Eater first caught wind of this strange-sounding item seemingly geared toward health-food addicts.
An Instagram user in California posted the following:
The photo shows a clear bottle filled with water and three stalks of asparagus. It was priced at an eye-watering $5.99. Whole Foods sells whole bundles of asparagus for about $5.
Eater followed up on this post and called the store in Brentwood, Calif., to get the scoop on how long these had been around, since the dates on the bottle were current. A produce department worker who wouldn’t give his name confirmed the product was on store shelves.
“It’s water, and we sort of cut asparagus stalks down so they’re shorter, and put them into the container,” he told Eater.
He added that the nutrients from the asparagus transfer into the water.
Eventually, a spokesperson for Whole Foods told Eater that the asparagus water was a different product made incorrectly. It was actually supposed to be water with the essence of several vegetables or mushrooms, which is similar to bone broth in that it takes longer periods of time to make. Eventually the water absorbs the nutrients from the vegetables.
The asparagus water has since been removed from the store.
The spokesperson also confirmed that the item was never requested by customers and was only available in the single store.