Another excellent podcast episode from the Duchess of Sussex this week! I am LOVING Confessions of a Female Founder so much. In this week’s episode, Meghan interviews Hannah Mendoza, co-founder of Clevr Blends, the latte-powder company in which Meghan invested in 2020. Meghan got in on the ground floor – Clever Blends was in its infancy at that time, and Meghan’s investment in and association with the brand took Clevr to the next level. An endorsement from Oprah Winfrey didn’t hurt either, which happened quickly after Meghan’s investment. I’m including the podcast interview at the end of the post. In this COAFF episode, Meghan talked about how she was pregnant with Lili when she first met Hannah and she was seeing an Ayurvedic doctor:
According to the Cleveland Clinic, Ayurveda is a 5,000-year-old medical system originating in India and employs a natural and holistic approach to physical, mental and emotional health.
“During my pregnancies, I had an Ayurvedic doctor, and so much of it was about seeing food as medicine,” the Duchess of Sussex said on the show, where she was joined by Hannah Mendoza, founder of the plant-based, superfood latte and tea brand Clevr Blends which Meghan is an investor in. The comment came up in a conversation about alternatives to caffeine, and Meghan spoke about taboos around mushrooms and other adaptogens.
“I think a lot of people, when they hear mushrooms, they go, “Okay, she’s talking about being hippie dippie and grounded in all these things.’ And if you aren’t familiar with adaptogens, you can go to this place of, ‘Oh, it’s feeling a little psychedelic and super woo woo,’ but what we’re talking about is, in some ways, is food trends, which you were ahead of the curve on,” she said.
“I was thinking about it and maybe 10, 15 years ago was when people didn’t know how to pronounce quinoa, and they were saying, ‘Canoa,’ ” she joked. “So there are these items and ingredients that have been part of our natural ecosystem and dietary system for a long time, whether acknowledged or not, that somehow you say ‘Mushrooms’ and now people have a connotation attached to it, but it’s really just a food trend that I believe you were far ahead of in terms of saying, ‘Hold on, these have properties that can in some way make you feel differently, in a really safe way.’ “
I do think Meghan is very “woo-woo” in general, and I’m not saying that as an insult at all – if King Charles wasn’t such a sh-tty person, he would have discovered that he and Meghan have a lot in common with their love of alternative medicines and Asian therapies. One of the cutest parts of this interview was Meghan talking about Hannah’s Birkenstocks and how Hannah didn’t even know how to pitch and Meghan wouldn’t know how to receive a pitch (even though Meghan was watching a lot of Shark Tank at the time).
Top 8 stories about Duchess Meghan’s Clevr Blends investment
From a mail order latte business to an endorsement from Oprah and the shelves at Target, Duchess Meghan’s investment in Clevr Blends really paid off! Sign up for our mailing list and get the top 8 stories about Clevr Blends! We only send one email a day around lunchtime EST.
– Katie at Celebitchy
Photos courtesy of Lemonada Media’s IG, Meghan’s IG and screencaps courtesy of the Jamie Kern Lima Show.
