Earlier today, Eater reported that organic supermarket chain Whole Foods was selling a $6 bottle of 'Asparagus Water' at one of its outposts in Brentwood, California. The scoop was sent to them by twitter user Layla Dhere (@dhere). The tweet (which has since been deleted), shows regular bottles of water filled with three stalks of cut up Asparagus. According to Los Angeles based website laist.com, the photo originated from Instagram user Marielle Wakim.
Somewhere in L.A., Whole Foods executives are laughing at all of us.
A photo posted by Marielle Wakim (@marielle.m.n.o.p) on Aug 3, 2015 at 8:03am PDT
The discovery prompted many to mock the grocer over the blatant overpricing (Whole Foods sells bundles of Asparagus for $5) and misleading nature of the product. When Eater got a hold of an employee at the branch in question he had this explanation regarding the new beverage:
"We've had them on the shelf for the last few days." When asked how the item is made, he said, "its water, and we sort of cut asparagus stalks down so they're shorter, and put them into the container."
When Eater asked what it was for, there was a long pause before he said, "Well, it's... to drink." He elaborated, "The nutrients from the asparagus do transfer into the water."
Laist also dialed the brentwood location. By this time though, the branch said that the product had been pulled off the store's shelves:
"We no longer carry it. I can't say anything more about it." Said an employee to Laist, "I cannot answer any more questions."
A spokesperson for Whole Foods has since cleared up the confusion. In a statement made to The Hollywood Reporter the brand says:
"There's been some miscommunication around this product. It was meant to be water with the essence of vegetables and/or mushrooms to be used as broth (similar to a bone broth), which are typically made over a long period of time soaking in water."
"The product was made incorrectly and has since been removed from the one store, Brentwood, where it was carried We would love your help clarifying that this product is not available and was removed from the Brentwood store as soon as this issue was brought to our attention."
