Stranger With Candy

Move over, Ladurèe: Princess Gloria Thurn und Taxis has some high-fructose goodies that she’d like the world to try. The Princess is getting ready to launch her own brand of gourmet confections, starting with biscuits, chocolates, jams and teas. During one of her recent jaunts to Paris, Gloria gave me an early taste of the line, which is being produced by arty French confectioner Nuit Blanche, maker of those Keith Haring cookies you might have seen at Colette in Paris or Jeffrey in New York. Gloria’s own line will be packaged with an image of her ancestral castle and available at Berlin’s trendy concept store The Corner beginning in December, followed by other shops next year. So why is the Princess, whose family fortune is estimated at $2 billion, venturing into the food business? Not for extra pocket money, she says, but to revive an appreciation for teatime and for the lost art of schloss living, “in a fun way. Everyone has thousands of things to do all day. But if you can stop for tea, even if it’s only for 15 minutes, at least you know those 15 minutes will be marvelous.” The tea blend, called Allegria, wasn’t yet ready for me to sample, but I loved the hollow pink orbs, made of white chocolate surrounded by crunchy candy shells—even though they looked like bath products. “When you see them you think, Wow, soap!” the Princess says. “Then you put one in your mouth and you get a very nice surprise.”

Photo: Frederic Boyadjian