Penis peppers: Erotically-shaped fruit, veggie ‘rude seeds’ grip Barcelona
A new, saucier way to attract tourists has appeared in Barcelona, with erotically-shaped fruit and vegetable seeds now sold on the local flower stalls. Penis peppers, “vulva flowers,” and breast-shaped melons (with nipples) are currently on offer.
"People stop a lot to look at them and take photos with them," a stallholder told Catalan daily La Vanguardia.
"The erotic seeds are the best-selling," Jessica Balastegui, who also works on one of the flower stalls, added.
The seeds cost €3-€4 a bag, with inscriptions “Barcelona” and “La Rambla,” a famous tourist artery in central Barcelona, making the seeds a desired souvenir.
"People coming here on stag and hen nights often buy them because they're funny," stallholder Rosa said.
Let me just grow some melon tits and penis peppers pic.twitter.com/Dt0vvvNUem
— Isabel Scott (@Isabelrosescott) June 29, 2015
She also explained that the peppers are deformed, and that’s because they end up resembling the male genitalia – and the size depends on the “site conditions in which they have to grow.”
"You put them in warm water three or four days, drain and plant," she said.
Just found an old photo of some penis peppers. I was growing these 2 years ago. X rated chillis. pic.twitter.com/PM92d8ZTov
— Stephen (@MrDenarii) July 17, 2014
However, not everyone is satisfied with the erotically-shaped fruit and veggie craze: some sellers don’t want to offer the “lewd legumes.”
"Lots of schools and children walk past here. I don’t think this is the image that we want to project to tourists or locals," stallholder Carolina Pallés told La Vanguardia.
The “rude seed” business started about two years ago, but before that, the seeds were sold in tourist resorts along the Catalan coast.
The erotically-shaped product craze is popular across the ocean, too: recently, a phallus-shaped ice cream cone has gone on sale in Soho, New York.
READ MORE: Ancient Romans may have had penis problem, Pompeii fresco appears to show
The ice cream is stuffed into a crunchy hook-shaped cone, and the form is somewhat ambiguous. This J-shape allows less unwanted drips.
A photo posted by Play J (@playjscream) on Jun 19, 2015 at 11:00am PDT
