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Food

LOL: Whole Foods Sold Water With Asparagus In It For $6

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We've all heard the joke that Whole Foods is taking your "whole paycheck," but one of their latest products shows us they are really taking it to the next level. Enter: "asparagus water," a concoction of three green stalks sitting in a bottle of water that costs about $6.

Marielle Wakim Instagrammed this photo of the "drink" today:

Eater reports that this particular product comes from the Whole Foods market in Brentwood. They contacted the store, and a man from the produce department told them, "We've had them on the shelf for the last few days." He added that the nutrition from the asparagus transfers to the water.

LAist also called this Whole Foods and spoke on the phone with an employee there who didn't want us to use his name. His answer to us was a lot more cryptic. "We no longer carry it. I can't say anything more about it." He also repeated this a couple of times: "I cannot answer any more questions."

While we're all about that refreshing spa water sometimes (who doesn't love some slices of cucumber and strawberries in their boring water?), we've never heard about asparagus stalks in water before. Even searching on Google for spa water and asparagus doesn't come up with any "recipes." Nor would we want to pay a whopping $6 for a measly three stalks of asparagus in water. We called another Whole Foods and found out they charge about $5 for a whole pound of asparagus, so you do the math.

At least the Whole Foods spa water, something they also actually carry, comes out to $2, slightly cheaper. Then again, how hard is it to slice up a cucumber?

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Update 7:25 p.m.: A rep for Whole Foods told the Hollywood Reporter that the asparagus drink was actually a mistake. "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," the rep continues. "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."

Eds. note: An earlier version of this story said Layla Dhere posted the photo on social media, but it was Marielle Wakim who originally did it. The story's been corrected.

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