Whole Foods admits trying to sell asparagus water for $6 was a mistake

With just two cupsof water and a threestalks of asparagus, Whole Foods hasfinallyinvented a product that not even people who shop atWhole Foods will buy.

Behold, a473-ml bottle of"asparagus water" only $5.99 US at the Whole Foods store in Brentwood, Calif., as of Monday morning.

Los Angeles-based magazine editorMarielle Wakim snapped a photo of the product, which contains only water andasparagus according to its list of ingredients, while shopping at her local Whole Foods market earlier this week.

"In between feeling up organic peaches and loading my cart with 365 brand peanut butter, I happened upon these in the refrigerated produce section," she later wrote on lamag.com."Naturally I snapped a photo and shared it to both my Instagram and Facebook pages because even as someone who lives in L.A. and experiences health food trends likekale soft-serveandSwole Cakeson the reg, this struck me as ridiculous."

Wakin's Instagram photo spread quickly across the web, spawning dozens of news stories, hundreds of Instagramcomments, and thousands of tweets.

While many were grossed out by the concept of drinking, as one Twitter user put it,"something that tastes as good as it makes your pee smell," evenmore people onlinetook up issue with the product's price.

As Eater pointed out,Whole Foods sells entire bundles of asparagusfor about $5. Tap water, on the other hand, is free. Was there something special about the process that made this "beverage" worth its price?

"It's water, and we sort of cut asparagus stalks down so they're shorter, and put them into the container," said an employee in the Brentwoodstore's produce department to Eater during a phone callMonday afternoon.

When asked why the product was created, he said "Well, it's...to drink. The nutrients from the asparagusdotransfer into the water."

This, of course, set off a whole new threadof asparagus water(gate)mockery.

Whole Foods, which has long been dealing with a reputation for overcharging customers, addressed the melee during an interviewwith CBS late Tuesday.

"We actually don't sell asparagus water in our stores," saidWhole Foods' media relations specialistLiz Burkhart, noting that it hadonly been "carried briefly" at the Brentwood store.

"It was meant to be water with the essence of vegetables and/or mushrooms (similar to bone broth), which is typically made over a long period of time soaking in water," she said."It was made incorrectly and has since been removed."

Those interested in trying asparagus water can still make their own, however, by putting three stalks of asparagus into some water.

Enjoy.