale and soggy mess that went straight into the trash. This is through no fault of Meghan’s instructions — I’m just not a very confident home chef.

But as Meghan repeatedly says in her show, “we’re not in the pursuit of perfection, we’re in the pursuit of joy,” so I tried again. And again.

By the third crepe, I was getting the hang of it, and by the fifth, I felt like a total pro. “Am now domestic goddess,” I thought to myself. (Apparently, my internal voice is now Bridget Jones.)

While making homemade crepes seemed extremely daunting, it was validating to know that even I could quickly whip them up at home. And they were delicious!

The crepes came out light and crispy, providing a bit of crunch with each bite. I followed Meghan’s recommendation to try them with a chocolate hazelnut spread, a lovely little sweet treat my boyfriend couldn’t get enough of.

Meghan calls herself a “preserving nerd” and clearly loves to make homemade batches. The Duchess of Sussex told Fortune that she’d been sending her homemade products to Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos every Christmas for years.

The $14 As Ever raspberry spread is based on her recipe and comes in a special keepsake box. According to the website, a $9 version sans box will be available soon.

I’ve seen complaints that Meghan’s raspberry spread is “runny.” But as she notes on the website, the spread has been crafted with a “fluid texture so it can be drizzled, spread, poured, and enjoyed for so much more than your morning toast.”

I personally liked the texture and that I could see dozens of seeds in every spoonful. It made the spread feel like something a friend had crafted in their kitchen. It’s slightly sweet, with a refreshing zing from its lemon juice.

I ran into a few issues while making the shortbread cookie mix, which costs $14.

The box says that your batter should become “light and creamy,” which… wasn’t the case for me. My batter was powdery and dry, and I struggled to roll the dough onto my counter without it breaking apart.

After some panic Googling, I added a few drops of cold water to help bind the dough. I was able to form the dough into a log and placed it in my fridge for an hour to chill.

After taking the dough out of the oven, I could easily slice the cookies.

I filled two baking sheets with about 20 cookies and still had over a quarter of the dough left over to store in my freezer.

Meghan tells Mindy Kaling on her show that the flower sprinkles are “just an accessory.” But she loves putting them on almost everything, including doughnuts, salad, and eggs.

They added more of a pop to the cookies, which came out pretty pale from the oven. I wish the instructions had included some of the tricks Meghan uses while making these on her show, including adding a little egg wash on top, which would’ve helped turn them golden, and rolling the sides in sugar to add some needed sweetness.

Still, the shortbread was a great base for the raspberry spread, and my boyfriend and I found that the cookies were slowly growing on us.

“These are actually good,” he declared the next day.

After finishing Meghan’s new Netflix show, I told my friend Sam that it felt like the equivalent of placing cucumbers over your eyes for an at-home spa day.

“It doesn’t ultimately do anything for your skin, but boy, is it relaxing!” she replied, calling it the perfect metaphor.

I’m not surprised Meghan is playing it safe, both with the first season of her show and with her first collection of products. She’s tentatively staging a comeback and is all too aware that just about everything she does will be picked apart in the process.

Her first As Ever collection is full of solid products I’d happily use again — especially those delicious crepes. But I hope we see Meghan take some risks and infuse her brand with a bit more personality as she gains more confidence in the lifestyle space.